Vice | Creators Project | Pow! Wow! Japan

I just returned to California from Kobe, Japan for a week long artist residency with Pow! Wow! Japan. During that time I participated in a live feed for Vice media's Creators Project to talk shop and inspiration during my stay over there. Below is the video. More photos to come of my completed mural.  Link to a written feature >>

Aaron De La Cruz x Sam Rodriguez

I finally did a mural collaboration with my long time friend and now family member Aaron De La Cruz. We often see one another through non-art related friends and family gatherings and have always kept a project collaboration on the back burner. Years later, we finally had the chance to set some time aside to put something special together and it was an amazing experience. I learned a lot about letting go of my process habits through the give and take that is required to form a well balanced collaborative project. More importantly, the community of all ages in San Francisco's Excelsior district where Aaron and his family lives, showed so much love to us during the process. It was a positive and motivating couple of days. Big thanks Aaron De La Cruz & family who despite being sick still came out to work. Hope to do many more.

Mural Location: Mission St. & Onondaga Ave. in San Francisco, California

Process photos by Kenneth Berling-Orozco
Click images for larger view>>

Empire 7 Studios x Art Party SJ

Last week I participated in a group exhibit put on by Empire 7 Studios, and Athen B. Gallery. Empire 7 is a gallery and mural organization based out of my home city of San Jose, California. They exhibited 10000 square feet with local and international pieces as a portion of 'Anne & Marks's Art Party', the largest annual art fair in San Jose. I showed some of my recent works, and painted a mini wall installation. What you see in these photos is only one-fourth of the entire event. It was an amazing staycation, showing work at home and connecting with my community. 

Summer of '16

‘Summer Of 16’ Series As many of you know, this summer has been crazy eventful in the media with critical situations popping off locally and abroad. The Pulse night club shooting, missing students in Oaxaca, Syrian crisis, gender inequality issues, Police shootings, ridiculous presidential candidates, floods in Louisiana, contaminated water in Michigan, Rio Olympics and so much more. It has proven to be a season that has exposed many of humanities negative attributes, some of its complexities and sometimes its grace. Around the first couple of weeks in June as I was working on a series of ten small illustrations for a client, I was listening to National Public Radio as I usually do while I work and could not help but notice the higher-than-usual frequency of these dramatic events. I know there is always international news coverage of the like, but somehow it seemed much more frequent this summer and in some instances, similar stories would repeat themselves in different places in such a small amount of time. Maybe it’s because many of us now have access to broadcasting the news ourselves via social media. I don’t know, but whatever the case, I absorbed all of it and created an album of visual responses. In these pieces I felt like it was important not to repeat what had already been broadcasted or give you a matter-of-fact literal reaction, since cameras, eyewitnesses and journalists already provide that. I’m not a professional wordsmith, or journalist so I will leave you with these visual perspectives and let you do the rest.

Thanks for viewing.
-Sam

Click images to view larger >>

New Works - Peace in Arabic

Just completed these two pieces for my 'Summer of 16' Series. They reference the arabic text for peace. Left image: 'In Common' acrylic painting on wood panel. These pieces were inspired by the negative coverage of Arab speaking people in the media during the this Summer. I thought it would be good to observe some of their positive traits instead.

Right image: 'In Other Words' acrylic painting on canvas.

Click on thumbnails to enlarge.

Type Faces Kickstarter

 

I just created a Kickstarter project!

I want to create 5 interactive pieces that would allow any of you out there to collaborate with me on my work by enabling the manipulation of some of the shapes, typography, and other visuals in my pieces. Please share and visit the link. Thank you!

http://kck.st/2aUlufq

About The Project

I created Type Faces as a way to combine typography and portraiture to discuss mixed identity. I want to develop this project to democratize my work and explore today's social, and cultural hybridity. 

With the help of viewers on social media and in person, I want to create an interactive series of 5 portraits that will allow them to collaborate with me by having the option to alter each one through movable shapes, typography, skin tones and other visual cues. This would be a public or gallery installation.

Each physical installation would be a 6 foot mixed media portrait painted on wood panels. The movable parts would be fabricated with wood materials similar to what you might find at interactive spaces for children. 

I would also like to create a digital book and set of post cards that document the portrait alterations by participants that I could then give them to keep and share.

 

Rep The Bay

The NBA finals are over and the Cavs have taken the prize. Congrats to them and what a great year it was to witness record breaking Warriors Basketball here in the Bay Area. Here are a couple illustrations I did with Under Armour Basketball in celebration. 

Click images to enlarge.