<< Upcoming Event 11/12/2004

Born in 1950 in Pasadena, CA.  Lives in San Juan Capistrano

Bob Pece is a local Orange County visual artist and an original tenant of the Santora Building in the Santa Ana Artists Village.  He completed a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art at CSU Los Angeles and a Master’s degree in Studio Art at UC Irvine.  Bob is a native Californian ad has exhibited in Southern California for many years.  His classroom experience includes working as a teaching assistant at UC Irvine and teaching animation classes at saddleback Community College and to various youth groups.  He has organized and conducted a number of film festivals in California and Arizona for college events, art galleries and community events.  His own animation work transfers his enigmatic characters from canvas to screen as short videos.

Continuing to the present: Co-curator Arizona State University Short Film and Video Festival, started in 1999, and Rat Powered Film Festival, started in 2002, in conjunction with exhibiting films and paintings. CSU Fullerton exhibition in 2002 showcased paintings from 1977-2002, numerous film props, and featured new animated projection piece and three animated/live action pseudo-documentaries.  New film “Artrector Assembly Instructions” finished in 2004.

“The images used in my work are inspired by a variety of everyday life sources.  The outward similarity to some Pop Art is unmistakable, yet these are not instantly recognizable icons of pop culture.  Despite the bold presentation, the characters remain enigmatic and mysterious.  The anonymity of the image has become an important idea to me.  Presented in a flat comic book style the characters usually appear somewhat cartoonish.  Precise clean edges give the paintings a machine made appearance- yet closer inspection reveals that this is hand done work.  Humor, ambiguity, image placement on the canvas as well as in the context of the art world – the irony of making such silly, doodle-ish figures the subject of “high art” are my main concerns.”