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Gustaf Rooth
By Odine Brooks Kuraoka

NORTH PARK’S monthly art walk, Ray at Night, recently celebrated its five-year anniversary—and Gustaf Rooth is thrilled. Owner of Planet Rooth Studios on Ray Street, Rooth helped launch the festive community tradition. Held the second Saturday of each month, Ray at Night hums with creative, ambling energy; more than 40 eclectic galleries, cafés and retail shops invite gatherings and conversation. With live music, dance and spoken-word performances, the vibrant scene attracts a crowd of about 1,500.

Rooth arrived in San Diego with his family from Malmoe, Sweden, when he was 8. After finishing high school here, he returned to Sweden, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial design from the University of Malmoe. He studied woodworking, manufacturing, metal fabrication, welding and business. Rooth became involved in Sweden’s art world and also traveled extensively through Europe and Morocco.

“To have some understanding of who people are in the cities I’ve visited,” he says, “I’ve always been drawn to the art.”

Eleven years after leaving San Diego, Rooth returned in 1999. He recalls discovering the site for his studio: “I walked down Ray Street and stood in front of this building, and it looked horrendous,” he says. “The façade hadn’t been painted in forever, and it was missing windows. But I could feel it in my gut: That was it.”

His exhaustive renovations provide the framework for Planet Rooth’s multifaceted haven of art-in-progress. Paint-dripped canvases and branded burlap coffee sacks mingle with scraps of wood and metal. A music studio is ensconced between the gallery and workspace, and there is a small welding yard out back. Rooth lives in the upstairs apartment. The nonlinear freedoms of painting, sculpting and music provide balance and contrast to his first love, the very linear work of building custom furniture, kitchens and lofts.

SHORTLY AFTER he opened his studio in 2001, Rooth told his neighbor, Ken Callaway, owner of North Park Studio, about his participation in a monthly art walk in Sweden and suggested they start one on Ray Street. Callaway was enthusiastic, and they began planning.

Of the eight original participants, five have remained on the street. Richard Miller, owner of retail shop Lost Your Marbles . . . Too?; Judith Greer Essex, director of the Expressive Arts Institute; and Marvin Sloben Photography (then Studio 3026) opened their doors with Rooth and Callaway for the first Ray at Night in September 2001.

Three days before the first event, tragedy struck: September 11. In mourning with the rest of the nation, Rooth and his associates wondered if anyone would show up.

“People came in droves. For a few hours, people could look at some artwork instead of the horrible things that had gone on,” he says. “It was a unifying experience.”

After the first year of Ray at Night events, Rooth helped the North Park Main Street business association secure grant money to repair sidewalks, plant trees and purchase benches and trash receptacles. But he’s most gratified by his role in giving artists a start by hosting their first show and supporting North Park’s burgeoning art scene.

© 2006 San Diego Magazine

Jun 2006 by david lewison
Ray Street
Down home and romping Ray Street, in San Diego’s North Park community, began its life as an art scene in 2001 with the opening of Planet Rooth, the combination gallery, workshop, recording studio and residence of Swedish-born artist and furniture designer Gustav Rooth.

“I was looking for an art scene in San Diego,” Rooth says, “but couldn’t find one. So I decided to start my own.”

At Ray Street, he was attracted by the intimate scale of the place and its modesty; its collection of narrow store fronts built a couple eras ago, packed together either side of a short city block with a Big Lots! store at one end and an army surplus shop at the other. In this working class neighborhood with its mix of ethnic populations, students and seniors, the low rents were a big factor, too.

Right from the start, in collaboration with a frame shop a couple of doors away, Rooth launched “Ray At Night,” a second Saturday of the month phenomenon, which consistently attracts thousands of people who jam the street in the evening to check out the offerings of 10 galleries and studios, all within a few steps of each other; and, of course, to rub elbows with like-minded souls.

These are not high-end, high-price galleries; and it’s not a high-end crowd that gathers there. The venues of Ray Street project, and attract, the kind of enthusiastic sincerity and personality that architectural splendor, suave interiors and haute couture tend to obscure. It’s an artist’s place, a people’s place, proud to show the work of artists who are friends and who live nearby. Most of the art shown on the street is strongly illustrational in character, often with a mix of surrealism. None of it is ‘big ego’.

Planet Rooth Studios Show
Posted on March 31, 2008 by shanejr

This was the highlight of the “San Diego” Indie Music Fest.









