Cindy

Civic Center – Pioneer Monument

 Posted by on January 27, 2012
Jan 272012
 
Civic Center
San Francisco’s Pioneer Monument, created by F.H. Happersberger was dedicated to The City by James Lick in 1894. Previously located at Marshall Square, near the intersection of Hyde and Grove, it marked the site of the Old City Hall, destroyed by fire in the earthquake of 1906. During the renovation of the new San Francisco Library there were plans to relocate it, preservationists opposed this relocation, wishing to retain the marker as the last tie to the vanished city hall. It now sits between the new Asian Art Museum and the new San Francisco Library.

Native Americans opposed the move for a different reason: its demeaning portrayal of native peoples. The Victorian monument, an elaborate series of cast iron figures and bas-reliefs, commemorates the early settlers of California. On a central pedestal, Eureka stands with her shield, 30 feet in the air, in front of the State bear. Around the pedestal’s circumference are inscribed the names of the founders: Lick, Fremont, Drake, Serra, Sutter — stretching from 1648 to 1850.

On four lower pedestals, arranged around the column, are life-size and larger figures from California history. Two classically draped goddesses on opposite pedestals represent Agriculture and Commerce, one with a cornucopia and the other, an oar symbolizing the shipping trade. At the other two points are “’49” — a trio of prospectors panning for gold — and “Early Days,” a triumvirate of Mexican vaquero, Franciscan padre, and submissively seated Indian.

 

 

There is an interesting article on the Albion Monitor regarding the controversy of this monument.

F.H. Happersberger (1885-1915), his studio was located at 51 Park Avenue in San Francisco.

Happersberger was the  son of a Bavarian immigrant pioneer, he was born in Placer County, CA, in 1859. His father, Frank Happersberger, Sr., came west from New York to participate in the Gold Rush. Frank, Jr., spent his youth in San Francisco, and first worked as a wood-carver for the San Francisco firm of Kemp and Hoffman. Happersberger received an eight-year education at a German royal art academy. While still in Europe, he made a successful entry in a competition for a life-size statue of the assassinated President Garfield to be placed in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. He returned to San Francisco, the Garfield statue was unveiled triumphantly and from that point, Happersberger was established as a sculptor skilled with the media of marble and bronze.

 

Civic Center – Simon Bolivar

 Posted by on January 26, 2012
Jan 262012
 
Civic Center
 Simon Bolivar
a 1984 “Gift from Venezuela to the People of San Francisco.”

Simón Bolívar, was a Venezuelan military and political leader. Together with José de San Martín, he played a key role in Hispanic-Spanish America’s successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire, and is today considered one of the most influential politicians in Latin American history.

 “With the passing of time your glory shall by exalted like the boundless shade of the setting sun”
Choquehuanca
Simon Bolivar, the liberator, was born in Caracas, Venezuela on July 24, 1783 and died in Santa Marta Columbia, on December 17, 1830.  His remains were returned to Caracas on December  17, 1842 for re-interment in the national pantheon.
The names of all the countries Bolivar liberated.
Simon Bolivar
Liberator of: Columbia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Venezuela and founder of Bolivia
He led the victorious army from Caracas to Potosi engagin in the conclusive battles
Boyaca, August 7, 1819
Carabob, June 24, 1821
Pichincha, May 24, 1822
Junin, August 6, 1824
Ayacucho, December 9, 1824

The President of Venezuela Dr Jaimie Lusinchi dedicated this monument on December 6, 1984.

This is a copy of a sculpture done by Adamo Tadolina in the 19th century. (The original is in Plaza del la Constitucion in Lima, Peru)  It was cast by Victor Hugo Barrenchea-Villega. Miriam Gandica Mora was the engineer for the base. It is owned by the City of San Francisco and administered by the San Francisco Arts Commission.

Tadolini, was the grandson of the sculptor Tadolini Petronio. He attended the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna.  In 1813, Tadolini traveled to Italy and attended the Accademia in Rome. There he made a plaster statue “Ajax cursing the gods”, with this he won a place as an assistant in Canova’s studio.

