FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) - Pyro and Manni are the names of two kittens being called little fire fighters. The two barely survived after being trapped by a controlled burn in rural North Dakota.

The kittens were born in a burn pile, and a couple weeks later it was lit on fire. "I don't feel this was intentional, I think unfortunately they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Says their foster mom, Dawn Barth.
Thankfully, a photographer stopped to capture the controlled burn, and rescued them. "My first thought was, I am going to have to watch this cat pass away, that was my first thought." Says photographer, Carlos Pacheco.
He has been working on a project where he takes pictures of fires, and has never seen anything like it. Pacheco took pictures for about five minutes before he realized the two were inside. He says the sound of the fire was too loud to hear them meow. "I walked over to get some different angles, and I heard a cat meowing, and I kinda looked around and I didn't see anything. So, I took a few steps back over to where I was, and it turns out the cat sort of blended in with the trees."

Pyro was actually inside the fire, and Manni was nearby breathing in too much smoke. "It was too hot for me to even get close to it, which is why I was surprised that the cat was even in it. I had to shield myself with my jacket to even attempt to grab her," says Pacheco.

Pacheco used a stick to pull out Pyro, and scooped up Manni, putting them in a box, and taking them to cat's cradle to get emergency care.

"When I just saw her, I didn't think she would make it." says Barth. "His temperature didn't even register on the thermometer, and her's was low, her's was low too."

Pacheco says he's considering adopting Pyro and Manni, hoping wherever they go they will end up together.
Cats Cradle wants to remind people to spay and neuter their pets, saying that shelters are overflowing with animals.

http://www.valleynewslive.com/content/news/Photographer-rescues-two-kittens-from-controlled-burn-397858701.html

Professor of Photography Carlos Rene Pacheco will have work featured in the Art of Planetary Science exhibition in conjunction with the 2016 Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting in Pasadena, Calif. from Oct. 16-21. The event brings together scientific minds from the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Science (DPS) and the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC), and will be attended by hundreds of scientists and astronomers from all over the world. 

Featuring a blend of art and science, Pacheco will have photographs from an in-progress body of work titled Flatland on display. This series explores the vast, open landscape of the Upper Midwest. In Flatland, Pacheco trains his camera downward, revealing the textures and patterns of the region from various altitudes.

https://news.mnstate.edu/2016/10/carlos-rene-pachecos-work-featured-in-art-of-planetary-science-exhibition/

Photography professor Carlos Rene Pacheco will have work featured in the 2016 SPE Midwest Regional Multi-Caucus Exhibition at the McNamee Gallery at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri from Oct. 1 – Nov. 31, 2016. 

The photograph featured is from Pacheco’s latest body of work, Ash and Dust, exploring how fire is used as a means for erasure in the rural landscape of the Midwest. You can see more from this series during the month of October as part of the School of Visual Arts at Minnesota State University Moorhead faculty exhibition at the Roland Dille Center for Arts Gallery.

https://news.mnstate.edu/2016/10/carols-rene-pachecos-work-featured-in-2016-spe-midwest-regional-multi-caucus-exhibition/

A former astronomy student, artist Carlos Pacheco will speak at the School of Visual Arts Colloquium on January 28th, at 6 p.m. in the CB 109. Pacheco’s current work is a reconciliation of his passion for science and his investigation of the photographic medium. Pacheco’s work takes on multiple forms, from printed photographs to projection to sculptural objects, while exploring the intersection between art and science and examining how we use and understand photography. The photograph is an artifact, not only in the anthropological and historical sense, but also in the technological sense. Photographs are information. Images can be truthful relics but they can also be data; a stream of ones and zeros that are cataloged, shaped, or corrupted. Pacheco is interested in how the photographic medium fluctuates between states of physicality and virtuality. Born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Pacheco received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in Photography from the University of Arizona and his MFA in Photography + Integrated Media from Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio.

https://news.mnstate.edu/2016/01/artist-carlos-pacheco-to-speak-at-the-school-of-visual-arts-colloquium/

The School of Visual Arts at Minnesota State University Moorhead invites the public to “Rainbows/Doom” an MSUM faculty exhibition and fundraising art sale in support of art student scholarships on Thursday, October 1 from 4 – 6pm at the Roland Dille Center for Arts Gallery (CA 155). “Rainbows/Doom” is a themed exhibition including artworks by MSUM faculty members: Brad Bachmeier, Zhimin Guan, Henry Gwiazda, Lauren Rose Kinney, Trygve Olson, Helen Otterson, Carlos Rene Pacheco, Sherry Lee Short, Kelli Sinner, and Patrick Vincent. Within the exhibition is a faculty donated art sale to help fund the Tim Ray Memorial Endowed Scholarship and the Carl Oltvedt Juried Student Award Scholarship. Included in the fundraising sale are works by: Zhimin Guan, Lauren Rose Kinney, Trygve Olson, Carl Oltvedt, Helen Otterson, Jim Park, Sherry Lee Short, Kelli Sinner, and Patrick Vincent.

The Roland Dille Center for the Arts Gallery Presents: Rainbows/Doom
On view September 28 – October 22
Opening reception: Thursday, October 1 from 4 to 6 p.m.
Gallery Hours are Monday – Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Location: Center for the Arts 155