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A Joan Brown Obelisk at 343 Sansome Street

Posted by Cindy on February 15, 2013

Feb 152013

343 Sansome Street
The Financial District

Four Seasons by Joan Brown

This tiled obelisk is by Joan Brown. Joan Brown was an American figurative painter who was born in San Francisco and lived and worked in Northern California. She was a notable member of the “second generation” of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.

She studied at the California School of Fine Art (now San Francisco Art Institute), where her teachers included Elmer Bischoff. Her sculpture is not as well known, and yet she did several of these obelisks, there are at least 3 in San Francisco. These include the Pine Tree Obelisk in Sidney Walton Park, Obelisk in the Rincon Center, and this one. Sadly, in 1990, she was killed while doing an obelisk installation in India.

The sculpture is a result of both the 1% for Arts Program and the POPOS program of San Francisco and is available for viewing between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm Monday through Friday.

Privately-owned public open spaces (POPOS) are publicly accessible spaces in forms of plazas, terraces, atriums, small parks, and even snippets that are provided and maintained by private developers. In San Francisco, POPOS mostly appear in the Downtown office district area. The 1985 Downtown Plan created the first systemic requirements for developers to provide publicly accessible open space as a part of projects.

The public art requirement created by the downtown plan is commonly known as the “1% for Art” program. This requirement, governed by Section 429 of the Planning Code, provides that construction of a new building or addition of 25,000 square feet or more within the downtown C‐3 district, triggers a requirement that provide public art that equals at least 1% of the total construction cost be provided.

Jackson Brewery an Old San Francisco Tradition

Posted by Cindy on February 14, 2013

Feb 142013

Folsom and 11th
SOMA

There have been over 79 breweries in San Francisco’s history, most of them either lost to the 1906 earthquake or in the two years following the 1919 passage of the 21st amendment. These lost brew houses included the North Star Brewery at Filbert and Sansome, the Globe Brewing Company at Sansome and Greenwich and the Jackson Brewing Company. Yet despite the fact that the Jackson Brewing Company did not survive Prohibition, its building still stands.

1906 Damaged Jackson Brewing Company (Photo credit: San Francisco Public Library)

The Jackson Brewing Company was owned by the William A. Fredericks family from 1867 to 1920. The first brewery was on First Street between Howard and Folsom; they purchased the property at Folsom and 11th in 1905. Early construction was destroyed by the earthquake and subsequent fire. Consequently, the new brewery wasn’t completed until 1912.

The brewery is composed of a series of low-rise brick buildings sitting on a concrete foundation and simply ornamented with concrete and wood. This Romanesque Revival style brewery is one of the last remaining turn-of-the-century brewing complexes of its type.

Romanesque architecture was a style that emerged in Western Europe in the early 11th century. It has Roman and Byzantine elements and is characterized by massive articulated wall structures, round arches, and powerful vaults. This style lasted until the advent of Gothic architecture in the middle of the 12th century. Romanesque Revival was the reuse in the second half of the 19th century of the massive Romanesque forms.

Romanesque architecture in the United States was much simpler than that found in Europe. The Romanesque features of the Jackson Brewery include semicircular arches for the door and window openings and a belt course (a horizontal band across a building).

Due to its brick construction, the Jackson Brewery building did not fare well in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. A thorough retrofitting was done to upgrade the building to San Francisco’s 1990 building codes. The building is now a mixed-use complex with seven live-work condominiums and a restaurant.

San Francisco is now home to only ten breweries. These include the famous Anchor Steam Brewery and lesser-known local favorites such as The Beach Chalet, Speakeasy and the ThirstyBear.

The Jackson Brewery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 and is San Francisco Landmark #199.

Old Blueprints take on a New Look

Posted by Cindy on February 13, 2013

Feb 132013

Muni Metro East Yard
Pier 80
Bayview

This view, taken through a fence, is as close as one will get to the art work at the new Muni Metro East maintenance facility.

These photos I took from the Pulp Studios website.

I am going to simply copy directly what they have to say about these pieces as the information is excellent.

“The beauty of rail car engineering details is revealed in these historic blueprints from the 19th and 20th centuries.” Artist Anita Margrill’s statement rings true upon the very first site of the two towering glass curtain walls on the Metro East Light Rail Vehicle Maintenance and Operations Facility. This installation is a prime example of how art can seamlessly meld with Architecture, while taking two very standard stairwells from ordinary to extraordinary.

The artists Nobuho Nagasawa and Anita Margrill were inspired by the intricate pattern of white lines contrasting with the bold blue on the engineering blueprints they had found in the Muni Metro Archives.

In 1996 Pulp Studio received the call from Judy Moran of the San Francisco Arts Commission to work with artists to fabricate these two very large curtain walls, that measure an impressive 36 feet high by 19 feet wide. At the time Pulp proposed bringing the vision into reality by carving the line portions onto the glass and then painting them white to capture the vibrancy of the bold white lines of the drawing. However, this being a public works project 10 years had passed by the the time the facility was ready for it’s crown jewels to be produced.

During the interim, better technologies were formed and Pulp Studio recommended using their photographic laminated SentryGlas Expressions (SGX) product instead of the carved glass. SGX is a form of laminate that can be printed on in the full RGB spectrum, and even in white to produce photographic quality images. Once laminated the unprinted areas are clear, this product is what allows the blueprints to have their highly defined intricate bold look.

The 21 individual insulated glass sections of each curtain wall are comprised of two parts. A laminated blue glass panel on the interior and a clear glass panel on the exterior laminated with a mechanical engineering drawing printed in white on SGX as the substrate within the glass.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency recently won an award for the facility from the American Public Works Association, which is a national association that recognizes exceptional public works projects. This facility won in the category of projects costing over $75,000,000. Judy Moran of the SFAC said, “I am sure the curtain walls played a large part in making it an exceptional facility. Everyone is very happy with them, they are stunning.”

These pieces were commissioned for $100,000.

Nobuho Nagasawa has appeared here before with her Liberty Ship sculpture at the SFMTA Motor Coach Facility.

Anita Margrill was born in New York City . She attended Cranbrook Academy of Art, received her BA from Bennington College, her B. Architecture from CUNY School of Architecture and Environmental Studies, and her MA in Interdisciplinary Arts from San Francisco State University. As a licensed architect she has designed and built several passive solar houses and she holds numerous copyrights and patents for her water distribution systems.