Civic Center – Double L Excentric Gyratory

 Posted by on January 25, 2012
Jan 252012
 
Civic Center
San Francisco Public Library
 Double L Excentric Gyratory by George Rickey – 1982

The plaque reads – A gift from an immigrant Carl Djerassi to his adopted City.  Dedicated by San Francisco Arts Commission May 1997.

George Rickey was an American kinetic sculptor born on June 6, 1907 in South Bend, Indiana.  When Rickey was a child, his father, an executive with Singer Sewing Machine Company, moved the family to Helensburgh, Scotland. Rickey was educated at Glenalmond College and received a degree in History from Balliol College, Oxford. He spent a short time traveling Europe and studied art in Paris. He then returned to the United States and began teaching at the Groton School.  He died at his home in Saint Paul, Minnesota on July 17, 2002 at the age of 95.

George Rickey’s work has appeared in this website before.

Carl Djerassi is an Austrian-American chemist, novelist, and playwright best known for his contribution to the development of the first oral contraceptive pill.  In 1959 Djerassi became a professor of chemistry at Stanford University and the president of Syntex Laboratories in Mexico City and Palo Alto, California. The Syntex connection made Djerassi a rich man. He bought a large tract of land in Woodside, California, started a cattle ranch, and built up a large art collection. He started a new company, Zoecon, which focused on pest control without insecticides, using modified insect growth hormones to stop insects from metamorphosing from the larval stage to the pupal and adult stages. He sold Zoecon to Occidental Petroleum.

Civic Center – Ashurbanipal

 Posted by on January 24, 2012
Jan 242012
 
San Francisco City Hall

Ashurbanipal by sculptor Fred Parhad sits on the sidewalk of the Asian Art Museum, facing the San Francisco Library. The sculpture shows Asurbanipal wearing a short tunic and holds a lion cub in his right arm. The figure stands on a concrete base, with bronze plaque and rosettes. The statue shows the king grasping a lion cub and holding a clay tablet which bears this dedication in cuneiform:

Peace unto heaven and earth
Peace unto countries and cities
Peace unto the dwellers in all lands

Ashurbanipal was an Assyrian king, the son of Esarhaddon and the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (668 BC – c. 627 BC).  He established the first systematically organized library in the ancient Middle East, the Library of Ashurbanipal, which survives in part today at Nineveh.

 Akkadian cuneinform and Aramaic
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The Inscription reads: The Assyrians formed one of the earliest great empires in the world. Their civilization dates from 2700 B.C. with the important cultural centers at Ashur and Nineveh north of modern Baghdad. Beginning as a river civilization in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates, the empire spread east and west to touch the lives of all Near Eastern people.

This is a statue of Ashurbanipal, one of the great kings of Assyria. A noted patron of the arts, he helped to build a culture that inspired nations from Persia to the Mediterranean Sea. The bas-reliefs in his palace are among the finest examples of ancient sculpture. Ashurbanipal ruled during the 7th century B.C. At a time when both Egypt and Babylon were under the Assyrian banner. Ashurbanipal had a personal love of learning which prompted him to collect existing knowledge of the known world in cuneiform tablets. His capital, Nineveh is distinguished for its vast collection, recorded as the world’s first great library.

The language of the Assyrians, Aramaic was spoken by Christ and widely used throughout the Near East by Israelites, Arabs, Persians and others for centuries. It remained the spoken and written language of the Assyrians down to the present time. Their empire lasted 1000 years until the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C.

During the ensuing centuries of chaotic political struggle, first between the Persians and Romans, and later between Christians and Muslims, the Assyrians sought refuge in the difficult mountainous terrain of their ancient empire where succeeding governments and warring armies passed them by.

Among the first converts to Christianity, they preserved and transmitted the culture of classical Greece to the Moors who advanced it during the Dark Ages in Europe. Assyrians authored exquisite religious literature and spread Christianity to the Asiatic east as far as India and to China where their alphabet remained in use by the ruling houses until the early 20th century.

