Cindy

Stiff Loops by Gerald Walburg at SF General Hospital

 Posted by on July 29, 2012
Jul 292012
 
Potrero Hill
San Francisco General Hospital
23rd and Vermont
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Stiff Loops by Gerald Walburg
6000 pounds, Corten Steel, 1974

In 2009 Stiff Loops was moved from its original site and underwent a $44,650 renovation. It was then placed at the corner of the hospital parking lot to make way for the construction of the new Trauma Center. The conservation treatments were meant to mitigate corrosion and enhance structural stability.

Gerald Walburg (1936- ) is a retired art teacher from California State University Sacramento.

From a March 3, 2004 CSUS newspaper:
Like many artists, Walburg started drawing at a very young age. He majored in art as an undergraduate at San Francisco State University. Walburg continued his studies in art as a graduate student at UC Davis.

“It was there (at Davis) that I started working large,” Walburg said. By “large” he refers to the towering 40-foot metal sculpture that stands in front of the Macy’s in the downtown mall called the Indo Arch.

As a member of the Art Department faculty, Walburg has taught graduate, lower and upper division students. He encourages his students to work hard and to come to his class without a “preconceived idea of what sculpture should be.” He urges students to “(find) your own vision to express who you are.”
His aim as an artist is to challenge both himself and his viewers. An artist who is hardly satisfied with his work, Walburg is constantly reinventing himself.

“It would be easier to stay at the same pace over and over again,” he said. He believes that people should “develop as an artist over time” rather than think about what particular style they want to display.
“It usually takes people 10 years to understand what I’m doing as an artist. By that time I’ve already moved on,” he said.

If Walburg does not succeed in challenging you through his art, there is still a chance his politics will. Like many other faculty members at Sac State, Walburg has seen many changes since 1969, when he joined the faculty.

“The level of support for the Art Department has diminished greatly,” laments Walburg. For example, in 1969 the operating expense for his sculpting class was $1,000. Today, 35 years later, he receives $600 in operating expenses to accomplish the same level of teaching. The lack of money, he said, makes it “more and more difficult to do the job.”

Within the past 20 years Walburg has seen student fees rise higher and higher. He points out that it was not always like this.

“Education was once what made California great — it is now what breaks us,” Walburg said.
When he started working, administrators came from the faculty. “They had a real connection to the education,” he explains. The administration now seems to be looking at education from more of a business standpoint. The lack of evaluation in the administration offices leaves him to conclude that the best interest of the students is no longer what is being sought.

“Money should be put back into education,” Walburg said

Madonna by Benjamin Bufano at SF General

 Posted by on July 28, 2012
Jul 282012
 
Potrero Hill
San Francisco General Hospital
1001 Potrero Avenue
Madonna by Benjamin (Beniamino) Bufano 1974

Benjamin (Benny) Bufano was a prolific artist in his time and has many pieces around San Francisco. This Madonna of Red Granite and mosaic sits on the edge of the comfort garden in San Francisco General Hospital, near building 80. The first buildings designated as San Francisco General Hospital were erected in 1872. Outbreaks of bubonic plague, the spread of tuberculosis, the earthquake of 1906, and the influenza epidemic of 1918 were all trials this hospital saw in its early years. Most of the present buildings were constructed during 1915–20. They were designed by city architect Newton Tharp in an Italianate style, laid out “with green lawns and bright flowering plants to add to the attractiveness of the structures.” Early photographs depict lawns, shrubs, paths, and palm trees between the buildings, formally designed, but — apparently — with no seats or benches to encourage use by staff or patients. The Comfort Garden is a small but well-used outdoor space in the sprawling contemporary “campus” of the hospital. It was established in June 1990 as a “living memorial” to hospital employees who had died. A name plaque in the garden, recording its inception, concludes with the words: “It is meant to be a place of solace where nature’s beauty can bring you comfort.”

San Francisco General Hospital was a subject of the New York Times scathing article about the San Francisco Public Arts Commission and it’s inability to keep track of its collection. The article pointed out that the city acquired 496 art objects for the Hospital when it was renovated in 1972 and by 2007 the commission could only find 49 pieces, by 2011 they had found 141. (There are no further updated numbers at this time)

Fortunately this one is still there and not only easy to find, but in such a delightful spot, it is a pleasure to visit.

If you would like to refresh your memory about Bufano there is a great article about his eclectic life in the Nob Hill Gazette.

Don Clever and the Peterson Caterpillar Company

 Posted by on July 27, 2012
Jul 272012
 
SOMA
943 Harrison Street
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This mural, unofficially titled Workers and Tractors, was done for the Peterson Caterpillar Company in 1948 (I have also found the year 1936 attached to this mural) by Don Clever.

Here is Mr. Clever’s obituary.

Chronicle 6/21/01:
Don Clever, by Kelly St. John, Chronicle Staff Writer

“Don Clever, a San Francisco-based designer and muralist, was born in 1916 in Champion, Alberta, Canada, Mr. Clever moved to San Francisco at age 20. Although he had no formal training beyond an eighth-grade education, he quickly found success as a muralist. His work included a mural of Moses descending Mount Sinai. The mural hangs in San Francisco’s Temple Sherith Israel.

Mr. Clever soon began to work as a designer, sketching out projects like the gold and scarlet interior of Johnny Kan’s in San Francisco.

One of Mr. Clever’s most beloved projects was Storyland, a children’s fairy park with murals and fairy creatures at Fleishhacker Playfield near the San Francisco Zoo. Mr. Clever sketched out the murals and fiberglass figures in 1960, when his own children were young.

In the decades that followed, he worked for several Japanese clients, traveling to the island nation 37 times, his wife said.

