On Instagram, Evan Rossell and Dee Rosse look exactly how you’d imagine the quintessential Southern California artist couple. Dee’s feed is all film-grain photos, monochromatic outfits against sun-bleached stucco walls, tropical beaches, paintings in progress: the carefully curated aesthetic that has become synonymous with the modern creative class. Evan’s feels equally intentional: avant garde surf shots, murals, iPhone fi t-check mirror pictures, glimpses of studio life, global projects. Together, they look like they were assembled by a tumblr-meets-Alexis-Ren (and, fittingly, Jay Alvarrez) type of algorithm. 

But if you spend an afternoon at Rossell Studios, that impression unravels. Dee is dressed in an old red Champion crewneck, French tips peeking out from oversized sleeves. Evan wears a backwards camo hat and an unassuming waffle-knit long-sleeve tee. His hands are clasped in front of him, eyes peering out from behind thick-rimmed glasses…