Daily Inspiration: Meet Annie Thrasher

Today we’d like to introduce you to Annie Thrasher.

Annie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
An autodidact, I boldly admit that I fail miserably at having an impressive formal education history to tick through right here. I didn’t even graduate high school on time, after skipping most of my junior and senior years to avoid the social confines of institutionalization. Instead, the credentials I offer are the still-being-written tomes of a Life Lived Recklessly outside the imaginary boxes of cult authority—adventures and romances and failures and joys immeasurable. Relentless curiosity paired with pervasive shame that led me straight to the deepest pits of desperation. Yet the overarching theme of my story is that I never quit reaching for The Light, no matter how dark my Life became.

Until, one day, breakthrough—redemption—transformation. Grace. Complete. New Life begins again.

An Artist. An Author. A Mother. A Daughter. A follower of King Jesus. An Advocate for Abundant Life. I am Annie Thrasher—an absolute work-in-progress who The Creator has already declared a Masterpeace of a Lifetime!

But there is absolutely no simple “I was born here and then I did these 5 things that led me to the now.” There is, however, a deep dive into my roots, titled “Too Dirty for Jesus”—my first published book, a memoir of the fundamental making of me, those first 23 years on the planet in this skinbag. I am also currently in the throes of penning the follow-up book, “In The Light.” Yet Life is full-to-overflowing, and great Art can’t be rushed.

The visual Art I create reveals a more provocative view into my journey, though, than my writing ever could, as I am primarily compelled by music and colour and whimsy as my choice mechanisms of communication over the flatness of black words on white paper et screen. My artistic style, as coined by me somewhere around the formation of my Art Company, rock on. barefoot. Industrial Arts in 2010, is “cerebral whimsy.” A humble attempt to describe my artistic expressions that are Created to tickle the mind and stir the heart.

I believe that Art is communication in its most profound and translatable form. Art transcends dialect and culture and even core-beliefs. Art invades. Art speaks. Art even screams. Art IMPACTS.

And, after everything that I’ve been through in this Life, that’s who I want to be—still. A human Being who makes a positive impact on this world and her inhabitants. I deeply believe in existing within purpose and following Love that never fails and doing the right thing even when it’s hard and telling the Truth no matter what.

I’ve made peace with never being famous at the cost of my soul, but gosh, I sure do hope the Message I share goes so viral that the world is never the same.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My journey has absolutely not been smooth at all. There have been some seriously glorious mountaintop views and vistas—in between the deep valleys of finding The Way through Life in the opaqueness of self-destruction and shame.

My story goes back to a fascinating dichotomy of a halcyon childhood within my nuclear family and a Life-altering encounter with a pedophile at the age of 4 that would fundamentally change the way I was wired.

But I didn’t connect my childhood sexual trauma with my destructive patterns of behavior until I was in my late 20s, early 30s. The human brain has the incredible ability to protect a Being from remembering that which is too excruciating to process. I didn’t put together the memories until I was mature enough to handle what it actually meant about me and my Life.

My story includes addiction, lostness, homelessness, and hopelessness, which manifested mostly in promiscuity, while completely self-anesthetizing with alcohol, tobacco, and weed. The most clear pattern of behavior was me chasing down the shameful feelings attached to the faded childhood memory that was burned into my central nervous system in unquestionable trauma—before I understood enough about Life to deal directly in Truth and Light about how devastating it is to have had my innocence stolen from me by a predator.

My story also includes, though, learning that predators are taught predatorial behavior by their predators. Trauma is a vicious cycle until someone becomes so desperate to become so brave that they stand up and say: “Enough.”

It is not for me to say that I am that brave—but I can speak passionately of desperation. I was imprisoned in a decade-long existential crisis for the bulk of my 30s.

I am grateful to report that I made it through, though—and while I still wrestle with Good and evil and my relationship with both, there is a deep calm to my Life these days, now at 46.

Art and writing and sharing my story in brutal honesty have been the applications of my healing.