Mr. Clever’s work won numerous awards here and abroad, including a Bronze Prize in the Tokyo International Lighting Design Competition, the Governor’s Award for the Roaring ’20s building in San Francisco and the State of California Awards for designing for the state fair.”

Gene Friend Rec Center in SOMA – Tile Art

 Posted by on July 26, 2012
Jul 262012
 
SOMA
Gene Friend Rec Center
270 6th Street
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A World View by Martha Heavenston Nojima
Martha Heavenston Nojima is known for her tile work, and especially her work with children in the arts.  This particular group of tile creatures was done in 1989 and was commissioned and is owned by the San Francisco Art Commission.
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The Gene Friend Rec Center caters primarily to families of Filipino descent in the neighborhood but is open to all. Youth programs include gardening, arts and crafts, baseball, basketball, poetry. The center also hosts a School Year Latch Key and a Junior Giants program.

San Francisco’s Wave Organ

 Posted by on July 25, 2012
Jul 252012
 
Yacht Road
Marina Green
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The View towards the wave organ from Marina Green
Looking back towards downtown and Fort Mason from the Wave Organ
The Golden Gate Bridge from the Wave Organ
Palace of Fine Arts and the San Francisco Yacht Club, view from the Wave Organ
The Wave Organ is an exhibit of the Exploratorium.  It is a wave-activated acoustic sculpture developed by Peter Richards and was installed in collaboration with sculptor and master stonemason George Gonzales. Inspiration for the piece came from artist Bill Fontana’s recordings made of sounds emanating from a vent pipe of a floating concrete dock in Sydney, Australia.

In 1980, Richards (a Senior Artist at the Exploratorium for many years) received a planning grant from the National Endowment for the Arts that enabled him to conduct an extensive period of investigation into the physicality of the Wave Organ phenomenon.

The Wave Organ is located on a jetty that forms the small Boat Harbor in the Marina district of San Francisco, walking distance from the Exploratorium. The jetty itself was constructed with material taken from Laurel Hill Cemetery, providing a wonderful assortment of carved granite and marble, which was used in the construction of this piece. The installation includes 25 organ pipes made of PVC and concrete located at various elevations within the site, allowing for the rise and fall of the tides. Sound is created by the impact of waves against the pipe ends and the subsequent movement of the water in and out of the pipes. The sound heard at the site is subtle, requiring visitors to become sensitized to its music, and at the same time to the music of the environment. The Wave Organ sounds best at high tide.

Laurel Hill Cemetery also called Lone Mountain: A “who’s who” of early San Francisco occupied the guest list of the “silent city” including: Andrew Halladie, the inventor of the cable car; David Broderick, the popular US senator, who was killed in a duel at Lake Merced by the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court; James King of William, whose assassination resurrected the Vigilantes in 1856; Senators Latham, Baker, Sharon, Fair and even Napoleon’s son.

Classical marble tombs and elaborate monuments glorified the affluent departed while a more humble section was reserved for the poor. A vault in the cemetery was devoted to the Chinese, but when “the Chinese must go!” movement gathered steam in 1870s, it was “bespattered with mud and filth, battered with stones and sometimes defaced in a most irreverent manner. The animosity that people bear towards the living, seems to extend even beyond the grave.”

Until Golden Gate Park came of age, Lone Mountain Cemetery served as a park where families would picnic and young couples would promenade among the dead.

Lone Mountain Cemetery was so successful that during the 1860s three other cemeteries were developed to the south, on the slopes adjacent to Lone Mountain. To avoid confusion, it made sense that Lone Mountain Cemetery, which was not located on Lone Mountain, changed its name to Laurel Hill in 1867.    Western Neighborhood Projects

San Francisco, like many major cities, has no cemeteries within the city limits.  This was due to health considerations in the early part of the 20th century.  The history of the removal of Laurel Hill Cemetery was especially contentious, and if you are interested, there is an interesting article about its history at SF Genealogy.

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San Francisco’s Holocaust Memorial

 Posted by on July 24, 2012
Jul 242012
 
Land’s End
Legion of Honor
Holocaust Memorial by George Segal

Time has taken its’ toll on this memorial.  The hand on the man above was not to touch the wire as they were electrified.

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This memorial shows ten figures sprawled, recalling post-war photographs of the camps.  Placement of this work was controversial.  The choice to look over such a truly beautiful landscape recalling death in a rather graphic way was not acceptable to many.  The artist however, insisted that the viewer might consider death while facing towards the monument and life while facing towards the Golden Gate.
Segal’s work is executed in bronze and painted white. It has been the subject of grafitti, but Segal mentioned, at a 1998 conference at Notre Dame University, that he did not find this a problem since grafitti was a reminder that problems of prejudice have not been solved.
Segal’s ensemble of bodies is not random. One can find a “Christ-like” figure in the assemblage, reflecting on the Jewishness of Jesus, as well as a woman holding an apple, a reflection on the idea of original sin and the biblical connection between Jews and Christians, and raising the question of this relationship during the Holocaust.
The essential figure of the man standing at the fence is probably derived from Margaret Bourke-White’s famous Life Magazine 1945 photograph of the liberation of Buchenwald.
Another plaster version of Segal’s “The Holocaust” can be found at The Jewish Museum in New York.
George Segal (November 26, 1924 – June 9, 2000) was an American painter and sculptor associated with the Pop Art movement. He was presented with a National Medal of Arts in 1999.
Although Segal started his art career as a painter, his best known works are cast lifesize figures and the tableaux the figures inhabited. In place of traditional casting techniques, Segal pioneered the use of plaster bandages (plaster-impregnated gauze strips designed for making orthopedic casts) as a sculptural medium. In this process, he first wrapped a model with bandages in sections, then removed the hardened forms and put them back together with more plaster to form a hollow shell. These forms were not used as molds; the shell itself became the final sculpture, including the rough texture of the bandages. Initially, Segal kept the sculptures stark white, but a few years later he began painting them, usually in bright monochrome colors. Eventually he started having the final forms cast in bronze, sometimes patinated white to resemble the original plaster.
I am a very big fan of Segal’s work being moved to tears while standing in front of his “Bread Line” sculpture at the FDR Memorial in Washington D.C..

