Graphic Art, Tortillas, Comics, and Troublemaking
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I had a great meeting with my homegirl Mayra Ramirez today (who’s now on tumblr). We planned some future projects together and we also took the time to take some hipstamatic photos. It’s been a while since I’ve used the app on my phone but I love the way the photos turned out.
Peace,
Rio
In less than 24 hours my 31ist birthday will be upon me. In my mailbox today there was the postcard for my next exhibit and seeing it brought a tear to my eye. I can’t think of a better way to close out my 30th year and start my 31st than by seeing my name listed between Jaime Hernandez, my art hero and greatest influence, and Mayra Ramirez, one of my best friends. Today I feel truly humbled and blessed.
Novelas, Love and Other Adventures
Featuring: Jaime Hernandez, Rio Yañez and Mayra Ramirez
This group show investigates the realm of graphic novels and comic books from a Latino perspective
MACLA
510 S. First Street
San Jose, CA 95113
Exhibition Dates: January 26th – March 26th, 2011
Opening Reception and Artist Talk: February 4th, at 7:00pm
Join us for a gallery walk through and an engaging conversation about their work.
Comic and Graphic Novel Workshop: Saturday, February 19th, 2011
For more information please call: (408) 998-2808
Gallery hours: Wednesday & Thursday, 12:00pm to 7:00pm, Friday & Saturday, 12:00pm to 5:00pm and by special appointment.
Free Admission
Good news! I’ll be hosting and DJing another 2 hour block this Friday on Radio Valencia (radiovalencia.fm). I’ll be joined by a co-host Katynka Martinez as we banter and kick out the jams across the airwaves and internet streams.
I’m in the process of designing a promotional artwork for the show that is based on the current image used to promote Doctor Who Season 5. Instead of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan as The Doctor and Amy Pond, it’s me and Katynka flying through the space time continuum. Yeah I know, it’s hella nerdy. What can I say? I’m totally on that Doctor Who tip these days. Above is my “in progress” of Katynka as the Chicana Amy Pond. I hope you can dig it. Stay tuned for the final piece!
Above are two portraits of my creative collaborator Mayra Ramirez. They’re concept art that helped me to work out some ideas and aesthetic curiosities for our 3D comic art project. Ultimately we decided to go with different looks that I’m really excited to work with but I though I’d share these two sketches.
We had a great meeting today planning out the last details of our collaboration. We go full on into production next week and I can’t wait to see what develops. The deadline for MACLA’s Latino comic art show is soon approaching so this will be my primary creative project for December and early January.
Speaking of meeting up with homies, I want to tip my hat to my good friend Stan Heller. We spent Sunday afternoon exploring the many recent murals up along Lilac alley in the Mission. I’ll leave you with this animated gif that I shot during our adventure.
Peace,
Rio
This past Sunday I ventured to the 2010 SF Zine Fest in Golden Gate Park’s Hall of Flowers. This year’s Zine Fest had a surprisingly strong Chicana presence: I arrived with the host of KPFA’s Ritmos de las Americas Rosi Reyes and also in attendance were chola muse Mayra Ramirez, Mission Loc@l Editor Amanda Martinez, my good friend Allison Martinez, and photographer Amanda Lopez. My big purchase of the day was a copy of Isy Morgenmuffel’s Diary of a Miscreant, a collection of her zine simply titled Morgenmuffel.
I also had the debut of my very limited run zine Dulce Beatdown. It’s a sampler of the various collaborations between Mayra Ramirez and I including various photoshoots and purikura sessions that we’ve done together. The title is an homage to one of my favorite pop albums of all time, Belanova’s Dulce Beat.
I’ve also been experimenting with doing field recordings with my trusty iphone. I am for sure a humble amateur when it comes to audio recording and editing but I’m really happy with the results. Here is my first foray into podcasting:
Peace n’ Zines,
Rio
This past Sunday I got together with the infamous Mayra Ramirez for another session of Homegirl Purikura. For this special session we were joined by guest artist and chola Evil Rose. Mayra and I met Evil Rose in Japantown and together we ventured into Pikapika to take some photos.
During our first session of Homegirl Purikura Mayra turned all sorts of heads in Japantown while she was decked out in her chola gear and persona. With Evil Rose in the mix we were a walking spectacle. Tourists who were in the area for the Nihonmachi Street Fair didn’t know what to make of us. Our presence was unavoidable.
Evil Rose was a natural Purikura artist, Mayra and I showed her the basics and she just took off with it. Mayra also continued her unique and intense approach to her Purikura practice. I decorated a couple of images but for the most part I stood back as a facilitator for this session. It was a thrill to see this powerful pair of cholas team up and work as artists together.
Lastly, I finally got to try out The Cube, the newest Purikura booth at Pikapika. I can’t wait to share the images that came from it. It was definitely the most sophisticated and technically advanced Purikura booth I’ve ever been in.
Following our Purikura adventure we all decided to head to the Mission District for a shoot in Balmy Alley. Evil Rose is not only a model/performer but a professional photographer herself. We turned our cameras on Mayra who lived up to her reputation as the ultimate Chola muse. Below are some photos, to see the full gallery of images check out my flickr page.
I also managed to record a little behind the scenes video while we were shooting. Here’s two videos of Mayra playing around. When she focuses on her chola persona she disappears into it but when she breaks character she’s equally charismatic. Check it out!
Peace,
Rio
Graphic Art, Tortillas, Comics, and Troublemaking 