Rocio Russo Pearce

Where Children Sleep

2011-08-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

"Where Children Sleep" is a James Mollison photo book published by Chris Boot. It is an amazing compilation of large format color images presented in diptychs with a documentary style/feel to them showing children and their "kingdoms", their bedrooms. The children come from all walks of life and every image exposes a wide range of differences and similarities. Here's a glimpse at one of the diptychs, you can find the rest of the work in both his website and Chris Boot's site.

Indira, 7, Katmandu, Nepal ©James Mollison

Art at Cykel

2011-07-21T10:59:00.000-07:00

With every ending comes a new beginning. The last few days of Asenet Martinez's show at Cykel are soon approaching. Her work has received amazing feedback from people of all walks of life. Her show will be up until July 31st so if you haven't seen it yet, you still have time. The image below is one of the pieces currently showing.

©Asenet Martinez, Mixed Media, Break Free, 16x20

The next featured artist will be Chris Spurrell and he will be exhibiting his abstract work. You can find a link to his portfolio here. The show will be up from August 1st through September 30th and the opening reception will be on first Friday (August 5th). You can RSVP on Cykel's Facebook event. Here's a peek at his work:

©Chris Spurrell, Landscape and Self

We are very excited for the line-up of outstanding local artists that will be featured next. Some of the names to look out for are Steve Javiel, Dylan Kelly, Tatum Mangus and Amy Vazquez.

Photographer banned at local coffee shop

2011-06-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

Local photographer Varese Layzer's series MAKING ROOM got banned yesterday from Ritual Coffee Roasters, a coffee shop in San Francisco's mission district on Valencia street. Her work was deemed TOO SERIOUS to be shown at the coffee shop by it's owner, Eileen Hassi. Here's an example of two of the pieces in that series. You can find the rest in her website on the Making Room tab.

Here's the artist statement to go with the series:

"In 2010, my mother died. As the last living member of my family, it fell on me to clear out the cluttered 1,100-square-foot rent-controlled apartment where I grew up and my parents had lived for 40 years. The process would take three months. During that time of work and grief, I also had to live there. I documented the process of making room for me at 5E.

After giving away thousands of pounds of belongings, I moved the remaining 4,000 pounds to a San Francisco storage space. Slowly, I made room to bring those objects into my world here: a painting, a clock, a lamp. I documented that process too.

Apartment 5E has since been bought and its walls demolished by a new owner. The objects and these pictures are all that remains."

You can find the owner's email to Varese in her Flickr with the reasons as to why the work was taken down.

Personally, I would encourage any artist that takes their work seriously (almost every artist I know) not to show in this place. Let them download whimsical pictures from getty images, it would probably suit them best.

The last few months

2011-06-23T15:22:00.000-07:00

Life has changed quite a bit since the last post. Cykel opened its doors to the public on April 1st. Ever since we have been going full speed ahead with everything shop related. We have extremely productive days and other days where we just goof around but with almost three months of having opened we are getting in the groove of things.

In April, Nik and I went through some emotional times when we found out our puppy, Stanley, had a chronic heart condition which needed serious medical treatment and would have a very short life. We spent five wonderful days loving him to pieces when he was 10 weeks old. After that he went back to the breeder who found a loving, faithful family that was capable of taking on his medical care and give him a good life.

This picture was taken by Matthew Rice when he visited him for the first time:

After six weeks of mourning that loss we decided that being empty-nesters was not right for us at the time, so we decided to take on the offer the breeder had given us and have his sister as our new baby. We picked her up when she was six weeks old and named her Zoe Dumplin'. She is the sweetest, smartest little goofball on earth. We are genuinely in love! She has grown extremely fast and is turning five months on Sunday, June 26th. She has a fan page on Facebook where you can see her grow into a big girl!

New Endeavors

2011-02-08T10:54:00.000-08:00

As soon as January hit I have felt like I am riding China's CRH2 high speed train, on the roof, with no protective gear or wind protection. If that was really the case I would probably be dead but my point is that time is flying by and there has been little to no time for personal or recreational activities. Thankfully I have always enjoyed being on "busy bee" mode.

Rocio Russo Photography has been in a bit of a standstill. I will schedule time for some personal shooting next month. I have started a new project with other photographers called Blue Chair Photography. This is still a work in progress but we had a very successful staff group photo-shoot in the month of January. The consultation room is being built by ValJean Anderson and her husband this month. As soon as I have more updates on this I will spread the word. In the meantime, here's a fun group shoot from the staff shoot.

Blue Chair Team

On a different note, I'm starting a bike shop together with my husband and brother-in-law. This has been challenging and probably one of the most exciting adventures I have been on thus far in my life. The shop will be located at 548 Union Street in the North Beach neighborhood and it is called Cykel. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and as soon as we open, you can rate us on Yelp.

Another component of Cykel will be wall space for local artists to exhibit their work. I have a list of potential artists for this first year and soon I will post how to apply to have your work reviewed and considered for exhibition at the shop.

Today in The Bold Italic

2010-12-07T19:13:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my friend Indhira Rojas, who is a part of the team at The Bold Italic here in San Francisco, I was today's Found Local!

The Bold Italic is an experiment in local discovery.

