Mabuhay!
Hello friends – I’d like to welcome you to my corner of the internet! My name is Lora, and I like to call myself a “professional dabbler.” I suppose you could call me an artist, an illustrator, a designer, an art director, and a writer, but that doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as nicely.
Me, doing my best Steve Buschemi impression of youth culture.
From a young age, my family always encouraged me to pursue my creative ideas. Everyone in our home had a creative passion to some degree – among us, we have painters, cartoonists, writers, musicians, woodworkers, sewists, gardeners, and chefs. Growing up, I was exposed to all of these practices, and I treasure the memories of learning how to play piano from my grandmother, learning to cook Filipino food with my mom, learning how to build from my dad, and so on.
Also me, doing my best impression of collegiate golf culture. I did not make this putt, but it’s a nice photo.
When I was a kid, exploring and learning was the most fun and exciting thing in the world. But as a grew older, I felt intense pressure to “pick a direction.” Through high school and then college, those around me told me to focus, to decide on a specialty, that having a singular goal was the route to professional success. Like many, grappling with the paralyzing question of “what do you want to be when you grow up?” caused me to continue testing things out until something fit. While in school, I dabbled with photography and design while on the student newspaper, event planning with the program board, and music with the radio station. Hell, I even played golf! While I appreciated the opportunity to test so many potential pathways, I didn’t feel much closer to deciding on what the “forever" job” would be. I graduated from a good college with a degree in Geography and Urban Studies with some nebulous plans to go to grad school and maybe do landscape architecture, or maybe get my PhD and teach topics on tourism geography.
But the financial realities of being a Millennial with 5 figures of student loan debt hit me fast and furious after graduation. I spent 6 weeks working at a transportation non-profit that was doing great work, but ultimately wasn’t the right fit for me. Then, I found myself behind the bar at a pub across the street from the apartment I shared with my best friend from college. Bartending wasn’t the long-term plan – hell, it was barely a short-term plan. But it set me on a path that allowed me the freedom to continue to experiment and explore.
In the 5 years that I bartended, I had various second jobs: I was a production assistant for a local professional sports team, I nannied, I helped with social media graphics for a literary magazine. But my “big break,” so to speak, was landing a freelance design gig for a studio back home in Northern California. For three years, I learned on the job – while I had a fair amount of experience with design software and art, I lacked any formal training in graphic design. I was fortunate to have a kind and patient boss who would hand me assignments and teach me as I went. I built up confidence, and when she decided to shut down her studio for an in-house job with a client, I felt capable to move on and blaze a path of my own.
From there, I became the marketing manager and graphic designer for a local restaurant group. It is no secret to my friends and family that I LOVE food. Having worked in bars and restaurants for so long, I have an acute appreciation for all of the touchpoints of the dining experience: a well-designed space, carefully curated ambiance, consistent branding, first-rate service, and dishes that delight the taste buds. It was in many ways, a dream job, but in the end, I found myself struggling to be one of the few people of color in the main office and missed working freelance on a variety of projects. So I quit after one year and struck out on my own.
For the last 3 years, I’ve been a full-time freelancer and “professional dabbler.” Ten years ago, the prospect of not having a definitive job title would have scared the crap out of me – today, it excites me, because it means that I never need to limit myself. Recently, I read Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein, which I highly recommend for anyone who feels drawn to variety versus a specialty. Reading the book, I realized that I wasn’t alone in my desire for a career that allowed me to exercise my various skill sets – in fact, I was perhaps slightly better equipped to handle the hurdles of modern-day work. I’ve taken that to heart, and I continue to find ways to learn and explore professionally, just as I do creatively.
Right now, my day-to-day winds up being a lot of project management, strategy, administration, art direction, with some illustration and fine art sprinkled in. Every now and then, I’ll have an opportunity to write, or to take photos, or do some video work. What I love about what I do is that it never feels limiting – if anything, there are too many choices, and that’s how I like it.
Here in the “Journal” section of my website, you’ll find news, stories, musings, and other ephemera. As an artist, I hope to help foster an environment that encourages new ideas and conversation. As a professional, I hope to encourage others to pursue their passions while also being honest about the sometimes hard realities of being a person who gets paid to be creative. In any case, I hope that you’ll join me! Thanks for being here.
–Lora
Me and my ~finacée~ Zach, who often plays cheerleader and sounding board as I have frequent meltdowns and euphoria about being a working creative.
