Conversations with the Inspiring Ame (HGuo)

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ame (HGuo).

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My creative experiences run all the way back to my childhood. Flashes of my days spent drawing with my cousin, folding paper origami, or trying to sew together pieces of fabric still to this day surface vividly as if they happened yesterday. Journeying to my adulthood, that thirst for creativity never wanted but my parents told me I had to be an adult and find a secure respectable career. As any young naive adult, I gave up drawing as a career right then and there. I pursued my parents’ dreams and eventually found a somewhat conventionally successful career as an acupuncturist. I succeeded in that safe conventional path, but it didn’t fulfill me. I loved my job but I was never passionate about it and the fast accumulating stuffiness of the workplace eventually drove me to the airport and into an airplane, landing here in LA. I was lucky to have a girlfriend – now wife – be an anchor throughout this late teenage rebellion. My life now unconventionally happy, working part-time as a designer (at Baum-kuchen, a lifestyle stationery studio) and part-time freelancing what I love the most: drawing.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Though I never regret any part of my journey, it does bother me that I needed so much acknowledgment from my parents and my peers. So much that, it prevented me from ever being brave enough to make mistakes and discovering who I am without echoing someone else’s voice. My deepest wish for young women out there is to follow the words of Neil Gaiman “Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect. Whatever it is: art, or love, or work, or family, or life.” How we respond to the mistakes that we’ve made helps us discover who we are. You can be strong, confident and beautiful without the acknowledgment of others. Make those mistakes, and own them, discover who you are.

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I love my job! By day, I work at Baum-kuchen (in Altadena) as a general designer and illustrator. We are passionate about analog tools and how they can help people on their personal journeys through planning to journalling and anything in between. To that end, we also design anything lifestyle goods that we see fit. I was blessed by the opportunity to learn some leatherwork in Japan (with The Superior Labor – my Japanese fam), and I am elated to be able to provide this skill at work as we do prototypes and leather related projects.

By night, I work for myself. Drawing has always been about my enjoyment. I love the black ink smearing across the white paper, being able to communicate feelings and intentions through art has always been important to me. I explore a lot of nature and feelings on paper through sketches. I also run a small Etsy shop on the side where I design my own stationery. I am so grateful for all my patrons over the years. Though I regard this as my second job, I try not to take it too seriously, drawing and creating has always been a stress relief for me, so I will step back when I feel the need.

Do you have a lesson or advice you’d like to share with young women just starting out?
Do something you’re passionate about. Love the way you want. Live the way you want. 🙂

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ameruu
• Email: writeamemo@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ameruu/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ameruu

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