Just when you thought you were a pretty savvy local, along came The Bold Italic. Our mission is to help people become better locals, equipping our members with rare local intel, backstory and potential adventures.

Our writers, the Bold Locals, find their way behind-the-scenes in San Francisco and come back with backstories of distinctive, offbeat local experiences.

A San Franciscan, such as yourself, can keep pieces of these backstories -- a particular merchant, landmark, or product -- in the Clipbook. That's the tab on the left with shapes on it.

The Clipbook is a place to collect your local intelligence and a launchpad for local exploration. See the plus sign next to all the places we mention? Click the plus sign to add something to said Clipbook.

We believe local merchants are inseparable from the city's community. The bumper sticker version of this is "Merchants are People Too." We don't hawk their stuff or host reviews, but we do include merchants in our quest for fascinating local backstories. Later on, we plan to offer tools to help match merchants with potential customers who share their passions.

In our research, we found communities are fragmented, and people are hungry for experiences that connect them to other people. Commerce is the glue that binds together culture and community, and local merchants make communities thrive. But existing local media often misses the point. Lots of resources give places to go, but nobody does a good job of explaining why to go there. The Bold Italic can give people a reason to connect with their communities.
Our goal was to design a product that makes everyone-merchants and customers-better locals.

Click here to view my profile!

Portrait Project Continued

2010-09-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

Traveling Exhibit

2010-09-07T16:00:00.000-07:00

This summer I was lucky enough to have one the pieces from my project "Women: A Portrayal of Strength" selected by the San Francisco Arts Commission to be a part of an exhibit titled Picturing Power and Potential which showed at SF's City Hall from June-August. I found out today that Mills College, an independent liberal arts college for women founded in 1852 and located in Oakland, California, has just opened a brand new building on campus devoted to business and economics. Picturing Power & Potential will be exhibited in the lobby and main floor of this new state of the arts facility until the end of 2010.

Quote - Meg Shiffler, Gallery Director at San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery:
"Mills College Art Museum Director, Dr. Stephanie Hanor, arranged for Picturing Power & Potential to travel to Mills, and both the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and the International Museum of Women are thrilled about the partnership, and that the exhibition is going to gain a broader audience. It is exciting to imagine the prospects for increasing dialogue within an academic community about women's varied roles in the global economy."

New Project Underway

2010-09-04T22:27:00.000-07:00

I began a new portrait project today in the hopes of expanding my portfolio. This project will be studio portraiture with strobe lighting versus my usual on location, environmental portraiture. Also I'm branching out and photographing men instead of women for the time being.

I'm being inspired by the posing and aesthetic of daguerreotype portraits from the 1800s and early 19th century. These two images are the first drafts.

My photo in SF City Hall!

2010-05-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and the International Museum of Women will be hosting the exhibition Picturing Power & Potential at San Francisco City Hall and on the IMOW web site from June 8 – August 27, 2010. Over 150 artists submitted work to this competition, of which 54 images by twenty artists from across the globe were selected. I feel very honored to be a part of this and look at it as a perfect complement to my thesis project. The exhibition in City Hall is just one component of IMOW’s extensive online exhibition Economica: Women and the Global Economy.

A huge thanks to Mia Paschal for being my model in this and other occasions and for being such a strong woman! You are a true inspiration.

17th Annual Artist Warehouse Sale

2010-04-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

I have been interning at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery in Fort Mason for the past 8 months. Next week they will be hosting their 17th Annual Artists Warehouse Sale from May 5th until May 9th, 2010 with an opening Reception on May 5th at 6:00pm.

They will have some fun events occurring throughout the week and I will have a few prints for sale at this event! Stop by and check it out!

EVENTS:
Thursday, May 6, noon–8 p.m.
Date Night: view art, sip wine, bring a date

Friday, May 7, noon–8 p.m.
Just about Making, a maker jam and demo, 6–8 p.m.

Saturday, May 8, noon–5:30 p.m.
Paul Madonna book signing, noon–2 p.m., plus live music by McKittrick Pits, carnival games, and surprises

Sunday, May 9, noon–4 p.m.
Family Day with face painting and activities for kids

Ballet Photoshoot

2010-04-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

I have been working at the San Francisco Youth Ballet Academy for the last 9 months. Last year we had a fundraiser for our Nutcracker performance and I had volunteered my services as a photographer as a donation. Last month I had my photoshoot with little Enara from the ballet academy. She was quite the little model!! The image will be used in an ad promoting the Ballet studio in the Bay Area Parent Magazine.

Women: A Portrayal of Strength Exhibit

2010-04-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

My thesis project titled "Women: A Portrayal of Strength" was being exhibited at the 79 New Montgomery Gallery (part of the Academy of Art University) in the month of February. I was lucky to be one of four photographers exhibiting our thesis work and we had a great turn out on opening night.
The other featured photographers were Asenet Martínez, Atsuko Morita and Ivan Feerman. I was honored to be showing with such amazing talent!
Thank you to everyone that stopped by and showed your support!

New Beginning

2010-03-13T18:05:00.000-08:00

After almost four years without blogging I have started fresh with a new blog (same url) which will have updates on current photography work and exhibitions, as well as things that serve as inspirations, thought process, etc. This will hopefully be an extension of my regular website but hopefully a bit more personal.

This blog was formerly "La Esquina de Luna".