For The Impactful Artist

Sep 1

Influential & Inspiring People

The IIP Series, also known as the Influential and Inspiring People Series, was created to showcase the many talented, hardworking, and innovative individuals I have had the privilege of knowing. I want to be able to share their stories while inspiring others to build their own paths along the way. My goal is to interview and photograph a list of (so-called “ordinary”) individuals who, in my eyes, are extraordinary. Many of them are making an impact in this world through their passions, and I want their stories to be heard. This one is FOR THE IMPACTFUL ARTIST.

ISABEL IVEY

Meeting Isabel was such a blessing. She was my first friend in college and one that continues to inspire me to keep creating. Learning that we were both from the Bay Area, it was an automatic connection, but bonding over Disney movies and food was just the cherry on top. I realized that I’m the only person in the world that calls her Isabel because most people call her Ivey. She is sweet, strong, and will tell it to you how it is. Finding a genuine person that can support you through vulnerable situations speaks a lot to the person she is. She is resilient, independent, and curious. She is able to adapt, grow, and thrive in just about any artistic endeavor you throw at her. Read on to learn more about this powerhouse of a woman.

Do You Remember When You First Started Engaging In The Arts?

It’s more like I can’t remember a time without art. It’s always been such a part of my growing up and upbringing. My parents were always big on crafts. There was always something crafty to do. I thought my sister was the most amazing artist there was. She can draw anything, do origami, and my dad also did origami. My first art lesson, to say, would be origami with those beautiful pieces of paper. It was my segway into becoming an artist. I have a paper allergy, so paper was always hard to touch. It always kind of hurt to hold it. I would be pinching it with the very edges of my fingers and nails. My mom one day was just like, “ why are you holding it like that?” I was like, “it hurts.” I couldn’t vocalize that… I was a little kid. It wasn’t until mid-elementary that she just asked me. I thought everyone was experiencing that. It was a realization that it was a unique experience for me. No one else was going through life with paper burning their hands. Receipts are okay, printer paper is absolute no, recycled paper is fine, cardboard absolutely is good. Honestly, origami always hurt and I thought my dad was experiencing the same thing. I was always like, “why are we doing this?” He said it was about patience and I thought that art was always a thing about patience and it didn’t matter that it hurt you, it was about the outcome of this beautiful thing. I fell in love with the process despite being so uncomfortable with it. I started drawing from there, then I realized I could sculpt things, which was even better because I could create things with polymer clay - things I saw in my dreams that I can bring to life. I could do anything, I was unstoppable.

How Was Your Time At CalArts? What Did You Take Away During Your Four Years There?

Going to art school is such a process. For me, I didn’t even know art school was a thing until it was time to apply. My family was always like go to university and maybe have arts as a minor but it wouldn’t be your career path. But I knew that I didn’t want to repeat high school again, I didn’t want to do any kind of math… no science for me. For me, the only way forward seemed to be art. That’s the only thing that had my full attention. I found art schools and through that I found CalArts. I still wanted to have a campus experience. I still wanted to have a full community and meet people from different metiers. CalArts was able to offer all that, unlike other art schools that I considered.

Lots of people say it’s a waste of time and money. It’s a really tricky subject because, for me, the Art program was great, but that’s because I really made it what I needed it to be. You can’t go in expecting them to make it for you. You need to go in with an idea of what you like to do and what you don’t like to do, and what you want to learn. Then you can build yourself from there because if you just go in with the idea that, “I’m going to learn art,” then you are going to feel lost and overwhelmed by the possibilities and you aren’t actually going to try everything that you can do. I went in for Fine Arts, got my Digital Arts minor, I studied Performing Arts - I did African dance, I did Salsa Band with the trumpet. I tried to do as much of everything as I could. I did Immersive Entertainment and through all the classes that I took, I realized that what I wanted to do was be involved with the Entertainment industry and creating Immersive experiences. Then I found Art Direction. For me, it was a whole path to find what called me. For a lot of people, that didn’t have that, it was just a frustrating experience because some people felt like they needed structure, and for me, I was done with structure. Structure was high school. I was like, “don’t try to tell me what to do, I’m not learning color palettes again.” I just wanted to explore and that’s what CalArts let me do. You need to be really involved with the faculty, very vocal. You need to talk to your faculty, classmates and know your whole community. My best friends are in the dance school and music school. It’s important to be like, “yea I know the animators!” Just connecting with other artists is what would make art school important to you. I took a voice arts class!… I can’t sing but I tried it because it was there.