While these are at the Johnson Atelier. Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ so the background is different they are the same figures as the FDR Memorial.

Mural Projects in the Tenderloin

 Posted by on July 23, 2012
Jul 232012
 
The Tenderloin
126 Hyde Street
 This group was shot on May 6, 2012
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True Compassion by Evan Bissell

This temporary mural was created through twelve workshops with local artists about the nature of compassion. The double portraits depict the artists interacting with themselves in a compassionate gesture of their choosing. The portraits will be left untreated and then washed away before a new one is painted each Thursday in chalk pastel by the artist Evan Bissell.

The participants of the workshop painted the medallions that frame the installation. The symbols contrast with the background drawings that represent challenges to our ability to be compassionate on a personal level as as a society.

The mural is made possible by the Intersection for the Arts, Larkin Street Youth Services and the Tenderloin Housing Clinic.

Bissell is a 2005 graduate of Wesleyan University with a double major in Painting and American Studies with an Ethnic Studies concentration. He was trained in 2011 as a circle keeper by Sujatha Baliga.

Sujatha Baliga’s work is characterized by an equal dedication to victims and persons accused of crime. Sujatha has worked extensively with victims of domestic violence and child sexual abuse as an advocate and board member for rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters. The convergence of Sujatha’s interest in Tibetan ideals of justice and her work with women accused of killing their abusers drew her to law school and ultimately, criminal defense work. After several years as an appellate public defender in New Mexico and at the Office of the Appellate Defender in New York City, Sujatha relocated to California in 2006 to work on capital cases.

Heads by Jun Kaneko, San Francisco Civic Center

 Posted by on July 22, 2012
Jul 222012
 
Civic Center
301 Van Ness
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Heads by Jun Kaneko

This is a temporary installation in front of the San Francisco Opera House

This is the press release that accompanied the installation of these heads:

“The San Francisco Arts Commission announced Rena Bransten Gallery’s installation of two 6-foot ceramic heads by acclaimed artist Jun Kaneko in front of the War Memorial Opera House on Van Ness Avenue.

 This temporary public art installation coincides with the premiere of Kaneko’s production design of Mozart’s The Magic Flute at San Francisco Opera opening on June 13. Kaneko’s
 HEADS will be on view through November 2012. 

 “This installation is a wonderful example of how public and private entities can work together to enhance the urban environment through the arts,” said Director of Cultural Affairs Tom DeCaigny…

 Designed to complement one another, the two ceramic heads were installed facing each other at the bottom of the War Memorial Opera House’s front steps. The faces of the sculptures, one painted a bright primary yellow and the other red and featureless, emerge from a playful pattern of black and white polka-dots. Kaneko first created pairings of HEADS in 1994 in his studio emerging from his curiosity about eastern philosophy and exploring the additional layer of visual dialogue the human figure brings to his creative discourse and continues to explore this sculptural form in greater scale and other mediums. “Jun Kaneko’s public space projects engage and surprise with monumental scale and vivid glazing. He is perhaps the only artist I can think of to hand make and hand glaze objects of this magnitude…

 Kaneko has always worked in a variety of media including ceramics, painting, printmaking, drawing, bronze and glass. He often invokes the concept of “ma” in his work, a 2,000-year-old Japanese word that describes a space or distance between thoughts, things, sounds and actions, or the conscious moment between thought and action. Like musical notes, two marks on paper derive meaning from the space between them. One sees the influence of “ma” in Kaneko’s San Francisco installation. The artist carefully chose the location and the proximity of the sculptures to each other and the building. “

 Born in Nagoya, Japan in 1942, Kaneko is an internationally renowned artist acclaimed for his pioneering work in ceramics. His artwork appears in numerous international and national solo and group exhibitions annually, and is included in more than 70 museum collections. He has realized over 40 public art commissions in the United States and Japan and is the recipient of national, state and organization fellowships and honorary doctorates. San Francisco is the proud owner of two Kaneko sculptures, which are located at San Francisco International Airport, Terminal 1. 

 

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These pieces have been removed from this location as of 12/12

Mitchell Brothers Theater Mural

 Posted by on July 21, 2012
Jul 212012
 
Corner of O’Farrell and Polk
The Tenderloin
This sweet and rather innocuous mural is on the side of Mitchell Brothers Theater. The Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theatre is an adult club, opened as an X-rated movie theater by Jim and Artie Mitchell on July 4, 1969, the O’Farrell remains one of America’s oldest and most notorious adult-entertainment establishments; by 1980, the nightspot had become a major force in popularizing close-contact lap dancing, which would become the norm in striptease clubs nationwide. The late journalist Hunter S. Thompson, a longtime friend of the Mitchells and frequent visitor at the club, claimed to be its night manager in 1985. He called the O’Farrell “the Carnegie Hall of public sex in America” and Playboy magazine praised it as “the place to go in San Francisco!”

The Mitchell brothers opened the O’Farrell as an adult cinema on the site of a former two-story Pontiac car dealership. Upstairs they produced and directed the pornographic films they showed downstairs.

In February 1991, the theater entered the news after Jim Mitchell fatally shot Artie. Michael Kennedy defended Jim Mitchell and convinced the jury that Jim killed Artie because the latter was psychotic from drugs and had become dangerous. Jim Mitchell was sentenced to six years in prison for voluntary manslaughter and released from San Quentin in 1997, after having served half his sentence.

