“This work attempts to relate a visual vocabulary of my own, unique experience, and the cultural displacement I’ve sometimes felt as a result.

 

“In acknowledging and celebrating the absurdity of my daily reality, many of these works reference a cartoon style narrative that seeks to anchor the work in Northern California.”

 

“as I walk around by myself through the city, I am sometimes arrested by a view that crosses my field of vision, just above the horizon line, and I will stop and look for a long time. People move around me on the sidewalk, or cross to the other side of the street to avoid me. I have been asked by strangers, 'are you ok?' I often don't stop looking until the light has changed visibly enough to remind me how long I've been there. I will then obsess over the lingering image in my imagination until I can make a tiny, metal etching plate give back the essence of that moment.”

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Russell Pachman is a San Francisco based artist working principally in the media of intaglio, monotype and color photography. His work takes cues from the urban and rural landscapes of Northern California to explore the emotional impact of environment across cultures, through lenses such as anthropomorphism and the cartoon image.

 

Russell received a BFA from California Institute of the Arts in 1993 and currently teaches monotype, intaglio and block printing at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco.