We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful David Ruano. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with David below.
David, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
As a creative person I am always looking to enhance my craft and with doing so you must be able to do a lot of problem solving and here is where my meaningful project began. With a global pandemic bringing all types of art shows and gallery events to a halt, and art being my brother and I source of income, we had to figure out how to share our art in a new way. Art online can not be appreciated as well as if you where to see it in person; the colors might shift, zooming in on your phone is not worth it, you can’t see what natural light does to the painting, etc. So I planned as way we can hold smaller “by appointment only” viewings of our art in our backyard, to have an open space to meet the advisory requirements so people can appreciate the art in person and a safe environment. As time passed we turned our garage into a small gallery space and invited more artist friends to show their work with us and creating Los Ruano Gallery.
Los Ruano Gallery is started from the idea that we can create our own art shows and not have to wait for other venues to invite us to be part of a show. I wanted to curate shows when no shows were happening. I reached out to friends I’ve met over the years and one of our biggest collaborators throughout the years is Smog City Brewing Co and they allowed us to host art shows at their brewery. With their collaboration, we now host quarterly art shows and host over 20 artists each time and showcase an average of 100 original paintings for the world to see.
We are now growing and curating at more breweries in the SoCal area all with the idea that we want our artists to share their passion and art with the world in person. And what is better than art and beer together. So if you are an artist and you are having trouble finding art shows to join or galleries to be a part of, feel free to contact us to be part of our next “LRG BREW ART SHOW”, and if you are a brewery owner or business owner in general and would like us to host a show at your location and bring more art to your events, please let us know too.
This has been the most meaningful project I’ve created and will continue to work on, so lets curate a show!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Who am I? What have I done? What can I do? That is definitely a few questions where the answers hold a lot of information. I am David Ruano, aka MrDavidRuano on all social media platforms, currently 33y/o born in SoCal, grow up in Zacatecas and have lived in the LA area most of my life. Coming from a creative family, my brother and I were always encouraged to do something creative, not because we had money, but quite the opposite, because we had little money my dad would bring home used toys from GoodWill and we have to invent our own stories as we played, my dad would buy crayons and paints, legos and building blocks, used guitars and keyboards, all to see what inspires us and what kind of creativity we can make from them. That being said, I gravitated to photography and music, I would use 35mm film cameras and would always remember that I only had 35 photos to take and I knew I had to focus on what photos I wanted to not waist any shot. As the years passed by art was my major focus in high school, taking drawing classes, advance painting classes, AP Studio Art, and even ditching some classes to go to my art classes. But as usual, you are always asked by your consolers in high school, “So what do you want to do as a career?” And art for them was not a career, maybe an art teacher or something but not an artist. So I wanted to be a paramedic, and went to collage for it, got certified but the timing was not the best in LA and wasn’t able to get a job as an EMT. My passion was always photography, so I turned to my parents asked them what should I do and they gave me some advice but ultimately it was my choice to take. Should I get a real 9-5 job, or should I pursue my passion which will be a 24/7 endeavor, it will be harder and longer, but the payout will be fulfilling.
It has been 13 years since I took the leap to make my passion into my career and I have had the privilege to be able to meet amazing people, be able to travel, be able to learn new skills and most importantly I get to do what I love every day. There has been some hard times, but the good times outlay the hard times easily!
I started my journey as a street photographer in 2010, and learned how to capture candid moments, then went onto portrait and wedding photography where candid moments were my signature style of capturing the couples real state of joy and celebration. In 2015 I started working for a skateboard amazing called Wheelbase Magazine, where I was able to travel to all over the west coast to skate events and competitions, and I was able to make new friends with people around the world. Being part of the magazine lead my journey into film and graphic design. Because of my sharp eye for photography, making the transition into video and film was easier, I was able to shoot videos for the magazine and edit them on the road for faster turnaround times. And having learned film, that lead to the film industry, working with actors and directors and shooting shorts, commercials and feature length films.
It would be hard to name all the projects I have been a part of, but I am proud of all the work I accomplished and will give you three stories of films I really enjoyed being a part of. First is a short called Prologue, written and directed by Justin J. Hall, a short about love and misunderstanding, we filmed in the outskirts of Yosemite and I was the Sound Recordist for the film, it took 5ish days where we all lived on set in beautiful cabins in the middle of nowhere. We all had a blast filming in the area and I would keep to myself at times since I was the relative new guy of the crew, I only knew Ricky Rosario, Producer. But on some down time the director and AD realized that they were missing a particular prop for the next days shoot, and I overheard the conversation but didn’t want to intrude. They were scrambling for a moment and I ask what was the prop that was missing, and it was a wedding band for the male lead to wear for a close-up. I had done jewelry work in the past as a hobby and I told them to give be 20-30min and I when to the store with our producer to look for some craft materials, and when we got back in about 10min I crafted a wedding band our of some stainless steal metal rods I found at the store. Everyone was overjoyed because we didn’t have to reschedule the shoot and it looked great on camera. That was a great time and being known as the guy who can create anything.
Second is another short called Meet Carly W, written and directed by A.J. Hartman and I was the director of photography for this film as well as the VFX editor. This short tells the story of living life in the world where Zoom controls our lives, and one of the best parts of this project was the amount of love we received and being part of 13plus film festivals. Being able to travel to festivals like Breckenridge Film Festival in Colorado and staying a few nights meeting and networking with other filmmakers and locals, and being part of festivals in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Florida and of course here in LA. The community of filmmakers is amazing and really enjoyed that from working on this short film. And last by not least, Vengeance Turns, a female lead revenge western written and directed by Robert C. Smith, I was the director of photography for this feature length film. This film was about 5 years in the making, from false starts to schedule conflicts, but once we got filming it was like no other project I have been a part of, the train was moving and no one will stop it. We filmed over 3 weeks and with each day a new challenge but what we filmed had great passion a story. Other filmmakers thought we were crazy, and some were amazed at what we accomplished, we had a blast doing it and the film in out now for the world to see.
The question remains, what am I doing now? I am currently curating art shows all around the LA area, hosting shows so local artists can have a venue to share their passions to the world, just like I have been able to do throughout my journey. If you are ever in the area, please join us to one of our LRG BREW ART SHOWS. You will be able to over 100 original paintings and works of art created by over 20 local artists and you get to enjoy a few beers while you mingle with the artists too.
My journey is not over, I am only halfway there and there is still so much I want to achieve, so stay tuned.
http://mrdavidruano.com
http://losruanogallery.com
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
There are several resources I wish I knew, some are as simple as how to properly wire a painting, how to photograph your art, should I build a proper website even though it is cost for me, should I pay more for expensive canvases?
A lot of these things we don’t learn in art school and others don’t really tell us until a collector or gallery rejects your work because it doesn’t meat their requirements. It is very important to understand that the artwork on the canvas is not the only thing people (collectors) notice, they also notice what materials in the canvas itself made of, will it last 5 years or 50 years? They want to know if the artist is serious about their art journey and do they have a website that has their bio, photos of their past work or sold work, and if they don’t have any of it, will their investment in the artist be for nothing?
As an artists we would want to create the best artwork we can that holds meaning throughout its lifetime, but if we cheap out on the materials we use, the artwork won’t last and it will be destroyed my time easily. That is one of the resources I wish new artists to understand, the value of the art is also based on the value of the materials you use and that will give you value as the artist.
Have you ever had to pivot?
There has been several pivots I have done, most pivots are done when I learn something new or need to problem solve or upscale something I’ve done in the past. The most current pivot is becoming an Art Curator, the jump for just an artists participating on show to know putting the entire show together, doing logistics, artist management, event management and more. It’s something I’m excited to do and have the knowledge to do as well. Having the opportunity to gather artists together and showcasing their art in an event I create is definitely something I am proud to do and will be doing for a long time. I will still participate in others shows as its always fun to network with others, but there is nothing like seeing the hard work being enjoyed by so many.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mrdavidruano.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrdavidruano/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/druano1990/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrdavidruano/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrdavidruano
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsA-oGYVTBQ
- Other: https://losruanogallery.com https://www.instagram.com/losruanogallery/