This original mural was painted in 1977 (Lou Silva with Ed Monroe, Daniel Burgevin, Todd Stanton, and Gary William Graham), 1983 (Lou Silva-solo), and 1990 by Lou Silva with the assistance of Joanne Maxwell Wittenbrook, Ed Monroe, Mark Nathan Clark, and Juan “Blackwolf” Karlos.

Notable visitors, while the murals were in progress, included: Melvin Belli, Marilyn Chambers, Paul Kantner of Jefferson Starship, Japanese film star Toshiro Mifune, Huey P. Newton, Hunter S. Thompson, and American actress Edy Williams.

The murals were sponsored in their entirety by Jim and Artie Mitchell.

The mural was repainted in April/May of 2012. This time the artists were John Wentz, Matt Robertson, Mike Poland, Lindsey Millikan, Craig Gillooly, Hana Ihaya, Jaqueline Moore, Janet Song, Wythe Bowarty, Karina Svalya, Emilio Villalba, Maurice Sampson, Jeremy Eaton and Joevic Yeban.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Qi Lun in Little Saigon, San Francisco

 Posted by on July 20, 2012
Jul 202012
 
Little Saigon
The Tenderloin
Qi Lun by Walter Wong – Marble and Granite 2008

These dragons mark the entrance to a two-block corridor of Larkin Street between Eddy and O’Farrell officially declared Little Saigon in 2004.

There are about 250 Vietnamese American-owned businesses in the Tenderloin and eighty percent of the
businesses on the two blocks of Larkin are owned by Vietnamese Americans

The two granite and marble pillars serve as a symbol of peace, happiness and safety for the Vietnamese that have settled here. Most were refugees fleeing persecution by the Communist government after the 1975 war.

Designed by Walter Wong, the pillars weigh eight tons each and are topped by statues of Qi Lun, mythical creatures that are said to bring peace and prosperity.

“Some people wanted our symbol to be a boat to reflect the refugee experience, but this is a business district,” said Tuongvi Tran, who worked with the project for three years and is the executive director of the Vietnamese Elderly Mutual Assistance Association of San Francisco. “The Qi Lun will bring luck and help (the district) grow.”

The project, which took six years to coordinate, was challenged by an initially nonexistent budget. It was only after the Clean City Coalition granted $76,000 of the $108,000 needed for construction to begin that the ball got rolling. Community fundraising covered the rest of the expenses.

 

 

Miguel Hidalgo in Mission Dolores Park

 Posted by on July 19, 2012
Jul 192012
 
 Mission Dolores Park
The Mission
Miguel Hidalgo – Liberator of Mexico 1810

On the back in the marble is carved:

Monument Presented by
The Mexican Colony
To the City of San Francisco
September 16th, 1962

Below it is a brass plaque that reads

Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla
Father of Mexican Independence
1753-1811
The liberation of Mexico after 300 years of domination by Spain started on September 16, 1810
in the town of Dolores in what is now the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla a priest and other patriots, among whom were Juan Aldama and Ignacio Allende, were at first successful but eventually Miguel Hidalgo was captured and executed. The war continued until its final victory in 1821 under the leadership of Vicente Guerrero and Agustin de Itrubide.
This monument by Juan F. Olaguibel was cast in bronze in Mexico and presented to the City of San Francisco by the Mexican Community September 16, 1963.
Father Hidalgo, who gave his El Grito battle cry in the city of Dolores, Mexico, was executed by Spanish troops before Mexico gained independence. The anniversary is celebrated in Mexico with decorations, and Mexico’s president rings the bell of independence.
“He’s the equivalent of your Abraham Lincoln,” said Mexican Consul General Alfonso de Maria y Campos, who attended the ceremony along with San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who has helped efforts to refurbish the park.
The 43-year-old bronze statue of Hidalgo and the rest of the 13.5-acre park underwent a yearlong restoration to remove garbage and years of graffiti, with $30,000 from the city and $5,000 in donations raised by the Mexican Consulate. Trees were planted, flower beds restored and the statue scrubbed free of paint and pigeon droppings.
Juan Olaguibel 1896-1976 is responsible for one of my favorite public sculptures in Mexico City The Northern Star Shooter also called Diana the Huntress.
Mission Dolores Park is  a 13.7 acre park in the city of San Francisco.  It is undergoing a $13.2 million renovation scheduled to be completed in 2014.

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Liberty Bell of Mission Dolores Park

 Posted by on July 18, 2012
Jul 182012
 
Mission Dolores Park
The Mission
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Mexico’s Liberty Bell
(A Replica)

On the early morning of Sunday September 16th a.d. 1810, Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla rang the bell of his church in the town of Dolores, in the now state of Guanajuato calling the people to mass and to bear arms against the Spanish yoke of 300 years. The original bell stands now above the central balcony of the National Palace in the City of Mexico where the president rings it at exactly eleven o’clock in the evening of each September 16th in a traditional ceremony called “El Grito” – The “Cry” of Independence

Plaza and monument presented to the City of San Francisco by Lic. Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, President of the United Mexican States September 16th 1966

On May 17th, 2009 the San Francisco Chronicle ran this interesting article:

This seems like heresy, given the apartment prices around Dolores Park, but that gloriously hip plot of land connecting the Mission District to the Castro neighborhood was once deemed “cheap” enough to house the dead. According to Charles Fracchia, president emeritus of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, when Dolores Park (then Mission Dolores) was purchased by Congregation Sherith Israel for a Jewish cemetery in 1861, the area was “well out of town.” “There were virtually no residences in around the park,” he said.

