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Meet your local artists PRESENTED BY EASTSIDE ARTHOUSE WORDS: ALEJANDRA GARCIA PHOTOS: ROSANA ANGUIANO CORTEZ
Rick Garcia aka Save the Panduhs Age: 37 Occupation: Artist Instragram: @savethepanduhs Website: www.savethepanduhs.co Meet Rick Garcia, artistically known as Save the Panduhs. He is a father, husband and artist, and Rick has been creating art since grade school. “I’ve been creating as early as I could pick up a crayon,” he said. Creating art has always been a passion for him, and to his luck he was able to nurture his artistic skills at home and at school. As a professional artist, Rick gets to do what he loves
The Riversider Magazine
while sharing his passion for art with his 8-year-old daughter. “I love creating stuff for her,” he said. “Whenever I paint a mural or I create something, I include something of hers.” Rick describes his art as cartoony, and it is a style he has developed over the years. He has dabbled in different art mediums, such as illustration, digital art and acrylic painting, but his strong point is creating murals with spraypaint cans. Ultimately, his main source of inspiration is his family, his favorite is when he gets to create murals with the help of his daughter and wife. Save the Panduhs was one of the first artists to join the Eastside Arthouse back in September 2021. Although he took a hiatus from utilizing the space, he kept his membership. In the short amount of time he’s been an active member, he has been presented with different opportunities to create and network. “It’s been great. It’s been a lot of fun,” Rick said. “There are so many opportunities for all these artists in Riverside.” When Rick is not at the art studio, he is creating for his business, which is also known as Save The Panduhs. At the moment, he is having pop-up events at
the L.A. County Fair for this month of May. His brand carries a wide variety of merchandise, from stickers, enamel pins to T-shirts. “Save the Panduhs is something that I started back in 2008,” said Rick. “It started as a joke … I did this painting of this little kid wearing a panda, and he was holding up a sign saying ‘Save The Panduhs’ and people loved it.”
