Gustaf Rooth

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

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