Like the 15 to 20 other cemeteries in San Francisco, the graves were moved when property values got too high to justify burial grounds. (Parking lots, on the other hand …) After the city of San Francisco bought the land for nearly $300,000 in 1905, Dolores Park was briefly a refugee territory for people stranded by the 1906 earthquake and the accompanying fires.

Nowadays, the park has become the place to enjoy a sunny afternoon in the Mission. As the wide variety of park visitors indicates – from Latino families to young hipsters to Castro gays – it sits at the intersection of a number of San Francisco demographic groups. And it always has. Fracchia says that even while the park’s two statues – one the Mexican liberty bell and the other of Miguel Hidalgo, the George Washington of Mexico – speak to the Latin American heritage of the area, the immediate environs were a haven for the Irish community for much of the first half of the 20th century. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

California Volunteers Memorial on Market Street

 Posted by on July 17, 2012
Jul 172012
 
Market Street at Dolores
Mission/Castro
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California Volunteers by Douglas Tilden – Bronze on a granite base
Dedicated August 12, 1906
Erected by the Citizens of San Francisco
In Honor Of
The California Volunteers
Spanish American War
1898
First to The Front
At the end of the Spanish-American War, when the troops returned, San Franciscans went wild. Sixty-five thousand dollars was raised, $25,000 of which was allocated for a memorial. Douglas Tilden won the national competition. California Volunteers, a bronze work sixteen feet high and ten feet long mounted atop a granite base ten feet high, stands at the corner of Market and Dolores Streets. The monument shows an American soldier, with pointed gun in one hand and a sword in the other, standing over a fallen comrade, a cannon nearby. Above them the goddess of war, Bellona, is astride the winged horse Pegasus.
This sculpture originally sat at the corner of Van Ness and Market but as the city of San Francisco grew, the sculpture had to be moved from its original location. In 1917 it was moved about eleven feet and in 1925 it was moved from Van Ness and Market Streets to Market and Dolores Streets.
It is maintained by the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Tilden remained a recluse for most of his life and died in 1935. In 1987, many of Tilden’s personal artworks were discovered in an abandoned storage facility.

American Indian Occupation in the Tenderloin

 Posted by on July 16, 2012
Jul 162012
 
The Tenderloin/Polk Gulch
Austin at Polk
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American Indian Occupation by Jaque Fragua and Spencer Keaton Cunningham
Jaque Fragua is an acclaimed multi-media artist from New Mexico. From his cultural background, he has developed a yearning for creativity and for the intrinsic process that is Art. Experimenting with various mediums, such as aerosol, found-objects, earthworks, poetry, & music, messages of civil unrest, social justice, emotional introspection, and personal healing have heartened his unique perspective on life through art. Fragua has studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and in turn, has taught many community-based workshops, such as mural projects/public-art studies, and studio classes for figure drawing & painting. Fragua has worked with fine establishments such as Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Institute of American Indian Arts, & Museum of Indian Arts & Culture to produce progressive/innovative exhibits concerning the plight of Native America.
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 as ROA and Ben Eine.

Earth Air and Sea on the Great Highway

 Posted by on July 15, 2012
Jul 152012
 
Ocean Beach
Sloat and The Great Highway
West Side Pump Station
Earth Air Sea – 1986 – by Mary Fuller
Mary Fuller, along with her husband Robert McChesney, has been in this site before.

Mary Fuller McChesney, a California sculptor, has been carving “giant totems and goddesses” for nearly 50 years. Her artwork embodies numerous sources – Native American, Pre-Columbian, African, ancient matriarchal cultures – and like the sacred totems of the Pacific Northwest coastal tribes, honors her ancestral ties to family, both animal and human. Her art is shared and openly accessible, as public commissions have ensured that it is visible to a wide audience.

Earth – Air – Sea is sited in close proximity to the ocean and the San Francisco Zoo, and like many of Fuller’s works,the animal figures (in this case a lion, bird, and fish) were chosen to relate to their environment and engage a broad audience.

Born in 1922, Fuller has lived in California all but the first two years of her life. She studied philosophy at Berkeley, and discovered she loved to work with metal and stone while welding in a Richmond, California shipyard during World War II. In 1949 she married Robert McChesney, and much of her writing, including the book A Period of Exploration: San Francisco 1945-1950 (which has been called “one of the key documentary works in the field of modern California art history”) has been published under the Mary Fuller McChesney name.

An ardent feminist who makes art that is consciously “anti-patriarchal,” Fuller found that in the 1950’s, women artists, as well as west coast artists, were not taken seriously. More recently she has said that “women artists [. . .] are often viewed as eccentrics, or perhaps merely quaint, or worse, plain uninteresting, depending upon husbands to support them, and painting privately for themselves.”

Earth Air Sea was commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission for the San Francisco Clean Water Program.

16th and Mission Bart Station

 Posted by on July 14, 2012
Jul 142012
 
The Mission
16th and Mission
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 Palaza del Colibri by Victor Mario Zaballa 2003
Lawrence Berk – Metal Fabricator

Colibri are hummingbirds. They are a medium to large species found in Mexico, and Central and northern South America.

16th Street Mission Station is a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station in the Mission District. It is used by the Richmond–Millbrae line, the Pittsburg/Bay Point – SFO line, the Fremont – Daly City line, and the Dublin/Pleasanton – Daly City line. It is an underground station.

This particular intersection of San Francisco is one of the most crowded and interesting places to visit.  It is not the safest or the cleanest, but you will truly find people from every walk of life, dressed in every imaginable outfit, carrying odd things, playing instruments, selling legal and illegal items, and sometimes just hanging out and catching some sunshine.