Beauty, Truth, and Goodness come from The Source, The Light. And I decided, somewhere across all of those desperate nights of chasing down shame, that I wanted to be in The Light, no matter what. The darkness simply became too terrifying to remain imprisoned within.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have a signature style of visual Art that I call “peaces,” These little tokens are what I am probably best known for. These paintings are what began the Art Company in 2010.

I was coming out of a severely harrowing physically abusive relationship—and the Man had left behind a MESS for me to clean up. Emotionally, Spiritually, and physically. As in, he literally left a pile of rubbish in my backyard through a deal he made with a notorious neighborhood crackhead. No lies.

So in a moment of utter pissed-offedness at God and Man, shaking my raging fists at the heavens, cleaning up that damned mess in my backyard, while reliving the nightmares of being beaten, kicked, and treated like a piece of trash—came… clarity. Because in the pile of rubbish that I was cleaning up were these chunks of building material that I couldn’t pass through the fire to make them go away.

Bonfires are great for clean-up. But whatever this material was, that came in all shapes and sizes, it survived every single fire I attempted to destroy it with.

So, still angry, still pissed-off as all get-out at my Life and The God Who was supposed to Love me and every Man that had ever come and gone and been less than a hero, I picked up the pieces of what remained—and I stacked them in my basement with the thought, “Maybe I can paint on these one day.”

That material ended up being hardiboard—a concrete composite building material used in high-moisture applications. For example: if you wanted to tile a shower, you wouldn’t adhere tile to sheetrock which would surely rot after enough moisture exposure. No. You would need something much more durable. Like concrete. But lighter and in thin sheets.

The first painting I did was dark and only for me. The second painting I did was a little less dark, but still dark, and still just for me. But then—I started finding the colours. And I started painting for others. My Son and my Daughter. My Mom and my Dad.

Then, thanks to the still-slightly wholesome world of early Facebook, I shared photos of my Lighter work, and people took notice. “Hey! I want one!”

To which I embarrassingly admitted, “It’s not really anything. It’s just junk. I’m just healing my way through some stuff.”

To which they replied, “I’ll pay!”

To which I responded, “When do you need it by?”

And this is the birth story of my Art Company, rock on. barefoot, Industrial Arts, in 2010.

Since then, I have reached unbelievable milestones as an Artist that would be embarrassing to sit here and try to describe. Suffice it to say, though, I have had fantastic opportunities, I’ve met incredible people, and I’ve accomplished some pretty cool achievements as a professional Artist. I even have my “peaces” all over the world—at least one on each continent, save Antarctica. But I’m hoping to expand there, too, someday.

I am currently undergoing a top-secret relocation project—where The Art will, ideally, become more alive than ever. A place where I can unleash the musical colours in the Art Studio and freely pen the rest of book two.

After publishing book two, I plan to continue painting and writing books three, four, forty-four, sixty-nine.

So what comes next is still unfolding, but rest assured that my paintbrush and my pen still have a lot more to say.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Eh. Luck is for the superstitious. I tend to be a little too pragmatic for luck. I need something heartier than chance to compel me to pay attention. I need a metaphysical Force of Good or evil to be behind the doors that have swung wide open or slammed painfully in my face.

That may make me weird to some, but it’s the only Way I’ve been able to rationalize the nonsensical parts of my Life, which make up about 94.4% of my existence thus far.

I believe mostly, as a human, in Free Will. That I get to CHOOSE. I choose whether the manure of Life is gonna turn me into something foul and repulsive—or whether I’m gonna use the manure of Life as fertilizer to help me grow into something incredible and lovely.

So, I choose growth. I choose Life. I choose to believe in the best. And I spend active energy imagining and looking for creative ways to align myself with the Force of Good in this universe-plus.

That’s the whole secret sauce recipe of me in a little, tiny, probably painted pink nutshell.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.anniethrasher.com and www.toodirtyforjesus.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/rockonbarefoot | www.instagram.com/therealanniethrasher | www.instagram.com/rockyourtemple
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealanniethrasher
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@therealAnnieThrasher
• Other: https://substack.com/@143anniethrasher