In the First World War two-thirds of the Assyrians perished in the fighting. Displacement cost them their homes, wealth and any hope for a secure homeland. Many survivors left to begin life again in other countries. Today there are Assyrians in Europe, Australia, South America, India and the United States

Assyrians have kept their identity and language without political organization or any of the institutions of national security, passing their heritage on to new generations through the strength of family ties and a spirit of community which is deeply felt. Their rich cultural heritage binds Assyrians worldwide to each other. Their contribution to civilization will continue to enrich world culture.

This is the statue presented to the City of San Francisco by the Assyrian people in the 210th year of America’s sovereignty.
Presented to the City of San Francisco
by
the Assyrian Foundation for the Arts
through donations of
American Assyrian Association of San Francisco
Assyrian American National Federation
It goes on to list all the benefactors.

The sculptor Fred Parhad was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1947. His mother, Bella Toma was born in Iran, His father, Dr. Luther Parhad, was born in Iraq where his grandfather Dr. Baba Parhad had taken the family after the massacres in Northern Iran at the close of World War I. His early years were spent in Iraq, Iran and Kuwait where his father served as the national Director of Health.

His interest in sculpture began early and continued through college at UC Berkeley, though he did not make it a career choice until 1976 when he moved to New York City.

The Tenderloin – Flores del Tehuan-derloin

 Posted by on January 23, 2012
Jan 232012
 
The Tenderloin
Larkin and Cedar

This is “Flores del Tehuan-derloin” by Jet Martínez. The mural was commissioned by the SF Arts Commission project StreetSmARTS.   It is done in the style of embroidery created by the Tehuanan women of Oaxaca, Mexico.

This is what Jet said on his Facebook page about the work:

A mural based on Oaxacan embroidery designs. These patterns were assimilated by the Oaxacans from Chinese silk embroidery popular with the Spanish rulers of the time. Currently, some of the most beautiful textiles of the type are being made by the “muxeres” ( Transvestite men) in Juchitan.
If you know anything about the tenderloin, there are strong Oaxacan, Chinese and Trannie populations there. My hope was to give appreciation not only to the art of emboidery, but to how folk art unifies seemingly different cultures.

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Jet Martinez has several murals around San Francisco.

This project was sponsored in part by SFAC StreetSmArts program.

SOMA – Landmark

 Posted by on January 22, 2012
Jan 222012
 
SOMA
One Hawthorne

“Landmark” consists of a large grid of colorful panels 145 ft. high and 12 ft. wide. The panels are coated with porcelain enamel using a photographic imaging process, which accurately reproduced and enlarged a detailed series of 30” x 23” color drawings created by  Robert Hudson. One Hawthorne tapped Valerie Wade, gallery director at Crown Point Press, its across-the-street neighbor, to assist in concept development for the public art. The entire process took about one year, with KVO Industries, based in Santa Rosa, California, fabricating each porcelain enamel panel and overseeing the installation.

As lovely as it is, I do feel it will always be overshadowed by the buildings own advertising.

For the last four decades, Robert Hudson has been known for his large-scale welded-steel and poly-chromed steel and bronze sculptures. The San Francisco Bay area artist has also produced a large body of paintings and drawings during his distinguished career. Hudson’s work is based in the assemblage sculpture and Funk movements in California during the late 1950s and 1960s  He holds both an BFA and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Funk and Assemblage sculpture are sculptural techniques of organizing or composing into a unified whole a group of unrelated and often fragmentary or discarded objects.

Financial District – The General Harrison

 Posted by on January 21, 2012
Jan 212012
 
Financial District
425 Battery Street
The General Harrison by Curtis Hollenback and Topher Delany

The financial district of San Francisco was built on mudflats. At one time, the muddy shoreline came up to Montgomery Street. The mudflats were riddled with hulls of abandoned ships left by their crews when they headed for the gold in the California hills. These ships were often used as hotels, jails, stores, and warehouses. In 2001, one of these ships, the General Harrison, was uncovered at the corner of Clay and Battery Streets; today the Elephant & Castle Pub sits atop the remains of the hull.