The Drum Bridge at the Japanese Tea Garden

Posted by Cindy on February 12, 2013

Feb 122013

Japanese Tea Garden
Golden Gate Park

San Francisco’s first Japanese Tea Garden was originally developed by art-dealer George Turner Marsh as part of the 1894 Midwinter Fair, an event that brought the City by the Bay into the international limelight.

Shinshichi Nakatani was selected to design and build the Drum Bridge (Taiko Bashi).

He built the bridge in Japan, dismantled it and brought back with him. Halfway through completion, the Expo ran out of funds. Shinshichi left San Francisco and returned to Japan. He sold off personal land holdings and brought the money back with him to complete the project.

After the Expo was over, the decision to donate the bridge and gate to the City of San Francisco was made. The bridge and gate have been there ever since.

Historically, the design has had several different functions

It reveals a reflection of a full circle or full moon over still water. The steepness forces those entering a tea garden to slow down, allegedly putting them in the right state of mind for a tea ceremony, and perhaps the most practical – it allows for boats to pass underneath, while using minimal amount of space on the plots of land that support it.

Japanese Tea Garden

Posted by Cindy on February 11, 2013

Feb 112013

Japanese Tea Garden
Golden Gate Park

The Japanese Tea Garden was created by George Turner Marsh as a “Japanese Village” feature of the 1894 MidWinter Exposition. Marsh, an Australian, had lived for several years in Japan and had an interest in traditional Japanese Gardens. To create the village, he brought materials and hired craftsmen directly from Japan. It is the oldest public Japanese garden in the United States.

The Tea Garden was designed and constructed by Makoto Hagiwara.

It used the “Hill and Water” landscape concept to create a traditional Japanese rural style garden. At the close of the exposition, Mokoto Hagiwara approached John McLaren with the idea to convert the temporary exhibit into a permanent park. . Originally one acre in size, the garden was expanded to five acres in 1902 and Makoto Hagiwara designed the expanded garden. Hagiwara specifically requested that one thousand flowering cherry trees be imported from Japan, as well as other native plants, birds, and the now famous goldfish. The Hagiwara descendants continued to live and work in the garden pouring all of their personal wealth, passion, and creative talents into creating a garden of utmost perfection. In 1942 the family was interned during World War II. At that time the garden was renamed the “Oriental Tea Garden” and fell into disarray. When the war was over, the Hagiwara family was not allowed to return to their home at the tea garden and in subsequent years, many Hagiwara family treasures were removed.

While I have been unable to find what subsequently happened to the Hagiwara family , in 1986 the Recreation and Park Department named the roadway in front of the Japanese Tea Garden “Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive” in honor of the Hagiwara family.

The garden consists of a number of elements including entry gates, a teahouse, a gift shop, pagodas,and several bridges. The landscape is primarily evergreen, with deciduous accent plants. Meandering paths follow and cross the small waterway and ponds. Stone is used extensively in many of the site elements.

The Main Gate, which dated to 1894, was reconstructed in 1985. The South Gate was also reconstructed in 1985.

The five-story pagoda was originally constructed for a Japanese village at the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition. It was purchased by the Hagiwara family and moved to the Tea Garden after the fair closed.

The name ‘Japanese Tea Garden’ was officially reinstated in 1952. In 1953 the Zen Garden, designed by Nagao Sakurai and representing a modern version of kare sansui (a dry garden which symbolizes a miniature mountain scene complete with a stone waterfall and small island surrounded by a gravel river) was dedicated at the same time as the 9,000-pound (4,100 kg) Lantern of Peace, which was purchased by contributions from Japanese children and presented on their behalf as a symbol of friendship for future generations.

A very in depth history of the garden can be read here.

The Home Telephone Building

Posted by Cindy on February 9, 2013

Feb 092013

333 Grant Avenue
Chinatown
Union Square

Ernest Albert Coxhead of Coxhead and Coxhead has given the city of San Francisco many of its finest buildings — one sits at 333 Grant Avenue, San Francisco landmark #141. The Home Telephone Company was San Francisco’s first telephone exchange site. The building, built in 1908 in the Mannerist style, towers regally over its neighbors.

Detail of the entrance to the Home Telephone Building.

The Home Telephone Company was designed for one purpose, thus the undivided treatment of the façade lends a unity to the building rarely seen in one so large. The Corinthian columns comprise three of the upper stories and dominate the façade. The building is crowned with a classic entablature and cornice that take in the top floor of the building. The building has a steel frame covered with Colusa Sandstone, a popular material in San Francisco and other central Californian cities in the early 20th century.

The pride and joy of the building when it was first under construction was the telephone system itself. The Home Telephone Company proudly announced the fact that they were putting in 413 miles of underground conduit to be served by 850 manholes. They were planning a state of the art conduit system to go under the San Francisco Bay to soon connect the East Bay telephone subscribers to those in San Francisco.

In the second decade of the 1900s, as a result of a graft and corruption scandal that included Abe “Boss” Ruef (the political boss behind the administration of Mayor Eugene Schmitz in the period of the 1906 earthquake and fire), the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the Home Telephone Company and the Pacific Telephone Company, Home Telephone was sold to Pacific Telephone.

Home Telephone Building – view from across the street.

After a life served as telephone company offices, the building was purchased by a real estate developer attempting to cash in on the real estate boom of the late 1990s-early 2000s, but 333 Grant was foreclosed on in 2002. It was rescued and converted to condominiums in 2004. There are 39 condominiums on the upper six floors and retail on the ground floor. One of the condos is a Below Market Rate (BMR) unit. BMR, or affordable rental apartments, is executed by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. In general, the maximum rents are set at 30% of the targeted owners monthly gross income. Minimum income requirements can vary from unit to unit. Many affordable rental units have maximum incomes limits of 50% or 60% of Area Median Income, though some units are lower or higher.

The Home Telephone Company building was at the forefront of the controversy regarding BMRs during the early 2000s. While many units in varying buildings of San Francisco were made affordable by the Redevelopment Agency’s programs, the owners were often unable to remain in the units once costs, such as homeowners dues (which climbed significantly during the early 2000s) were factored in.

Today, this building is a wonderful example of mixed use in a very urban setting with a Lululemon Athletica store at ground level. The proximity to Chinatown and Union Square make it an ideal home for those that are willing to pay what are still considerably high real estate prices.

