Founder's Note

My name is Alexis Pierre-Louis. Professionally, I go by Alexis Emilia. I am an Air Force veteran, a retired federal civil servant, a former art gallery owner, and a visual artist with an MFA degree. As a new retiree, I have a lot of time on my hands now, and I’ve been doing a lot of research and reflection about how visual artists, veterans, and retirees are struggling in the new creator economy. I’ve railed against having to leave the U.S. once I realized my retirement pension would not afford me the kind of life I enjoyed when I made six figures as an employee. I’ve traveled a lot in my lifetime. My father was in the Army, and I started school in Hakata, Japan. When I served in the Air Force, I was stationed at Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt Germany. I finished my undergraduate degree in my 30s and my graduate degree in my 40s. I always thought I would retire to a farm in upstate New York and revive my art practice that I abandoned for a steady paycheck. But the economic reality hit different once I retired in 2024. 

Since then, I traveled throughout Asia and Europe and gathered a lot of intel about where Americans with low-to-moderate income can thrive overseas. I listened carefully when veterans and artists complained about how hard they worked and how it has amounted to almost nothing. As a former federal contracting officer, I was trained in contract law, market research, and finding legal solutions to almost impossible problems. After I finished crying in my beer, I decided to stop complaining and do something about the housing crisis that doesn’t even have to exist.

On the quarter-century Day of Rememberence of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, I launched the Lunarwize Organization as an unincorporated nonprofit. I am in diligently pursuit of fiscal sponsorship so that financial contributions become tax deductible. However, I’m not waiting.

I understand institutions, systems, bureaucracy, grant writing, contract writing, and community building. I want to invite everyone cares about artists, veterans, and surviving the economy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence to donate, volunteer, or tell me how to do it better. 

Thank you in advance for your support.