An Inspired Chat with Jalyssa Jimenez

Jalyssa Jimenez shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Hi Jalyssa , thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
I personally feel like, for me to continue my path. I would need to wander around and find out what I want to do. I have time and time again worked so hard to control the avenues of my life without realizing. Maybe I need to discover and enlighten myself with more experiences, in order to clearly see the path I am walking in right now. Taking a risk into the unknown is the only way I can find my direction. I’m currently teaching myself to dive deep into tough decisions that will challenge me into navigating myself closer to the art I want to make and teaching myself what does my success look like to me.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
It’s extremely important to consistently hold the originality of your creations by holding love for yourself. Without the self, your art become meaningless to you and everyone around you. A lesson I had to learn while I grew into starvation as an artist, triggering myself through the experience of failing and not standing up for myself. The need to succeed, clouded my brain so bad. I’ve time and time again invited the non sense of public negatively to eat my passion away. It was a bitter moment for me when realizing, it has been a while since I’ve made any form of film or media work. I was extremely stagnate. Which stemmed from the need, to take a step back and heal myself completely. Mentally, Financially, Spiritually.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
In the beginning of my passion, I felt more comfortable into my escapism with art. I had so much to say and no shame in the visions I’ve expressed throughout my work. Especially growing up with an intense learning disability and undiagnosed autism. I forever felt and still feel like making art always allowed me the safe space to nurture and understand myself. While a good amount of people around my childhood and in the DOE special ed departments, didn’t hold the patience to understand my self expression. It was easier for educators to label me as “hyper and aggressive” in the early 2000’s, rather than looking into the possibility that I was most likely always overstimulated and misunderstood. Yet, It was my art that gave me the stratum of having an open conversation later in my life on mental health and community work. It was art that connected me with a safe space of wonderful people in my life now. It was art that got me through the toughest times in my life, especially while I tried to figure out my path as a filmmaker. It was however, the intense transformation of life and the world around me, that blinded me into forgetting who I was.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Spiraling into the mindset of giving up took a drastic turn on my lifes purpose. I was younger and very determined before 2020 on what I wanted to do and the future I wanted to build for myself. However, the introduction of so many open wombs that surfaced the reality of my personal life after. Along with experiencing being laid off, from a production I felt would have boosted the career I was dreaming of. Nearly convinced me to shatter my dreams and retire early from trying to pursue any further. Yet even in these lowest moment. When I knew how hard my life was going to be, once I filed for unemployment and once the responsibilities in my personal life grew more hectic. I’ve eventually learned how to work with time and humanizing myself in the process. It was suffering that showed me how hard I am on myself and how gentle my mental health was. So walking through the fire really allowed me to utilize the moment of healing my way back into creating again and getting back on my feet.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
“We are a community space” was the biggest scam for me. Especially when some of these spaces wanted to promote diversity and inclusion. I wasn’t fully ready to enter into a “diverse and inclusive” space that would chew me up then spit me out. I understand the sacrificial grind it takes to move up into a position of your dreams. But what would be the point of living in that position, if masking yourself is the only way to survive a space you’re suppose to be free in. What’s the point of taking a company seriously, when their perfect expectations are dysfunctional. I was lucky to experience some production spaces that appreciated my work ethic and invited me in with open arms. However, there was other facilities I found myself basically slaving away my loyalty in, that were utilizing how hard I’ve worked to better themselves. I’ve allowed some peers to make me believe I wasn’t working hard enough in my positions. I’ve had some peers cross my personal boundaries. These moments out of many others I had in the media field, truly was stripping away my joy all together. After all my anger and frustration towards the industry, It allowed me to come to terms with the realization of my truth and how important it is to be myself. But also how important it is to defend myself. Always make sure to build community with your passion and not rot into the fantasy of industry standards.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
Your best isn’t always going to feel like your best. Because the idea of pushing yourself to the limit creates nothing but burnout. To truly lock in, is to put your sanity first. committing to yourself is one of the first steps I’ve learned when struggling as an artist. The starving artist experience today comes with an over flowing, social media presence that might hopefully guide you. But the reality of grinding is to keep making your art, don’t stop. Even if nobody’s looking at it online. The art reflects the artist first, and the audience is just a reflection of people that resonate with the artist journey. The photo work you see here is called “Human Nature” a representation of my reflection with relationships. Each model you see in my photo work, are very close friends of mine that have been a representation of how I envision human interaction. I wanted to nourish their personalities and how they self express themselves without masking, by celebrating the understanding of what a healthy relationship looks like, when loving the person in front of you by cherishing all parts of them. I was able to collaborate with these beautiful people and learn about the way they express themselves, then I show that visual interactions through my experiential perspective. What I love the most about this project is that these models also play a big role in allowing me the space to re discover my art. After spending 3 years with a creative block.
I recommend to just grab one of your besties and figure it out. Make the art for you first then continue on from there.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jalyssajimenezswebsite.squarespace.com/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/negralatina__?igsh=MWllNWw0eTd2YjNjcw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jalyssa-jimenez?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/y8Fjwhsh4IM

Image Credits
Models: Nichelle Cuevas, Jonah Purifory, Alma R.Flores , Erin Coyne, Carson Morales.