Amazarasti-No Hotoke

Posted by Cindy on February 8, 2013

Feb 082013

Japanese Tea Garden
Golden Gate Park

At the eastern end of Long Bridge, inside the Japanese Tea Garden sits this magnificent statue. It is “Amazarasti-no Hotoke” meaning “The Buddha that sits throughout the sunny and rainy weather without shelter”.

The figure was cast in 1790 at Tajima, Nara Prefecture, on Honshu for the Taioriji Temple. It passed from one Japanese collector to the next until is was purchased by A. L. Gump in 1928. It sat in the downstairs Oriental Court of the Post Street Gump’s store until remodeling banished it to storage. When a wooden Buddha in the Garden was destroyed by vandals, the Gump family donated the giant figure in memory of their father.

In 2000 the Buddha was taken to the conservation lab of Baird/Rief in Grass Valley where old repairs and corrosion were carefully removed and filled with new materials before restoring the patina. Meanwhile, back at the park, the old rotted wooden pedestal was replaced with a hand-cut black granite base that will seat the Buddha for a century or two more. To insure that the Buddha doesn’t shift or slump, a new armature rises from the base and supports the weight of the satori that rings the Buddha’s head. The carpenters at the Recreation and Park Department completed the project by enclosing the Buddha with an elegant fence. This $173,000 project was partially funded by the Adopt-a-Monument program with the help of Gump’s Department Store and the Recreation and Parks Department. Contractors on the project besides Baird/Rief were Robert Bailey, Structural Engineer, Atthowe Fine Arts Services, Rocket Science and Edwin Hamilton.

Islais: From Creek to Sewer to Creek

Posted by Cindy on February 7, 2013

Feb 072013

Islais Creek
Bayview/Hunter’s Point

It is known as Third and Army by skateboarders. Longshoreman call it Pier 84. Locals just think of it as Islais Creek. No matter its name, it is an area experiencing ongoing urban and environmental renewal. Islais Creek originally flowed for 3.5 miles from the hills of San Francisco into the Bay. The area now called Islais Creek Channel is an inlet of San Francisco Bay located in the Central Waterfront area between Potrero Hill and Bayview / Hunters Point. The area was once a vast salt marsh. Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries this area of Islais Creek devolved from a habitat teeming with wildlife to an industrial wasteland, until it was finally rescued by environmental, government and neighborhood groups working hand in hand.

Los Islais (is-Lay-is), named for the Hollyleaf Cherry, provided the Ohlone Indians-the first settlers of the area-mussels, clams and shrimp. In the early 1800s the missionaries from Mission Dolores drew their fresh water from the area. Later, the 49ers, coming down from the mountains during the Gold Rush, began settling on its banks, and then the deterioration started. In 1871 over 100 slaughterhouses were situated on the banks of the creek, giving the neighborhood the illustrious name “Butchertown.” After the 1906 earthquake, the city fathers found it a convenient spot to dump earthquake debris. In 1925 the State Legislature created a reclamation district to drain and develop the Islais Creek basin as an industrial area, leaving only a small shipping channel. Until the 1950s this section of Islais Creek was basically an open sewer.

In 1970 the City of San Francisco built a water treatment plant along the channel to improve the quality of the water flowing into the Bay.

This same area of Islais Creek, the center of the current urban renewal, is now a channel within a landfill, atop what once was a broad inlet of the bay. Towering over the site of the rebirth is a dynamic structure called a Copra Crane. Copra is dried coconut imported, in those days, from the Philippines. Men would go down into ships’ hulls, alternatively working and resting for 20 minutes at a time. One man would break up the coconuts with a pick, and another would shovel the broken pieces into a pile. Cranes would then suction the pieces out and transport them to a warehouse. From there the meat was sent to a Cargill plant to be made into coconut oil. In the 1960s mechanization came to the waterfront, and the men, their picks and shovels were replaced by a small tractor with mechanical choppers.

Copra cranes performed many functions in the coconut business; this particular crane was used to load onto ships processed pellets that were then sent overseas to be sold.

The 1970s saw the end of the Copra trade and the abandonment of the industrial area known as Pier 84. In the 1980s a large contingency of environmental and neighborhood groups began lobbying for a clean up of the area and the building of a park to increase the open space that was so needed in the Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood, an area often described as a marginalized community with modern problems including high rates of unemployment, poverty, crime and disease.

A group of retired and active waterfront building tradesmen also joined the efforts to ensure that the Copra Crane was part of this revitalization. The historic value of the crane was recognized by the Port of San Francisco, and the crane was saved.

In the Fall of 2011 the crane was removed and restoration began.

As part of the revitalization, the dock that the crane sits upon will be stabilized and the crane put back in its rightful place. The restoration is expected to cost a minimum of $400,000 and take well over a year. The revitalized area already has a small boat dock and sand slide for launching outrigger canoes. Additional plans call for a museum featuring waterfront labor history. The groups that have worked so hard to restore Islais Creek continue to write grants and find ways to bring jobs and public awareness to the area through urban revitalization. In 2009 Jo Kreiter, an aerial artist, and her troop performed on the crane. It is hoped that more art will be brought to the neighborhood as the popularity of the revitalized area grows.

Islais Creek is home to the Liberty Ship Sculpture by Nobuho Nagasawa and the Metal Fish by Todd Martinez and Robin Chiang.

Guardians of Ping Yuen

Posted by Cindy on February 6, 2013

Feb 062013

711 Pacific
Chinatown
Ping Yuen Housing

Originally 8 terracotta Foo dogs graced this gateway.

Chinese guardian lions, known as Shishi or Imperial guardian lion, and often called “Foo Dogs” in the West, are a common representation of the lion in pre-modern China. They have traditionally stood in front of Chinese Imperial palaces, Imperial tombs, government offices, temples, and the homes of government officials and the wealthy, from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), and were believed to have powerful mythic protective benefits.

The artist Mary Erckenbrack researched traditional Chinese animals before designing the dogs.

Mary Erkenbrack was born in Seattle, Washington on Nov. 30, 1910, Erckenbrack was raised in Rio De Janeiro, London, and Paris as her father, a shipping commissioner, moved about. While in France she studied art in Le Havre at Pension Jeanne d’Arc.