	The Scandinavian Califorina Artisan Exchange Program will cultivate, flourish and afford the talented artisans of the world a chance to expand and develop our artistic cultural future,creating a prosperous artisan exchange network within Scandinavia and California.	Gustaf Rooth By Odine Brooks Kuraoka NORTH PARK’S monthly art walk, Ray at Night, recently celebrated its five-year anniversary—and Gustaf Rooth is thrilled. Owner of Planet Rooth Studios on Ray Street, Rooth helped launch the festive community tradition. Held the second Saturday of each month, Ray at Night hums with creative, ambling energy; more than 40 eclectic galleries, cafés and retail shops invite gatherings and conversation. With live music, dance and spoken-word performances, the vibrant scene attracts a crowd of about 1,500. Rooth arrived in San Diego with his family from Malmoe, Sweden, when he was 8. After finishing high school here, he returned to Sweden, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial design from the University of Malmoe. He studied woodworking, manufacturing, metal fabrication, welding and business. Rooth became involved in Sweden’s art world and also traveled extensively through Europe and Morocco. “To have some understanding of who people are in the cities I’ve visited,” he says, “I’ve always been drawn to the art.” Eleven years after leaving San Diego, Rooth returned in 1999. He recalls discovering the site for his studio: “I walked down Ray Street and stood in front of this building, and it looked horrendous,” he says. “The façade hadn’t been painted in forever, and it was missing windows. But I could feel it in my gut: That was it.” His exhaustive renovations provide the framework for Planet Rooth’s multifaceted haven of art-in-progress. Paint-dripped canvases and branded burlap coffee sacks mingle with scraps of wood and metal. A music studio is ensconced between the gallery and workspace, and there is a small welding yard out back. Rooth lives in the upstairs apartment. The nonlinear freedoms of painting, sculpting and music provide balance and contrast to his first love, the very linear work of building custom furniture, kitchens and lofts. SHORTLY AFTER he opened his studio in 2001, Rooth told his neighbor, Ken Callaway, owner of North Park Studio, about his participation in a monthly art walk in Sweden and suggested they start one on Ray Street. Callaway was enthusiastic, and they began planning. Of the eight original participants, five have remained on the street. Richard Miller, owner of retail shop Lost Your Marbles . . . Too?; Judith Greer Essex, director of the Expressive Arts Institute; and Marvin Sloben Photography (then Studio 3026) opened their doors with Rooth and Callaway for the first Ray at Night in September 2001. Three days before the first event, tragedy struck: September 11. In mourning with the rest of the nation, Rooth and his associates wondered if anyone would show up. “People came in droves. For a few hours, people could look at some artwork instead of the horrible things that had gone on,” he says. “It was a unifying experience.” After the first year of Ray at Night events, Rooth helped the North Park Main Street business association secure grant money to repair sidewalks, plant trees and purchase benches and trash receptacles. But he’s most gratified by his role in giving artists a start by hosting their first show and supporting North Park’s burgeoning art scene. © 2006 San Diego Magazine Jun 2006 by david lewison Ray Street Down home and romping Ray Street, in San Diego’s North Park community, began its life as an art scene in 2001 with the opening of Planet Rooth, the combination gallery, workshop, recording studio and residence of Swedish-born artist and furniture designer Gustav Rooth. “I was looking for an art scene in San Diego,” Rooth says, “but couldn’t find one. So I decided to start my own.” At Ray Street, he was attracted by the intimate scale of the place and its modesty; its collection of narrow store fronts built a couple eras ago, packed together either side of a short city block with a Big Lots! store at one end and an army surplus shop at the other. In this working class neighborhood with its mix of ethnic populations, students and seniors, the low rents were a big factor, too. Right from the start, in collaboration with a frame shop a couple of doors away, Rooth launched “Ray At Night,” a second Saturday of the month phenomenon, which consistently attracts thousands of people who jam the street in the evening to check out the offerings of 10 galleries and studios, all within a few steps of each other; and, of course, to rub elbows with like-minded souls. These are not high-end, high-price galleries; and it’s not a high-end crowd that gathers there. The venues of Ray Street project, and attract, the kind of enthusiastic sincerity and personality that architectural splendor, suave interiors and haute couture tend to obscure. It’s an artist’s place, a people’s place, proud to show the work of artists who are friends and who live nearby. Most of the art shown on the street is strongly illustrational in character, often with a mix of surrealism. None of it is ‘big ego’. Planet Rooth Studios Show Posted on March 31, 2008 by shanejr This was the highlight of the “San Diego” Indie Music Fest.