Our city is chock-full of interesting people and wild personalities. Overwhelmed by the coolness? Every week we'll pick one standout local we'd love to be friends with to answer seven essential questions about their life in San Francisco.
Artist Ian Ross is one of those incredibly talented (and just a bit lucky) SF artists who's actually living the art-word dream. After being "discovered" by Facebook's head chef while live painting at a party, Ian has been commissioned to apply his fluid, colorful, graffiti-inspired work on the walls of Google, Vendini, Alphaboost, AdRoll and Zimride, and even acted as Facebook's Artist in Residence in 2011.
Ian describes his personal artistic style as driven by "energy," and still taps into his days as a performance artist while creating. Although Ian usually has a general concept in mind when starting a new work, much of his beloved swirling lines come from a very organic place. His work is vibrant and provocative, and has garnered him the reputation as SF's artist darling for startup and tech spaces.
In March 2013 Ian expanded his empire, opening the Ian Ross Gallery along with his business partner and wife Daniele Rocha. The SoMa space has an exceptionally cool vibe, and shows painting and murals of tons of our favorite contemporary innovators (like Zio Ziegler and Elle Luna.) It's always amazing to see artists killing it in our city, and big thanks to Ian for taking the time from making SF a more colorful place to answer our We Wanna Be Friends With Q&A!
1. What neighborhood do you currently call home? Would you ever move or are you happy in your 'hood?
Mill Valley and SOMA. I love several neighborhoods and always want change, but we have it pretty dialed.
2. What's your hands-down, absolute favorite thing to eat in SF?
Bobo's Bone-in Filet Mignon.
3. What's your perfect night on the town?
One that we can't remember, haha! Seriously there are so many fun ways to enjoy this city, but the essentials of course are great food and drinks, some live music, multiple locations and friends, most importantly!!
4. When you need a low-key afternoon, where do you go for down time?
Sutro heights park, Lands end, secret surf spots, or the roof of the gallery (ha!).
5. What's your favorite place to go on a day trip from the city?
West Marin.
6. Quick-fire round:
Burrito or Burger?
Burrito.
Presidio or Golden Gate Park?
GGP.
BiRite or Mitchell's?
Mitchell's.
Bike or MUNI?
Bike.
Fort Mason or Dolores Park?
Dolores.
The Independent or the Fillmore?
Independent.
Baker Beach or Ocean Beach?
OB of course.
7. Three words that describe your life in SF?
Brave. Bright. Blessed.
Mural "Proceed And Be Bold" at the FB HQ, 2012. Via Facebook
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