During 1933-35 her married name was Hennessy. In 1935 she settled in San Francisco and became active in the North Beach art scene. She soon established Mary E’s Mud Shop and was kept busy fulfilling ceramic orders for Gump’s, Marshall Fields and others.

The Hunter Dunlin Building in the French Romanesque Style

Posted by Cindy on February 5, 2013

Feb 052013

111 Sutter Street
The Financial District

111 Sutter Street, or the Hunter Dulin Building, is a terra-cotta clad building modeled on a French château. This 22-story French Romanesque building is topped with a 38-foot high mansard roof sporting both dormers and gables.

The building was designed by New York architecture firm Shultze and Weaver for Los Angeles brokerage house Hunter Dulin. When it was built in 1927, it was the fourth-highest building in San Francisco. Shultze and Weaver were known for such American icons as the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, the Biltmore in Los Angeles and the Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. It is rumored that 111 Sutter Street cost well in excess of one million dollars.

The main office shaft of 111 Sutter is clad in a finely glazed terra cotta. It’s Romanesque-ness is emphasized with such features as the grand entryway arches and the vaulted lobby. The French portion is demonstrated by the château ornamentation and the set back at the top of this shaft that is crowned with a mansard roof.

The building is a steel-frame construction built on a reinforced concrete sheet piling system. To speed up the construction process, the concrete foundation was laid in a 44-hour continuous pour.

Mercury by Leo Lentelli (1879—1961)

The National Broadcast Company (NBC) used 111 Sutter for their West Coast headquarters from 1927 to 1942. According to Dashiell Hammett scholars, 111 Sutter also housed the fictional offices of Sam Spade.

During the 1970s, San Francisco passed building codes requiring that, for earthquake purposes, all exterior ornamentation must be attached securely to the building. During this time, ornamentation throughout the city was simply removed as a more cost-efficient way of complying with the new laws. Most likely, this was when 20 copper spires that topped the roof of 111 Sutter were removed.

The building underwent a $23 million restoration between 1999 and 2001. At this time the building was seismically upgraded, and modern telecommunications systems were added. What the casual visitor will notice, however, is the restoration of the marble entrance and the elevator lobby. The restoration brought an old-time glamour back to the building. Even the bathrooms were given classic wood doors and antique tile walls. At the time, replacing the copper spires atop the building proved cost prohibitive. However, they were eventually restored in 2005-at an additional cost of $450,000, giving this beauty the crown she so deserved.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 17, 1997, 111 Sutter stands as a majestic remembrance of an unusual and yet elegant architectural style.

Familia

Posted by Cindy on February 4, 2013

Feb 042013

Potrero del Sol Park
Potrero Hill
Potrero at 25th Street

Familia is by Victor Reyes, who has many pieces around San Francisco.

On June 9, 2011 the San Francisco Examiner ran this article about the mural:

A community that came together to solve the problem of persistent graffiti at a neighborhood park celebrated the unveiling of a mural painted in the hope of staving off vandalism.

Potrero del Sol Park, which is a favorite among skaters and schoolchildren, is bordered by Buena Vista Elementary School and a building maintained by San Francisco General Hospital.

Taggers constantly targeted a wall of the hospital building, according to The City’s Recreation and Park Department. After hospital painters’ efforts to efface the wall were thwarted time and time again, the community rallied.

The school’s PTA found the artist Victor Reyes to compose a mural, and the students competed in a naming contest. The parks department waived the permit fee, the hospital donated paint and scaffolding and navigated the plan through the San Francisco Arts Commission.

The “Familia” mural, whose bright blocks of colors pop against the otherwise neutral surroundings, was unveiled 10 a.m. Wednesday at the park located at 25th and Utah streets.

According to the parks department, the mural is the story of “a shared problem and a creative solution.
”

SOMA Grand’s Glass Mosaic

Posted by Cindy on February 1, 2013

Feb 012013

1160 Mission Street
SOMA
SOMA Grand

Composed of 390 panels, most about 2-by-7 feet and 1/4-inch thick, this mural is titled “Realm”. It is the biggest piece of glass art in the city. Coming in at three stories tall, it cost $800,000.

The piece is part of the 1% for art program of San Francisco and was created by Dorothy Lenehan.

Dorothy Lenehan founded Lenehan Architectural Glass in 1995 after a years-long tenure with Narcissus Quagliata’s acclaimed glass studio in Oakland, including 10 years as studio manager. After the Quagliata Studio relocated to Mexico City in 1995, Dorothy moved her studio to Emeryville and changed the focus of her work from leaded art glasswork to contemporary fused, painted and laminated architectural elements.

The “1% for Art” program requirement is governed by Section 429 of the Planning Code, which provides that construction of a new building or addition of 25,000 square feet or more within the downtown C‐3 district, triggers a requirement that the project provide public art that equals at least 1% of the total construction cost.

Bufano at Westside Courts

Posted by Cindy on January 31, 2013

Jan 312013

Westside Courts Housing Project
2501 Sutter Street
Lower Pacific Heights

This sculpture, by well known San Francisco sculptor Beniamino Bufano, is titled Saint Francis on Horseback. Standing 8′ x 6′ and of black granite it is located in the central courtyard of the project. It was made in 1935 but not placed here until 1945.

Westside Courts were built in 1943, Westside includes 136 units in six buildings that cover a full city block. Westside s unusual because it is located in a thriving, mixed-income neighborhood. Another distinction is in its construction, which relied on heavy cement blocks, creating buildings that have suffered less from degradation over time.

Westside is a development that has exceeded its useful life. The development is more than 65 years old, and residents live with outdated appliances; unpredictable plumbing, mechanical, and electrical systems; extensive rodent problems; and other issues that affect their health and quality of life.

Westside comes under the purvue of HOPE SF, a subsidiary of the San Francisco Housing Authority.

Candlestick Park Community Garden Mural

Posted by Cindy on January 30, 2013

Jan 302013

1150 Carroll Avenue
Candlestick Park State Recreation Area

This mural is on the side of the Candlestick Park Rangers Office. The area in front is the Candlestick Point Community Garden.

The theme of the mural, expressed through symbolism, shape and color shows the various stages of the gardening experience. The mural 30′ x 100′, took four months to complete. It was designed in 1982, by five artists and graduate students from San Francisco State University. Barbara Plant, Gary Mathews, Eric Graham, James Adams and Maria Gonzalez.

