At the center of Live Breathe Alive are photos of crosses. From the beginning, the focus has been to help people find faith in the everyday— in photo and word. Using a non-traditional approach (path) is how Amy found her faith. Author, speaker, and entrepreneur, Amy Bretall, began with an idea in 2016 to do something more with a few of cross photos.
What started as a way to help a young girl Amy met in Cuba, soon evolved into a mission to “Get more crosses in the world.” Not knowing what this meant, or how she would accomplish it, Amy took steps of faith and in 2016 turned a few of her cross photos into greeting cards, then to framed prints, which brought her to the gallery shows (2018, 2019). Along the way she began writing about faith and started a blog (2017) which brought her to the first book, In Plain Sight, (2020). Today, the journey still continues to help others find faith in the everyday, to know the power of faith, to SEE it and help others apply it in their life.
Amy’s unique photography artwork is formed out of her own personal faith development, when at a low spot in her early 40s, lost on the purpose for life. When the stable constants she once securely held were gone, Amy turned to the one certainty she could control— the time spent developing her 1:1, internal faith relationship with God.
Story Behind the Words: Live Breathe Alive: Starting a new year and being in a tough period, in January 2016, three words bubbled up within Amy: Live, Breathe, Alive. Not understanding what they meant, she knew she had to find them. A few weeks later she was compelled to take photos of formed, traditional crosses. While taking steps of faith to do something “more” with her photos, Amy discovered that the Cross is life. At the beginning stage to turn her photos into cards, sitting at her dining room table with supplies and photos abound, Amy remembers feeling ALIVE. She found one of the words! Amy discovered the other words through her work with the cross and sharing it with others: LIVE your inspiration. BREATHE in faith! Keep the Cross ALIVE.