Victor Zaballa has other metal work in San Francisco. A prolific and fascinating artist Victor Zaballa is an Aztec originally trained in aeronautical engineering in Mexico City. He has lived and worked in San Francisco for a number of years where he is a popular and respected member of the artist community. He works in every medium including cut paper, painting, tile, steel, wood, and wire sculpture, puppet theater, and music composition, performance and musical instrument invention and construction. His performing group “Obsidian Songs,” has been heard in numerous venues throughout California.  He has had a kidney transplant and is a very loud voice in the Latina community for organ donation and education.

On May 17th 2003 the Plaza was dedicated to Victor Miller (1948-2002) “Founder and publisher of the New Mission New, the voice of the Inner Mission for over 20 years. Victor was a tireless advocate and watchdog for the community whose vision and journalistic skills provided the most perceptive and trustworthy observations of the Mission Neighborhood.”

New Mission News
Comforting the Afflicted and Affecting the Comfortable since 1980

 

Joan of Arc at the Palace of the Legion of Honor

 Posted by on July 13, 2012
Jul 132012
 
Lands End
Legion of Honor
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Joan of Arc by Anna Huntington
Joan of Arc, nicknamed “The Maid of Orléans” is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years’ War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the Burgundians, transferred to the English for money, put on trial by the pro-English Bishop of Beauvais, and burned at the stake when she was 19 years old.
Anna Huntington has been on this site before.  This piece was one of her earliest public works, exhibited at the Salon of 1910 in Paris. Several replicas were made, and the statue won Anna the Legion of Honor from the French government. In 1927.

Dogie Diner Sign

 Posted by on July 12, 2012
Jul 122012
 
Ocean View
45th Avenue and Sloat near The Great Highway
Restored Dogie Diner Sign
The Doggie Diner (1949-1986) restaurants could be seen throughout the Bay Area during their heyday.
Mr. Al Ross, the Doggie Diner Chain’s owner asked Harold Bachman an ad and billboard layout designer, to draw up designs for the sign, it is said that the bow tie was added by Mr. Ross.
Three of Doggie Diner’s heads took a road trip to New York in 2003, courtesy of Laughing Squid and SF Cyclecide Bike Rodeo, and that experience was immortalized in a documentary called Head Trip.
According to Mr. Ross’s obituary, his family came to Alameda when he was in his early 20s and started an ice cream business called White Castle. He and his mother, Rose Rosenbluth, ran the business together. He eventually began rolling a pushcart around San Francisco’s Embarcadero, selling ice cream to ship workers.
Mr. Ross took note of all the hubbub on Oakland’s San Pablo Avenue during the war and decided a restaurant featuring “wiener dogs” would do well there. The Doggie Diner that opened on 19th and San Pablo Avenue in 1948 was an instant hit.
This is the last Doggie Diner head that’s permanently viewable to the public.  After a $25,000 restoration, the sign was declared a San Francisco Landmark on August 11th, 2006.
The Doggie Diner dogs even have their ownwebsite.

Sometimes you can see the other Dogies around town

 

 

Money Mural on South Van Ness and 15th

 Posted by on July 11, 2012
Jul 112012
 
The Mission
South Van Ness and 15th
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Signed Curve E. Pastime, one must assume this was done by Pastime of the LORDS crew.

 

Pastime has other work in San Francisco. LORDS Production Crew has been operating in San Francisco for almost two decades, manipulating the stark walls of the urban landscape to make the wasteland a tad more livable for those of us lucky enough to notice and appreciate their nocturnal artwork. For example, the wall across from Amoeba Records on Haight is one of their collaborative murals, generally referred to as “productions” in graffiti lingo. LORDS members have been featured in the documentary ‘Piece By Piece’ (chronicling 20 years of SF graffiti), as well as the independent feature film ‘Quality of Life’ (a fictional drama about SF graffiti writers). – Graffhead

Generator by Andrew Schoultz and Aaron Noble

 Posted by on July 10, 2012
Jul 102012
 
The Mission
18th and Lexington
Generator by Andrew Schoultz and Aaron Noble

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This description of the mural is from an absolutely amazing, September 1, 2004, article in the SF Weekly by Sam Chennault.  It not only gives a wonderful description of the two artists, but chronicles their artistic life.  More importantly, Chennault addresses the various concerns many people have about street art.  Please take the time to give it a read.

The mural’s central images are two large birdhouses that haphazardly spiral into each other. Smaller structures jut from the two main houses, and groups of smaller houses and buildings sprout from the larger birdhouse’s various orifices. Some of Schoultz’s blue birds, wearing exasperated expressions, can be seen fleeing the structures. Some of the birds have long sticks tied to their necks; the sticks dangle dollar bills in front of their faces, ever out of reach.

To the right of this chaotic scene, Noble’s taut creatures — collages of comic-book characters reassembled as clusters of muscle and prosthetic weaponry — loom over the proceedings, while wires protrude from generators above them and into Schoultz’s scene. Just as Schoultz’s world is defined by its intricate imperfections and chaos, Noble’s creatures are studies in abstraction and exactness. When taken as a whole, Noble’s images refer to nothing outside of themselves and serve no apparent function, but the cold precision of his lines suggests technological functionality, which acts as a nice counterpoint to Schoultz’s industrial disarray.

The mural was recently featured on the cover of the hipster journal Alarm Magazine and provides an important landmark for an area of the Mission District. “It’s incredibly striking,” says Kevin B. Chen, program director for the visual arts at Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco’s oldest alternative art space, which is known for presenting new and experimental work. “Most people walking down 18th do a double take at first. Just the colors catch your eye, and then you realize that it runs the length of that entire building.”

Aaron Noble
Inspired by comic book imagery, Aaron Noble’s wall paintings incorporate superhero body parts morphed, stretched, and free floating in a ‘negative space’ landscape. He is well-known in San Francisco for his earlier WPA-styled outdoor murals depicting the city’s labor history. Now his interests involve contemporary popular street culture and Western comic art.