Rather than using the wall surface as a canvas to be covered, the artists incorporated the exposed pebble wall into the design and purposely left areas unpainted.

This photo is from the original dedication

Candlestick Point State Recreation Area was the first California State Park unit developed to bring state park values into the urban setting. From historic wetlands to landfill to landscaped park, Candlestick Point demonstrates major land use changes of the San Francisco Bay. Its name is derived from 19th century locals who thought the burning of nearby abandoned sailing ships and their flaming masts in the bay resembled lighted candlesticks.

CCSF Mission Campus

Posted by Cindy on January 29, 2013

Jan 292013

1125 Valencia
Mission District

Said to be the biggest Tonalmachiotl in the world, this version of the Aztec Calendar sits at the entry way to the City College of San Francisco Mission Campus.

Tonalmachiotl is called the Aztec Calendar, the Sunstone or Piedra del Sol. Scholars believe that pre-conquest Mesoamerican cultures conceived of time as circular…. [Mesoamericans] therefore thought they could predict the future by recording events from the past. Using their calendric system and mathematics, they could look both back in time to when they believed the world began, and infinitely forward.

This colorful 27-foot Aztec Calendar hovering over the entrance to the campus on Valencia Street is constructed of some 660 ceramic tiles painted mostly bright blue and orange. The calendar is hand-engraved and painted and was commissioned for $200,000 to two Tucson artists, Alex Garza and Carlos Valenzuela.

Excerpt from a Tucson Weekly Article: Garza was born in Cristal, an epicenter at one time for Mexican-American civil rights in Texas. Garza’s family moved well before Jose Angel Gutierrez, a founder of La Raza Unida, and other activists changed the course for Mexican-Americans in south Texas.

The Garzas found discrimination up north when they settled in Des Plaines, Ill., where they worked tomato and onion fields near what was becoming O’Hare Airport. Garza combines matter-of-fact recollections with humor, including being a champion in downing burgers from the first McDonald’s.

His and other Mexican-American families were pushed off the main streets, and Garza was intent on exploring. He did in Chicago in the heady late 1960s. He studied and trained and gravitated not toward galleries but to neighborhoods.

He now teaches at Las Artes.

Carlos Valenzuela also teaches at Las Artes, and other programs encouraging youth out of crime and into education.

Mission Pool and Playground Mural

Posted by Cindy on January 28, 2013

Jan 282013

Mission District
Linda Street off of 19th

This mural was done by Emmanuel C. Montoya, Sue Cervantes and Juana Alicia. It sits on the side of the Mission Pool and Playground which houses the New World Tree Mural. These three artists were joined by Raul Martinez and others to create the mural in the playground in 1985. It is titled Balance of Power.

On the day of the inauguration of the World Tree Mural, a neighborhood organizer got Diane Feinstein, then San Francisco mayor, on tape, promising to fund murals for the neighborhood if it respected the walls and desisted from covering them with graffiti. .The artists, community organizers and two rival neighborhood gangs, Happy Homes and 19th Street, came together to create the mural.

Emmanuel is a descendent of Lipan Apache and Mexican heritage and was born in the small, south coastal town of Corpus Christi, Texas. Emmanuel is an enrolled member of the Lipan Apache Band of Texas. For some forty-eight years Emmanuel has been a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area where he attended high school and went on to college and earned a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking at San Francisco State University.

Sue Cervantes has many murals around San Francisco that you can see here.

Strong Roots, Healthy Tree

Posted by Cindy on January 25, 2013

Jan 252013

Olive and Polk
The Tenderloin

This mural was done in 1989. It is titled Strong Roots, Healthy Tree and is by Johanna Poethig who intertwined images from Laotian, Vietnamese, and Cambodian cultures. Johanna is responsible for numerous pieces of public art around San Francisco

Since the 1970s, a growing number of Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian immigrants have settled in the Tenderloin. The first large migration of Vietnamese into the United States came in the 1970s with elites who fled their home country after the fall of Saigon in 1975. The second wave of immigrants to enter the city in the 1970s consisted of a group of people who have been labeled the “boat people.” Most of these Vietnamese immigrants are ethnic Chinese. These immigrants were attracted to the Tenderloin area by its low rents and high rates of tenant turnover. The influx of Vietnamese, as well as Cambodian and Laotian families to this district has added a family element to the area, with children and youth making up a growing proportion of a community with few open spaces. It has also led to an increase in nonprofit agencies serving a wide range of the community’s needs.

The mural was funded by private donations and sits on the back of the building that once housed the Southeast Refugee Resettlement organization. It is 40 X 60 ‘

Old Time Fun

Posted by Cindy on January 24, 2013

Jan 242013

Frank Norris Street (aka as Austin) and Polk
The Tenderloin

Mike Shine is an artist who lives and paints in Bolinas, California. With no formal art school training, his background instead includes fine woodworking, furniture and cabinet making: skills that often appear in his artwork. He typically creates using driftwood and found objects, and many of his works invite (and even require) the observer to handle and operate them, something he considers contrary to the sterile “please donʼt touch” world of museums and galleries.

For the last few years Mike has used painting to explore the metaphor of a childhood deal with the devil, recalled only through driftwood artifacts that he collects on the beach. In between surf sessions, Mike gathers this driftwood and slowly pieces together a dark memory. As a successful artist and family man, Mike suspects that the clown-devil of his childhood might be waiting to collect on an ancient pact. Drawing from mythological characters, nautical themes, and unconventional portraiture, Mike unfolds the memory of an event that may have foretold his adult life.

Mike Shine’s website is very unique and well worth a visit.

Taking Life Lying Down

Posted by Cindy on January 23, 2013

Jan 232013

100 Block of Hemlock
The Tenderloin

This Native American is by Spencer Keeton Cuningham. Cunningham is responsible for another Native American mural in the tenderloin.

Cunningham is a member of the Indigenous Arts Coalition, a Bay Area organization started in 2008 that advocates for Native American artists.

Spencer Keeton Cunningham (Nez Perce) is originally from Portland, Oregon and along with drawing and painting, he shoots experimental and documentary films. He graduated from SFAI with a BFA in Printmaking in May 2010. Spencer currently works at White Walls Gallery in Central San Francisco. Since 2010, Spencer has shown his prints and drawings internationally in Canada, and most recently Japan, all the while collaborating with Internationally recognized artists such as ROA and Ben Eine.