Did You Ever Have A Doubt About Wanting To Pursue A Career In Fine Arts?

No. That was the one thing I was 100 percent on. I knew whatever I was going to do was going to be artistic. One field that has always been in the back of my mind was Prosthetics which is medical, but it’s still the art side of medicine or Art Therapy for dementia patients. There was always the art side so I knew my calling was art regardless of how it would help other people around me. That was the one thing I had going for me. You weren’t going to catch me taking a math class.

For Your Own Personal Projects, What Inspires You To Create Them?

For me, art is really about communicating who I am as a person in whatever setting I find myself in. Wherever I am, I think it’s important to connect that with who I am.

With my Trump thesis, it was about being a Black Puertorican Woman dealing with this man that somehow worked his way to presidency. Painting a baseball bat to have the Puerto Rican flag on it, smashing his face in with it…

I really like connecting with my audience. So the piece that I took to Cuba (bicycle handmade out of cardboard) was taking something personal to me, which was a bike, and bringing it to people who also had a similar story with a completely different context. Trying to just connect over that with our differences and similarities. At the end of the day, we are all wings of the same dove. It’s important to be a Black Puertorican Woman creating. As long as my art is relevant to me, it will never not be relevant to other people.

What Advice Do You Have For Those Wanting To Make Their Passion Their Career?

With what I’m doing now, being a Production Assistant, even though it’s really creative and I get to help create things for tv shows, movie sets, or whatever it is, it’s not usually connected to me directly. It doesn’t touch me or my story doing work for them. A lot of times I do just wish I could be in my studio creating things. I miss sculpting. I miss my ceramics. I miss all of that. I know I will be able to get to that eventually, but right now it’s part of the process to still be creative as a career. There are different worlds of being creative and I’m just trying to figure it out right now. Everything comes in waves. Whatever feels right in the moment… Even now, I find it hard to sit down and sculpt something every once in a while. I need to be in the mood to create. I can’t force myself to paint or sculpt because then I won’t enjoy it. I can go weeks to months without doing a serious art project. I never want to be like, “I got to go sculpt right now?”

I kind of like the idea of turning something as boring as a cardboard box into something that could move. I like for people to see what its former life was… that it has this transformation about it. Cardboard is the one paper that I can just roll around in. I can touch it all day and it won’t cause any kind of reaction for me.

How Do You Find Inspiration To Keep Creating And Get Out Of An Artistic Block?

A lot of the time, it’s my friends that will get me out of my worst artistic ruts. My friends are so artistic and so creative. I’ll see something they do and it’s just so beautiful. I feel moved to create something. You got to have good friends.

Then there are always those moments where nothing seems to get me out of it. I think a lot of it, though, is our current events; having gone through a whole year of quarantine and everything was just kind of stuck in the moment… stagnant. Creating felt almost pointless for a moment, but once you rediscover it, it’s just the best thing.

What Has Working With Disney Taught You About Being On Set And Designing For Full Productions?

You got to be quick on your feet and be ready for everything. Even though your job title might be one thing, I can almost guarantee you that they are going to need a hundred other things from you too. With the first show I did, I was just an art PA (production assistant). I helped with props, prop construction… I helped with construction, I did the 3D modeling, everything! I even did a little bit of the payroll stuff. You just got to be quick to learn new things. There’s nothing more important than connections when you’re working in this industry, but that goes for everything. You just need to make friends. As long as you can make friends, you can find a good job. If you are open to learning and you are just a likable character, you can go really far.

Where Do You See Yourself In Five Years?

At 29? I would like to be art directing for tv. I would like to be the lead Art Director for scenic/ set design. I took a few classes on art direction and themed experience, but other than that I’ve never taken a class that was dedicated to just set design. I think that’s also something that you just learn along the way being around set designers.

What Advice Do You Have For Anyone Wanting An Artistic Path To Become An Impactful Artist?

You can’t give up on yourself. There’s going to be a lot of people trying to stop you. You are going to second guess yourself a lot, but if you are passionate about it then just keep pushing for it. It might be off to a slow start. You might feel like you are never going to get there, but if it was meant for you it will happen. It’s all about really pushing for it. Nothing is going to fall into your lap. You need to just go for it full force.