Andrew Schoultz
Art is an uncontrollable passion and obsession. After many travels around the United States for such things as skateboarding and graffiti art, I found a home in San Francisco in 1997, and among other things, a great community to exist in and make art. The past nine years have brought me the development of a repertoire of iconic images. Through murals, paintings, installations, and drawings, I have used these images to tell stories about everyday life in America, filtering political commentary through the forms of graffiti art and underground comics, fused with clipart from the early 1900’s and medieval renderings that chart the history of man and nature. The relationship between man and nature has been a re-occurring theme in my work, and also the effects of globalism and capitalism on the world. Although heavily interested in showing work and doing large multi-media installations in the gallery and museum setting, I have spent a tremendous amount of time doing murals and various work in the streets of America and abroad. I have an intense interest in painting large-scale imagery on walls in the public space, that address and inform the very diverse audience of the general public, including children, about current social and political issues.

Sama Sama, means You’re Welcome in Indonesian.
The “Ellis Act” is a California State law which says that landlords have the unconditional right to evict tenants to “go out of business.” For an Ellis eviction, the landlord must remove all of the units in the building from the rental market, i.e., the landlord must evict all the tenants and can not single out one tenant (with low rent) and/or remove just one unit from the rental market. When a landlord invokes the Ellis Act, the apartments can not be re-rented, except at the same rent the evicted tenant was paying, for five years following the evictions, While there are restrictions on ever re-renting the units, there are no such restrictions on converting them to ownership units
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A Ross – Ziegler Collaboration

 Posted by on July 9, 2012
Jul 092012
 

435 Duboce
Duboce Triangle/ Lower Haight

Ian Ross and Zio Ziegler

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After these two worked together on a juxtaposed mural South of Market, it was an obvious step to combine forces.  The result is truly fabulous.  Obviously a temporary installation while construction is occurring behind this, but you have to love the person that decided this was a far better way to protect his construction site from trespassers than the standard metal gate.

The client is Doorman Property Management, they are the property managers for this mixed-use project of storefront and six residences. (scheduled to open in 2013)

Apparently there are also pieces of promotion in the mural as well.  Close inspection by Haighteration discovered these:

“GARAGE FEATURES CHARGING STATIONS FOR ELECTRIC + HYBRID VEHICLES”
“ALL INTERIOR WALLS ARE CONSTRUCTED WITH QUIETROCK ACOUSTICAL SOUNDBOARD”
“DETAILED WITH FLOOR TO CEILING WESTERN WINDOW & DOOR SYSTEMS COVETED BY MANY AS A MANUFACTURING MARVEL”
“UNPARALLELED ACCESS TO TRANSIT AND PARKS”
“INTEGRATED SMART HOME AUTOMATION & CONTROL SYSTEMS”
Thank you Doorman Property Managers for giving art to Duboce Street in such a fabulous and unique way.

 

Jon Krawcyzk in SOMA

 Posted by on July 8, 2012
Jul 082012
 
SOMA
303 2nd Street
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Jon Krawczyk’s new sculpture sits in the public space of 303 2nd Street . It is a central part of a recent redesign by Gensler and landscape architects Smith + Smith for owner Kilroy Realty.

Krawczyk’s steel and bronze sculptures divulge organic gestures that are the antithesis of the material. According to a correspondent for Art in America, his sensual and timeless works “elicit similarly tactile responses” from his viewers.

A graduate from Connecticut College, Krawczyk has studied fine art throughout Europe. Krawczyk’s sculptures have been exhibited in galleries and public arenas across the nation, and are part of several private international collections.

Krawczyk works on many scales, but this massive piece is truly impressive and gorgeous, his love for organic shapes shines in this piece.

Roald Amundsen at the Beach Chalet

 Posted by on July 7, 2012
Jul 072012
 
Land’s End
Beach Chalet

1000 The Great Highway

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This memorial sits in the parking lot of the Beach Chalet, it has been there since 1930. It marks where Amundsen’s ship, the Gjoa (pronounced “Joe”) was in dry-dock. It had been pulled ashore here in 1909, and placed on dry-dock display. Amundsen donated the ship and the Norweigan community took up a collection to display the ship in the park. Unfortunately, the ship had a rough time and had fallen into disrepair by the 1930s due to vandalism and the elements. The Gjoa Foundation was formed in 1940 to restore her but was thwarted by the outbreak of WWII. A restoration took place in 1949, but a sever gale in 1960 toppled the uppermost part of the mast, and by 1970, years of neglect had taken their toll. In 1972 she was hauled to Pier 48, loaded on a freighter and sent to Oslo, Norway, where she was lovingly resorted and draws thousands of visitors a year.

Roald Amundsen was one of the world’s most important explorers. Between 1903 and 1906 his crew were the first to navigate successfully the Northwest passage, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Along the way Amundsen’s expedition had determined the position of the Magnetic North Pole. And the epic adventure was completed when his 69-foot sailing ship entered San Francisco in 1906. Its arrival was greeted with great celebration and acclaim.

Amundsen later became the first to reach the South Pole, in a larger ship, the Fram, and he was quite a successful lecturer and writer. His scientific contributions and adventures are graphically recounted in such books as the North West Passage (1908), The South Pole (1912), The North East Passage (1918 -1920), Our Polar Flight (1925), First Crossing of the Polar Sea (1927), and My Life As An Explorer (1927) It’s the Northwest Passage journey of the Gjoa, however, that connects Amundsen to San Francisco.