Nico Berry on York Street

Posted by Cindy on January 22, 2013

Jan 222013

1354 York Street
Mission/Potrero

This mural is part of the San Francisco StreetSmARTS program and was done by Nico Berry.

Nico Berry’s cultural perspective is shaped by his encounters with hip-hop, skateboarding, and urban youth culture while growing up on the South Side of Chicago. Over the years he has also become interested in exploring the role of culture, community, class, and religion, especially in the context of urban life. Aesthetically, Nico’s prolific experience in graphic design is extremely evident. Lettering, patterns, and the appropriation of pop and religious symbolism dominate his work. The media he works with include spray-paint, collage, sculptural elements, and acrylic paints as well as digital designing.

Nico worked as art director for Thrasher skateboard magazine from 1996-2001, then traveled the world creating murals on five different continents. From 2002-2007 Nico created fine art and worked as a freelance graphic designer in Brooklyn, New York. He contributed to a wide range of companies, from Timberland boots and apparel to The Source hip-hop magazine to Fermilab’s high-energy physics facility. In 2007 he relocated to San Francisco where he continues to do murals, design work, and fine art. Most recently he has focused his attention on writing and illustrating children’s books.

Martin Luther King Memorial

Posted by Cindy on January 21, 2013

Jan 212013

Yerba Buena Center Gardens

The United States’ second largest Martin Luther King Memorial, titled Revelation, was built in San Francisco in 1993. It sits behind a 50’ x 20’ foot wall of cascading water. Located in the Yerba Buena Gardens, the memorial is a lovely walkway constructed under a 120,000-gallon reflecting pool. The reflective pool spills over large pieces of Sierra granite, giving the visitor a roaring background noise that blocks out the city sounds and allows a moment for peace and contemplation.

A photo of Dr. King anchors the west entrance to the fountain. This is mirrored to the east with an inscription of a 1956 speech he made in San Francisco.

As the visitor makes their way along the path, one reads quotations from Dr. King’s speeches etched in 12 glass panels. Each quote is translated into the languages of San Francisco’s 13 sister cities, as well as Arabic and some African dialects.

The project was a collaboration of sculptor Houston Conwill, poet Estella Conwill Majoza and architect Joseph DePace.

Reflecting Pool on the upper level of Yerba Buena Gardens

Shapes and Letters

Posted by Cindy on January 21, 2013

Jan 212013

751 and 780 Valencia at 19th
The Mission

This mural, consisting of shapes, numbers and letters, is by 24 year old SF resident, Jonathan Matas. In 2012 Jonathan did an interview with a group in Atlanta while participating in a show called Living Walls.

Here is a few interesting excerpts from the article:

I have been painting all my life. Like all kids, I made art, but I kept on going, nonstop. It has always been my passion. The only time in my life that I stopped was last year for about six months, that was an excellent break and I came back with renewed energy and focus.

I got into graffiti around 1999. I don’t remember the term “street art” being used much. It was just straight up graffiti… tags, throw-ups, pieces, streets, freights… I started to notice the graffiti around my neighborhood in Seattle. I switched high schools in 10th grade to the NOVA Project (an alternative high school in Seattle’s Central District), where I started meeting writers from all parts of the city.

I’m definitley not able to see the completed image in my head before beginning. I have a naturally-occurring tendency toward detail. I enjoy art that can sink in over time, with many layers of meaning and depth to explore. For example, from a distance or up close, or the whole piece as a macrocosm containing microcosmic worlds.

As any artist will tell you, knowing when to stop is difficult. All projects are different. Usually, when I arrive at a point when I’m looking for stuff to add rather than doing what jumps out as needing doing, it is time to stop. If you go further, it is acting out of impulsivity or even greed. Intuitively knowing it’s time to stop but continuing is madness. There are no clear dogmatic rules to this though.

750 Mission

780 Mission

The Adam Grant Building

Posted by Cindy on January 19, 2013

Jan 192013

114 Sansome Street
Financial District

The garland façade, as well as the coffered entryway, were removed in the 1960s.

Over the course of its 145-year history, the Adam Grant Building at 114 Sansome Street has gone through several iterations. Constructed in 1867, the first building housed the dry goods business of Daniel Murphy and Adam Grant. Architect John Gaynor incorporated 250 tons of iron into this four-story brick structure located at the corner of Sansome and Bush Streets. As a result, the 1868 Joint Committee on Earthquakes honored Gaynor, citing his structure as an exemplar of earthquake-resistant building. Ironically, exemplar or no, the building did not survive the 1906 quake.

In 1908, the Murphy Grant Company hired John Galen Howard and John (J.D.) Galloway Architects to construct a new building (on the same site) for their growing business. This second building, while often characterized as Beaux Arts, incorporated only the sculptural ornamentation characteristic of this architectural style. Otherwise, it was a very simple structure, standing six stories tall.

Nine-foot ornamented urns placed in a set-back corner

In 1926, Murphy Grant and Company moved their dry goods business out of the downtown area, and the building was again redesigned. Under the leadership of architect Lewis P. Hobart, eight more floors were added, and the building was converted into office spaces. In this third (and most current) iteration of the Adam Grant Building, the first 11 floors are topped with three recessed stories with set-back corners. The large open space created by the set-back corners on the 12th floor are utilized as a terrace. During the 1926 construction, four 9-foot ornamented urns were placed at each terrace corner.

The ornamental garland, removed in the 1960s, was replaced in the 2000 restoration by Michael H. Casey Designs.

By the 1960s, architectural styles had changed, and the ornamentation of the main lobby and the entryway were removed.

In 1978, the State of California enacted laws requiring that external ornamentation on buildings in earthquake zones be secured. This resulted in the removal not only of the urns from the Adam Grant building but of a considerable amount of architectural ornamentation from buildings throughout San Francisco (removal often proved easier than securing items).

The interior coffered ceiling, removed in the 1960s, was replaced in the 2000 restoration.

