I was finishing up my thesis at Cornell University and taking double loads of classes in art and cognitive psychology in addition to Spanish. Note the lightsaber, Motorola v200 (Awesome for texting, but the speaker broke 3 times and I swapped out for Nokia 3660 the first camera phone in the US) and various cords and a gigantor thermal wax printer (which I still own).

Enjoy the ten-year Wayback Machine, with a surprise popup of Pete Ippel 2002…and yes all the images were shot with a Sony Mavica 640×480 px and written to a 3.5″ floppy disk.

So this is where the magic happened…lots of Mt. Dew Code Red, sleeping under my desk with a blanket and the computer fan blowing hot air on me to stay warm…then waking up to go to drawing class at 9am, grabbing a strawberry Pop-Tart on the way…

Thank you goes to all my friends and collaborators who provided wonderful support and helped me finish my Thesis “Priorities” on time.

Pete Ippel "Blue Room" Studio - The birthplace of Hypermodern Art, Cornell University

2 Lightsabers, Lappy, CAT5 cable, and a Spanish Book...Typical Studio Equipent

Pete Ippel in "Blue Room" studio 2002, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Tectronix 300i Thermal Wax Printer, Macintosh, 2 servers, and a IBM Pentium 95, and the first computer I ever owned: the Compaq 1535 DM

2002, running Windows 98, this was right before I first installed Redhat Linux...

A wonderful day in Ventura, California spent with my family, going analog with printed photos in a scrap book…Sunshine, no wind, and a walk to the Mission, capped off with a studio tour. Delightful.

Family Time Around The Scrap Book: Sharing tea up in the VIP Upstairs at Pete Ippel Studio

It’s a challenge for me to cook for a multitude of reasons, so here are a few tips that are helping me move into better cooking/eating habits.

Planning:
Shop and bundle it with other activities
Ask friends for cooking tips

Shopping:
Ask for help at the deli and meat counter on how to cook what you buy
Buy things you like in small quantities so they don’t go bad

Cooking:
Ask someone to cook with you, come over for dinner, cook for a reason, or in bulk to get motivated
Start early I have an alarm to begin at 6pm
Eat a pre-dinner snack to concentrate, I usually have an apple
Cook as fast as you can
Clean when you cook so if you get tired, you can just go to bed

Here’s what you need:

1 pyrex baking dish
1 frying pan
1 sauce pan
1 big pot
1 strainer

3 slices provolone cheese
3 mini zucchini
5 garlic cloves
1 jar vodka sauce
1 lb. mixed seafood
1/2 lb. bacon
4 oz. olive oil
1 jalapeño pepper
1 bunch cilantro
1 white onion

preheat oven to 425
start boiling a large pot of water

mince garlic divide into two piles
mince cilantro
slice zucchini 1/8″ wide
slice jalapeno into thin strips
slice onion into rings, then cut rings in half

add 2 oz oil into sauce pan on medium heat
add 1 pile garlic and add onions
stir and brown, cover and let steam, then stir again every 2 minutes
add bacon
add peppers
add zucchini stir again every 2 minutes

In frying pan
2 oz oil
add other pile of garlic and brown while stirring
add in seafood
cook and stir for 5 minutes

add vodka sauce into saucepan
stir and lower heat to simmer

add contents of frying pan into sauce pan including the juices

stir

put water in big pasta pot, after achieving a rolling boil add penne pasta.

cook pasta six to 9 minutes , rinse drain, add olive oil and stir.

place pasta in bottom of pyrex dish cover with contents of sauce pan
place three slices of provolone over the top and cover evenly with cilantro bake 20-25 minutes and watch for melted cheese and slightly browned edges on the leaves.

remove from oven let stand for 3-5 min serves 4-6

I found a piece of paper that I had forgotten about that was written last Friday. On it was the immediate morning scrawlings of a semi-conscious me. Here’s the dream drama:

A tall Asian curator female in a silk dress, very kind asked me to redo an older painting, so I cut it up and added digital sound and video (likely with a Milkymist) then my Dad and I work on it for a few days. During the installation (it was crated the day before) with all the chaos of the opening it was very hard to find the crate. Just in the nick of time the project was found and installed. In addition there was a device/sculpture component where the original 2d image was a city scape and transformed into a rolling chain of images joined with flexible joints, like a dragon kite.

One of the components was a window frame with the initials NJ in the frame…likely meanig New York was the skyline. Very exciting way to wake up. Everything got finished and the installation was complete right as I woke up.

The dream could have been influfluenced by the chain in Doris Humphrey’s water study, or the fact that I had gone to the studio with my father who was working with folks in wheel-chairs being propelled with whipping momentum across the stage the day before…plus I was anticipating building a crate before I left for California the 10th.

Now that I have the majority of my art pieces in my studio in California I’ve been emptying the transportation vessels, hand-built wooden crates, transparent plastic boxes, hole-filled duffle bags. I am pleased to report that there was only one breakage so far, no papers torn, no tubes crushed, no paintings pierced. The most surprising part is that the piece that was broken is constructed of brazed steel…That bag must have taken a major hit…though the hand-thrown glazed teapot made it in the same luggage without incident. Odd.

Two Poems: A Special Place and Literary Questions by Pete Ippel 1996

I found these pieces while digging through my childhood archives here in Illinois. In the process of packing and sorting. I have to be ready to fly back to California tomorrow morning. Here’s a few introspective gems. Enjoy.

A Special Place

I have a special place in my head,
where only memories dwell.
The manila folders I draw out each have importance pertaining to my life.
Some are pleasant,
others tear at my heart strings.
But, one particular folder,
RELATIONSHIPS,
stands alone.
There is only one piece of paper in that folder.
The memories on that white sheet of paper pulp reveal a side
of me I had never seen.
The side of a caring person,
capable of feeling a broken heart.
That folder will remain locked in my filing cabinet forever.

Moving forward bit by bit…goals for tomorrow: get help making a crate, eliminate excess paper down to one file box, research art insurance.

Today I spent the afternoon in the dance school where I grew up with creative movement. My father still leads his class, as he did back when I was a boy. This is the second time in the last twelve months I have had the opportunity to watch and participate in the creative process with the person who is the greatest male artistic influence in my life.

He learns while teaching, being an expert, and a child…all at the same time.

After yesterday’s post about art being the opposite of the broken lamp, I took a deep breath, and I went to the storage space where my childhood possessions are kept in Illinois. I experienced the proverbial broken lamp first hand today.

After assessing and separating my possessions from ages 0-22 into categories, furniture, books, clothes, papers, art, misc, I began the choice making.

First, I shared most of my teenage clothes with a local charity. Then, after dinner with my father, I gathered and packed the first load of possessions to evaluate.

I am reserving a few days to process art, letters, writings.

When I switched on my computer this evening, I found out that my piece Italiana Perfecta is now in a new home. I am very, very pleased, thank you to Art In The Information Age and Point.B Studio

"I'm taking the question marks in my life and bending them into exclamation points. I am the human interrobang." Pete Ippel #ALLRISK ‽

Learn more about Martin K. Speckter, innovator of punctuation.

Thank you to @rejon for Fabricatorz @pianoBrad for wonderful avatar creation video tutorial unleashing the power of Inkscape to create and share. Download inkscape. Thank you to @n8willis @christopheradam @davelab6 for revealing the awesome and useful interrobang, News Cycle, and your vast font knowledge. Also gratitude goes out to @WebChickBot and Point.B Studio for supporting and sharing ALLRISK in the Artists In The Information Age Exhibition.

SHARISM is a Mind Revolution: The more you share, the more you receive. It is a ideology which promotes the sharing culture and economy as a way of thinking.