Art & Life with Angela Ledyard

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angela Ledyard.

Angela, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
Finding a good balance with things you like to do and the things that you have passion for has been the driving force for me. Since, I was a child back in Ohio, capturing photos from sunsets on Lake Erie, to portraits of family members, to the seasonal changes of northeast Ohio, photography has always been a love. With the many changes that life would have for me, I ditched my SLR, (yes, I’m going way back) and settled for a little pocket-size digital camera. They were light and so easy to carry around. I no longer was burdened with carrying around a huge and heavy camera bag. For quite some time, I was okay with it.

Then there’s cooking. Who doesn’t love a great meal. I know I sure do. But, having the eating habits that I grew up with were taking me on a path of health issues. That was not something that I wanted to have in my life. Who does, right?

So, I started a journey of me; taking care of myself. Reversing the negative health results that were making their way in my doctor visits. Things were great. I had become a personal trainer and yoga instructor. I was teaching healthy cooking classes and even became a cooking ambassador for the Oldways African American Healthy Heritage program. I would take photos of the meals we prepared in class as well as photos of meals that I prepared at home. I didn’t care that the pics weren’t really doing the food any justice. The point that I was making was that you can eat healthy and enjoy food.

Then, after undergoing a thyroidectomy due to being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, I started to see things even more differently than I had before. Cancer has a way of forcing you to really analyze things. I changed my eating habits again, this time going pretty much plant-based, having an occasional piece of fish or seafood from time to time. But, due to how my body was responding to the daily medication, I had to really cut out a lot of foods that I previously took for granted as being okay to consume.

This is where my passions became a lifestyle. The plant-based foods that I was creating would leave my palate craving more. I wanted to share these meals, but my photos were not capturing the flavors that my eyes could see. So, I found myself ditching the small digital cameras and getting a DSLR. My love for photography, though it never went away, was renewed just as my life was renewing after cancer.

Here, I had cooking and photography with my love of healthy living all together. All of what brings me passion. Before I realized it, I was doing more and more food photography. I studied food set-ups, watched endless videos, and joined photography groups online to learn new skills necessary to get viewers that saw my food photos to not only admire the food, but to want to eat it. The best part is that the foods I create and post on social media and my website are plant-based foods.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
Creating healthy, plant-based meals and capturing the foods in a way that many refer to as “food-porn” is my artwork. Cooking allows me to be creative with food being my medium of choice and photography takes it to another level as I capture the food in a way that makes it visually pleasing and desirable.

I always wanted people to know that eating healthy doesn’t mean you’re having a salad every day. And you’re not sacrificing taste nor are you limited in your selections of foods. Food photography has become my way of inspiring others to create and enjoy awesome and healthy foods. Since, moving to San Diego a few years ago, I had to really find a way to continue sharing and inspiring from a distance and photography has been the method for me to achieve that.

What would you recommend to an artist new to the city, or to art, in terms of meeting and connecting with other artists and creatives?
Artists should join meet-up groups geared for creatives like them. Social media groups are another way to reach a wide gathering of people with similar interests. My advice is to not assume you’re alone in your craft and just as there are many forms of artistic expression, use technology to find others to connect with. There are plenty of us out there.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.angelfitlifestyle.com
• Phone: 216.551.3476
• Email: angela.fitnesstrainer@gmail.com
• Instagram: @angelfit.foods
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/angelfitlifestyle/
• Twitter: @angelfitlife

Image Credit:
Food Photos: Angela Ledyard; Photo of me: Marlene Noll

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