In 2000, the current owners, Ellis Partners (owners and restorers of the Hunter Dulin Building), hired the architectural firm of Ottolini and Booth to restore the Adam Grant building to its earlier pre-1960s grandeur. Working with the original 1906 and 1926 architectural drawings, the Beaux Arts entry façade and lobby coffered ceilings were recreated by Michael H. Casey Designs. Clervi Marble restored the marble floor of the lobby. And the exterior was graced, once again, by four 9-foot urns. These new urns, sculpted by Michael H. Casey Designs, were made of fiberglass, as it was surmised the originals, assumed to be terra cotta, weighed in excess of 1500 pounds.

Due to the care taken during the restoration, the Adam Grant Building has received an “A” rating from the Foundation for San Francisco’s Architectural Heritage. This means that the building is one of the most important buildings in downtown San Francisco. It is distinguished by outstanding qualities of architecture, historical values, and relationship to the environment.

Utility Boxes get Dressed Up

Posted by Cindy on January 18, 2013

Jan 182013

Duboce and Church
Castro

Mona Caron, who created the adjacent Bicycle Coalition mural on the back of the Safeway has added new touches to the Muni utility boxes on the sidewalk. On one side of the boxes, bicyclists entering the Wiggle are greeted by an illustrated flowing banner that lists the names of the streets that make up the route. On the other side, pedestrians are treated with a window to a re-imagined intersection featuring an uncovered Sans Souci Creek (which once roughly followed the path of the Wiggle).

The title of this box is Manifestation Station.

This photo, from Mona Caron’s website, shows exactly how the box was meant to be viewed.

Update: There was fire in this particular utility box, and the utility company has replaced it with a plain unpainted box, Mona’s beautiful creation is not to return. But you can enjoy her video about it here:

Cross the street, and you get lovely depictions of “weeds” sprouting from the ground. “They may be tiny yet they push through concrete. They are everywhere and yet unseen. But the more they get stepped on, the stronger they grow back.”…Mona Caron

Mona Caron has several murals throughout San Francisco.

These boxes are part of the Church and Duboce Track Improvement Project by the SFMTA

For a great day spent learning about the area and the mural check out ThinkWalks, if you don’t have time to actually take a walk, they have a wonderful full color description of the mural with facts, trivia, and lots of bits of San Francisco History in their store.

1360 Montgomery Street – A Streamline Moderne Dream

Posted by Cindy on January 17, 2013

Jan 172013

1360 Montgomery Street
The Malloch Apartments
Telegraph Hill

The Spirit of California.

Muralist Alfred Du Pont (also known as Dupont) was hired to design the images that grace the exterior 1360 Montgomery Street. Du Pont produced two 40-foot high silvery figures in sgraffito, or raised plaster, on the western facade of the building, and a third on the north side. Du Pont applied colored concrete to the exterior and carved it into shape.

Sgraffito on walls has been used in Europe since classical times, and it was common in Italy in the 16th century, and can be found in African art. In combination with ornamental decoration these techniques formed an alternative to the prevailing painting of walls. The procedures are similar to the painting of frescoes.

Spanish Explorer

As a teenager Dupont ran away from home and rode the rails to San Francisco. His art studies were at the CSFA, UC, and CCAC. Active as a muralist in the 1930s, he painted ceilings at Hearst Castle and other public places in southern California. At the Golden Gate International Exhibition of 1939 he painted murals in the mining building. While serving in the Navy during WWII, he did illustrations of ships and manuals and painted portraits of Admirals Nimitz and Halsey. He received two Purple Hearts for wounds received when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941 and in the battle of Okinawa in 1945. After the war he settled in Laguna Beach and painted many marines and coastals of that area. On March 2, 1982 Dupont suffered a heart attack while driving in Newport Beach and died of the injuries.

The Malloch Building has a fascinating history and is well worth the read.

Cloud Portal

Posted by Cindy on January 16, 2013

Jan 162013

Corner of Washington and Davis
Golden Gateway Center

This sculpture is titled Cloud Portal and is by Ned Kahn. Kahn has several sculptures around San Francisco

Mist periodically emerges from the central void of a sculpture constructed out of stacked horizontal sheets of stainless steel. The mist alternately reveals and obscurs the view of the urban landscape that is framed by the sculpture. A collaboration with RHAA landscape architects the sculpture was completed in 2011.

Domestic Seating in Bronze

Posted by Cindy on January 15, 2013

Jan 152013

Duboce and Church
Castro

Titled Domestic Seating these bronze chairs are by Primitivo Suarez. They are on the corners of the intersection of Duboce and Church where there are several muni stops as well as Mona Caron’s Bicycle Coalition Mural.

Fortunately the SFAC has placed plaques explaining the murals on the corners as well, something I feel should be done with all of our public art. The plaques read:

Inspired by the discarded furniture commonly seen on city sidewalks, Domestic Seating evokes intimate interior spaces and unexpectedly transforms this intersection into a shared experience. The collection of seating replicated in metal was selected by the artist through a “casting call”. Announced to local residents, the original furniture was donated by the following members of the community:

Rocking Chair donated by Maitri Compassionate Care
Armchair donated by Peter Mansfield (originally owned by William I. Bernell)
Ikea Chair donated by Missy Buchanan

Primitivo Suarez has a background in both architecture and visual art. Suarez attended SCI-Arc before receiving his MFA in Sculpture at UCLA in 2000. Suarez has taught in the art and architecture departments at the University of Southern California, Woodbury University, and currently at the University of California at Berkeley.

Where the Wild Things Gnar

Posted by Cindy on January 14, 2013

Jan 142013

20th and Mission
The Mission

This mural by Nosego is titled “Where the Wild Things Gnar”.

Yis “Nosego” Goodwin is a Philadelphia-based artist with a passion for illustration and media arts. He mixes fine art with a contemporary style to deliver highly energetic work. His designs feature an assemblage of patterns, vibrant colors and characters derived from his imagination and his surrounding environment.

The South Philly native started honing his talent as child, taking classes at Fleisher Art Memorial and attending the High School of Creative and Performing Arts. His fine-art training is detectable in almost all of his paintings—whether it be captured in a stunning waterfall or a dead-on replica of the Venus de Milo sculpture.

It was while studying film at the University of the Arts that Goodwin really began experimenting with contemporary styles and discovered his passion for street art. “I was just trying to find my style,” he says. “At the same time, street art kinda made me feel like a real person because I didn’t really have many friends back then.”