The sculptor was Hans Jauchen, born in Hamburg, Germany of Danish parents who were famous artists themselves. He immigrated to the US in 1910 and began teaching at Stanford, UC Berkeley and other institutions. His studio – Ye Olde Copper Shop – on Sutter street, provided sculpture services, and ornamental bronze and iron works. One of his most notable works is an altar depicting scenes in the life of Christ, commissioned by financier J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr. for his London home.

Beach Chalet Murals Part III

 Posted by on July 6, 2012
Jul 062012
 
Land’s End
The Beach Chalet – Part III
1000 The Great Highway

Lucien Labaudt’s Beach Chalet murals: John McLaren (G.G. Park Superintendent) in left foreground on bench, with Jack Spring (later General Manager of Parks and Rec Dept.) holding redwood tree’s root ball, while behind on horseback (upper right corner) sit sculptor Benny Bufano and Joseph Danysh, then head of California Federal Art Project.

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Labaudt, following the precedent set by many of his era’s fellow artists to include other artists, depicts here Gottardo Piazzoni, a Swiss-Italian muralist who worked in San Francisco during the first two decades of the 20th century.

There are a few monochrome murals under the stairway they are also by Labaudt.

Beach Chalet Murals – Part II

 Posted by on July 5, 2012
Jul 052012
 
Land’s End
The Beach Chalet Part II
1000 The Great Highway
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It was common for WPA muralists to place people they knew or people of note in their work.  Here Lucien Labaudt inserts Arthur Brown Jr.. Brown was the Architect of City Hall (shown over his left shoulder) and architect of Coit Tower, where Labaudt worked as well.

A few scenes from around San Francisco including Japantown.

Beach Chalet Murals

 Posted by on July 4, 2012
Jul 042012
 
Land’s End
The Beach Chalet – Part I
1000 Great Highway

The Beach Chalet has its own fascinating history. This is however, about the WPA work found at the Beach Chalet.

 

 Port Scene by Lucien Labaut -Beach Chalet Murals
Fisherman’s Wharf
A peaceful beach scene that incorporates some of Labaudt’s friends and family.

 

All the murals in the Beach Chalet were done by one artist, Lucien Labaudt. Born in France, he came to the United States in the early 1900s. He was an accomplished dress designer to the rich and famous of San Francisco High Society. He is responsible for decorating the curved walls in Coit Tower with frescoes (these frescoes are not available for public viewing). In 1936 he painted Advancement of Learning throughout the Printing Press, a fresco at George Washington High School. When asked about the limitations WPA art often came under he wrote “limitation forces one to think and therefore to create…Far from destroying the artist’s individuality, these limitations give him something to fight for. He must solve a problem. ” Labaudt died in a plane crash over Burma in 1943, on assignment to do war sketches for Life Magazine.

“San Francisco Life” is the title of the frescoes covering three walls of the first floor of the Beach Chalet. The mural depicts four San Francisco tourist locales: the beach, Golden Gate Park, Fisherman’s Wharf, and the Marina. Recognizable figures of the time from the arts and politics are shown in the mural scenes, engaging in leisure activities. Since Labaudt painted the mural in 1936-37, during the Great Depression, such leisure would have actually been out of reach for most people. Showing high-profile figures, including WPA administrators, enjoying their leisure time, was most probably a political comment on the inequalities of the times.

Pacific Bird

 Posted by on July 3, 2012
Jul 032012
 
Golden Gateway
Embarcadero/Financial District
551 Battery Street
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Pacific Bird by Seymour Lipton  1961

Seymour Lipton (1903-1986) was an American abstract expressionist sculptor. He was a member of the New York School who gained widespread recognition in the 1950s. Lipton was interested in art as an adolescent. Although his high school teachers wanted Lipton to pursue art, his parents encouraged him in his decision to study electrical engineering at the Brooklyn Polytechnical Institute and later to pursue a course of study in the liberal arts at New York’s City College. After college, Lipton continued his education in the field of dentistry. In 1927, Lipton graduated from Columbia University’s dental school and shortly thereafter established a successful practice in his native New York City.

His early choices of medium changed from wood to lead and then to bronze, and he is best known for his work in metal. He made several technical innovations, including brazing nickel-silver rods onto sheets of Monel to create rust resistant forms.

Much of his art addresses the themes of flight, nature and war.

This piece, nickel-silver on monel metal, was commissioned by Golden Gateway Commons, for their public space.

Ian Ross – SOMA

 Posted by on July 2, 2012
Jul 022012
 
SOMA
870 Harrison
Juxtaposed with Zio Zieglers black and white mural at 870 Harrison street is this vibrant mural by Ian Ross.
  paints energy. In front of an audience on stage, in his lush backyard studio, or in the warehouse at Facebook HQ, his work is alive. Ross works “without the burden of intention” and reacts to each moment with bold graffiti inspired forms and colors. Ross has developed his unique style for 20 years and takes great pride in his spontaneous method. His street art style has become widely accepted and revered in a fine art realm. He has become known as the “Tech/Start-up Artist” painting live murals in high tech offices for Companies like Facebook, Google, Vendini, Alphaboost, AdRoll and Zimride.

 

 

 

Love in The Lower Haight Part III

 Posted by on June 30, 2012
Jun 302012
 
Lower Haight

Love in the Lower Haight

Continuing with our Love in the Lower Haight Series.  These are murals added since the first post early in 2011.
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Jeremy Nova – Great Spirits Have Always Encountered Violent Opposition From Mediocre Minds – Einstein
 Jeremy Nova is best known for his stenciled koi fish on the sidewalks, often on top of graffiti tags, to “beautify the area.” There are now more than 2,000 of his koi throughout the city, including commissioned ones at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Quan Yin Meditation Center, Cafe Flore and the hair salon Every Six Weeks.
Artist Unknown


 

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