The Grit and The Grind: Exploring The Artistic Hustle, Commonalities, and Myth

This workshop will explore commonalities among The Bay Area’s innovative, musicians, poets, entrepreneurs, artists, and politicians. Starting with hip-hop as a visible, accessible entry point to the grand metaphor of a creative career path we will canvass our community for inspirational stories, myths, fictions, half-truths, lies, facts, and constructions.

Recycled Aluminum Foil Grill by Pete Ippel
Pete Ippel is Green and Hyphy

After discussion and research the workshop will focus on answering the following questions by creating projects based on:

  • What is my personal creation story?
  • What makes me better/different than the next artist? 
  • What challenges have I overcome to follow my dream?
  • How does my lifestyle affect my art, or are they unified? 
  • How do I get more attention to my art?

By creating persona and personal legends on-line and in the street, we will be exploring how social media (blogs, facebook, twitter, foursquare) can both become a distraction from your art and an attraction to your art. We will even approach social media AS your art.

Please bring an open mind and your own PORTABLE creation tools of choice to each session (mobile phone, laptop, sketchbook, notebook, watercolor, pencils, video camera, still camera, etc.). The take away is learning how you can use the power of presentation to influence viewers, community, and media outlets.

Published by Pete Ippel

Pete Ippel, the son of a dancer and a musician, was born in Oak Park, Illinois and has been surrounded by the arts since birth. He moved to Morris, Illinois in 1989 and started to participate in athletics rather than dance. After high school, Pete attended Cornell University where he received a BA in psychology and a BFA in photo / digital art making. He continued to follow his sporting dreams in the high jump, which culminated in a school record leap of 7 feet 1/2 inch in 2001. In May 2004 he attained an MFA degree in the New Genres department of the San Francisco Art Institute. Presently Pete is a practicing artist whose work is in numerous private collections and has been exhibited in New York, California, and internationally. Mr. Ippel resides in Working Artists Ventura, a sustainable artist community in southern California. In addition, he teaches art, is a web developer, an active blogger, and still high jumps from time to time. As a passionate problem solver and a pragmatic optimist, Pete’s art and his life are full of exciting challenges.

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