Goodwin is currently (May 2012) designing the graphics for “Rusty The Rainbow Whale,” a smartphone game in which users have to eat color-coded hamburgers floating by on sailboats, which explains the abundance of whales featured in his latest collection. The app is the follow up to the game “Catball Eats It All,” which he launched in December

San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers

Posted by Cindy on January 12, 2013

Jan 122013

100 JFK Boulevard
Golden Gate Park
The oldest extant structure in Golden Gate Park is also its most beloved: the Conservatory of Flowers. This beautiful, white-washed structure is the oldest wood-and-glass conservatory in America.

It is believed that James Lick, a prominent and wealthy San Franciscan, purchased the conservatory as a kit from Ireland for $2050 and had it shipped to his estate on the Peninsula. However, it is also thought that portions of the original building contained California redwood. Upon Lick’s death in 1876, The Society of California Pioneers found themselves the owners. They chose to sell it to a group of 27 San Francisco businessmen. These men, in turn, gave it to the City of San Francisco for use in Golden Gate Park. The state legislature appropriated $40,000 for the construction of the greenhouse, beginning a financial arrangement between public and private sources that exists to this day.

Assembled by the New York greenhouse manufacturing firm Lord and Bunham, this fine example of Victorian architecture opened to the public in 1876. When it was destroyed in 1883 by a boiler fire, banker and railroad baron Charles Crocker funded the restoration. Though it survived the 1906 earthquake intact, by 1933, structural instability caused the Park Commission to close the conservatory for 13 years.

Several other incidents required major repairs through the life of the conservatory, yet none dealt a bigger blow than the wind storms of 1995. Over 400 trees were blown down throughout Golden Gate Park and the park was closed for the first time in its history. The damage to the conservatory was extensive: 40% of the glass was smashed, and several wood arches were damaged. As a consequence, the conservatory had the dubious honor of being placed on the World Monument Funds list of 100 Most Endangered Buildings. In 1998, the National Trusts, Save the Americas Treasures, began the process of raising the $25 million required to restore the conservatory.

This restoration was not easy. The conservatory is 12,000 square feet. The central dome is 56 feet in diameter, 55 feet high and weighs 29,000 pounds. Each wing is 93’ long. The finial on top of the dome is 13’ tall and weighs 800 pounds. There are 16,800 windowpanes within a grid of 100 redwood and douglas fir arches. The original walkways formed one of the oldest concrete pours in the west.

Architectural Resources Group and Tennebaum Manheim Engineers tackled the task of putting the conservatory back into public use. It was found that in addition to the ruin done by the storm, the building had an inadequate brick foundation and there was extensive rot in the non-redwood sections.

The six-year restoration included conservation, restoration and rehabilitation. Two-thirds of the redwood architectural elements were reused; the rest came from fallen, old-growth, buckskin redwood logs. All of the clear glass was replaced with safety glass, 90% of the colored glass pieces were reused and 70% of the mullions were salvaged.

The conservatory is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and The California Register of Historic Places. It is a City and County of San Francisco Landmark and a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

If you are interested in viewing the oldest complete collection of highland orchids, the huge Amazon water lilies, or the 100-year-old giant Imperial Philodendron named Phil, you can do so Tuesdays through Sunday from 10 to 4. Ticket information can be found on the Conservatory’s website.

The Beaded Quilt

Posted by Cindy on January 11, 2013

Jan 112013

214 Van Ness Avenue
Civic Center

This “Beaded Quilt” sits on the outside of the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired building on Van Ness Avenue. According to the Please Touch Garden Site this mural is part of a LightHouse community arts initiative created by dozens of blind San Franciscans.

The mural is created out of 150,000 colored beads. As part of the Please Touch Community Garden, artist Gk Callahan envisioned the “Beaded Quilt” mural as a social arts project and enlisted clients from his art classes plus blind staff and volunteers at the LightHouse to assemble the 576 beaded squares that make up the six-foot-tall mural.

It all began in 2010 when Callahan partnered with the LightHouse to obtain a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission to create a major community arts project – the “Please Touch Community Garden” – on the once unkempt vacant lot at 165 Grove Street, in the shadow of the dome of the city hall.

The Please Touch Community Garden is currently under development by Callahan and his students in the Blind Leaders Program at the LightHouse. “A big part of our project has been cleaning up Lech Walesa alley which is where the entrance to the garden is located”, says Callahan. “With the installment of the Beaded Quilt mural we’ll highlight the garden’s entrance and the alley itself. Making the alley more visible to the surrounding community will help with the squatting and drug use that has been rampant for years in this part of the neighborhood.”

Callahan explains that another facet of the mural is working with blind seniors in a program that historically produced craft art. As a local artist, he wanted to illustrate how art made by people with disabilities does not necessarily have to be craft or outsider art. The Beaded Quilt is made by blind and visually impaired people as a public art piece and as a statement about what one with disabilities can accomplish.

The mural has been touched by many people. For example, over many months, Starrly Winchester, one of the LightHouse’s long time volunteers, spent hours at home separating the more than 100,000 beads into sixty color groups. Every week she brought in more color-separated beads for the artists to work with.

Linda Fonseca, a long-time client of the LightHouse, is one of about ten clients who worked on the beaded quilt for over a year. She says that it was motivating and gave her a sense of accomplishment. Her designs were influenced by the ever-present music the artists listened to as they affixed the 150,000 beads. “Classical music brought out the clear, white and pastel colors and more subdued designs. When we were rocking out, I made more geometric designs with purples and reds.” And what about jazz and the blues? “Oh,” she says without missing a beat, “many shades of blue came into play.”

“Each square is a small reflection of the person who made it, highlighting the colorfulness and diversity of our community,” says Callahan. “The mural is not only about accomplishing my own vision as an artist, but about bringing new challenges, learning, activity and artistic growth to our programs at the LightHouse. It’s about helping Linda find an outlet for her artistic expression. It’s about helping James, who found that the project improved his skillfulness and eased his arthritis.”

Gk Callahan is a multi media and socially engaged artist in San Francisco, CA. Trained in painting at San Francisco Art Institute, earning his BFA in 2006. During his BA studies he facilitated public work under Catasta Gallery©, an alternative arts group he co-founded in 2003. 2008-2012 he set as the artist in residence at both the LightHouse for the Blind and Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy severing on both the LightHouse’s Insight Art Show board and Harvey Milk’s Comity Art board. Gk most recently joined the MFA program at the California College of the Arts in Social practice.

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