Loisse: Making Art for My Community
CREATING A NEW NORMAL
Interviews and original transcription by Loisse Ledres | Co-written with Elise Blauuw
“It takes being uncomfortable.”
Loisse started 2020 in comfort. She had the most coveted thing of all: a salaried design job. Working at a big ad agency, perfectly on track for a successful design career. She had done it. She had proved she could have a stable job in the creative industry. She had proved she could do this.
“[So] many people come to the city to prove they can make it there. And there’s truth to that. I lived so many versions of myself in that city.”
When New York City shut down during the pandemic, she took a one-way flight to New Mexico, expecting to spend a couple weeks there. Two weeks turned into over a year, and Loisse kept waiting for the green light to go back to New York. Her remote work schedule was growing lighter. So she found she could take on smaller freelance projects for friends and family here and there.
In her day to day, she was designing for luxury corporations and celebrities where the work felt distanced from her direct community. After work hours, Loisse was working for small businesses, creatives and community organizations. Designing for them and creating personal work that spoke to her Filipino roots filled her up. Loisse had been pursuing a stable, corporate design job her whole life. But creating for herself and her people was life-giving.
“[It was] something I could’ve never dreamed. Design [shouldn’t be just] for solving business problems. It’s for crossing impossible bridges. For dedicating life, and honoring love and family.”
And in the time and space of the pandemic, she questioned the role of her career, community, and talents in light of what was happening in the world.
“There is so much to grieve. Our oppressed communities, lost family members, traumas we carried. I am working through that. I am listening to myself and what I truly need.”
When it was time to go back to New York, Loisse returned to ask that question. Should she stay and build her own career or take a risk and find new ways to create directly for her community?
All her life she had done things as expected in terms of success. The pandemic challenged her to question everything, so she decided on a messier, scarier route, leaving the city and who she thought she was supposed to be.
“This transition has been the hardest in my life. I’m still figuring it out and balancing how to help my community—how to bring a lot less pain into the world.”
After a year and a half of questioning herself and the world, Loisse quit her salaried job to become a full-time freelance designer. She now gives her time and talent to her community, doing projects she believes in and working alongside like minded creatives.
“The creative process is absolutely painful. It requires you to live hard. To experience your emotions deeply. To make hard decisions. Question everything. And somehow an image comes into your mind. And it all comes together.”
By facing the discomfort of an unstable design career, she found that it was exactly what she needed to grow into something more.
“I came to NYC to go to art school and find a stable career. I left to use my creativity for others. I am a part of the movement that consists of creatives. I want people to see themselves as a part of a larger community.”
- LOISSE
Loisse’s upcoming projects
@geezloisse | geezloisse.com
Freelance design and consulting for community organizations the Center for Cultural Power
Illustrations for climate justice organizations GNDN | EJMF
Simply taking time to experiment with new techniques, mediums and themes in her personal work (see updates on her Instagram)
READ MORE ABOUT CREATIVES CREATING A NEW NORMAL:
This project is part of the Creative Wildfire project, an artist grant funded by Climate Justice Alliance, Movement Generation, and New Economy Coalition.
