Ilústrate: An Artist Self-Management Workshop

Last week I have the honor to introduce my new self-management workshop “Ilústrate: Speaking about self-management for artists” on the Art School of Castellón (Spain), arranged by the graphic artists association La Exprimidora.

I started to write this workshop a couple of months ago, with the goal to explain aspiring artists how to get known using the tools that social media offers to us, therefore being able to establish a freelance artistic career. As most creatives, I’m surrounded by friends I have met during my artistic studies and my life in general, and less than a handful of them are working on a creative field nowadays. I have been one of the few lucky (and hard working) ones that have reach a stable working position as an artist, and it breaks my heart when I see people doing their best to reach this same position but fail repeatedly.

There’s not any magic formula to get to this, but after years of talking to people about how to get there, I decided that talking about my story and how I achieved being a freelancer  to big audiences might help a bit. I’m not explaining anything revolutionary, just plain facts: How to pick the right pieces for a portfolio, building a decent website, using social media, all legal and bureaucratic stuff, intellectual properties, and some alternatives to freelancing. It sounds very basic to me, but during the years I have seen eyes wide open while explaining this… And considering the historic moment we are sadly living right now, I though it could be the moment for it.

I have really discovering that I have a second vocation in motivational speaking and teaching, and I think I’m not very bad at it! After being years of giving lectures and workshops about my work, I found that this alternative was way more useful than to talk about something you can find on the Internet. I want to inspire people, and I think this is one of the best ways to do so. I wanted the speech to sound so simple and basic that I can make everyone feel that this is a piece of cake. Which in fact is – the hard part lies in being patient and constant during the years until it fully blooms.

It’s very frustrating to being unable to find a job or a freelance career being a creative, and I know that myself. I enjoyed very much in this first workshop and I saw shiny eyes after it – What else can I ask for! I’m planning in refining some things and then I’ll start a little tour offering it to different places and organisms in Spain – but if you know of any other place outside of here, feel free to tell me, as I’ll be adapting it to English as soon as possible. I’m always open to touring inside and outside of my country! If you have got an association, cultural center, art school, or similar, feel free to drop me a line to arrange a meeting and schedule a workshop. This one has two variations: a 4 hours one and a full week version.

Hopefully next ones will be happening in Madrid and Barcelona! To close, I’m leaving here a handful of pics from the workshop in Castellón!