The Oakland-based archaeology firm Archeo-Tec was allowed to painstakingly uncover the ship and document its findings. As development of the site was imminent, the developers commissioned a work to commemorate the finding. Topher Delany worked with the archaeologists to find accurate drawings of the skeleton of the hull. Based on the drawings and photographs, Topher worked with colleague Curtis Hollenback to design and build a piece of public artwork that could be mounted on the side of the new 4-story building. Repeating the design of the outline of the ship, the sculpture is a 60-foot, flatted hull made of copper with supporting ribs that attach to a stainless steel grid and frame.

On the street level, the sidewalk is designed with copper nails collected from the hull. An inlaid metal strip outlines the curved starboard edge of the ship, disappearing into the base of the building. The portside is under the building, and the bow extends onto the Battery Street sidewalk.

This photo is from Archeo-Tecs website.

Foundry Square – Not Out of The Woods Yet

 Posted by on January 20, 2012
Jan 202012
 
Howard at First Street
Foundry Square
SOMA
 Not Out of the Woods Yet by Richard Deacon
2003

In 2003 Kenneth Baker of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote:

“Deacon’s “Not Out Of The Woods Yet” (2003) nests muscularly in a tight spot behind columns at the entrance to 500 Howard St., on the intersection’s northwest corner.

The Bay Area has so far seen Deacon’s work in depth only once, in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s 1987 show “A Quiet Revolution: British Sculpture Since 1965.”

Much of his sculpture turns on matters such as when an enclosure must count as an object or as architecture. He makes viewers sense connections between physical feelings and inner dispositions to use certain words in describing them.

“Not Out Of The Woods Yet,” fabricated on commission, strikes the hurried glance as a network of stocky aluminum struts. But try to describe it in detail and it becomes a puzzle frustrating to eye and mind alike.

Six identical elements make up the work, all composed of fat, gleaming hexagonal metal beams. Their surfaces wink with an embossed tread-plate pattern.

The silvery aluminum draws light into the canopied space, which lies in shadow at least half the day.

The sculpture’s three bottom elements–one upright, two upended–notch together as if leaning to accommodate one another.

Three more, inverted, sit above, making the upper half a mirror image of the lower.

Where each bottom element rests on the ground, its footprint is an irregular nine-sided polygon, for which we have no ready name.

End-on, one of these structures at ground level resembles a simplified steam locomotive cowcatcher.

The top perimeter of each one plots the same eccentric figure, in the same orientation, enclosing a smaller or larger area. Thick, sloping struts connect top and bottom perimeters.

No strut springs from a corner, apparently upsetting an expectation one did not know one had, making the whole structure strangely hard to comprehend.

These simple facts prove startlingly difficult to sort out, though only their own complexity conceals them.

Deacon’s piece passes a crucial test of public sculpture: One leaves it curious to know how hard it will be to hold in memory and how easy to grasp when next seen”

Richard Deacon was born in Bangor, Wales and educated at Plymouth College. He then studied at the Somerset College of Art in Taunton, St Martin’s School of Art in London and the Royal College of Art, also in London. He left the Royal College in 1977, and went on to study part time at the Chelsea School of Art. His work is breathtaking and broad, visit his website, while a tad difficult to maneuver through it will give you a bigger picture of his work.

SOMA – Foundry Square

 Posted by on January 19, 2012
Jan 192012
 
Howard at First Street
Foundry Square
SOMA
Untitled by Joel Shapiro
1996-1999
In 2003 Kenneth Baker of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote:

“Shapiro’s renown rests on his having turned the vocabulary of minimal sculpture back toward figuration about 30 years ago. He took square wood beams, favorite forms of his older contemporary Carl Andre, and made structures of them that could be read as stick figures. Shapiro then abbreviated and exaggerated his work’s figural qualities so that they come and go depending on the viewer’s position and on his determination to see them. Built-in aspects of “bad fit”–apparent right angles that turn out to be oblique, slight off-square rotations–read expressively from one viewpoint, and willfully abstract from another. Large scale has defeated Shapiro on occasion, making his work look like small ideas inflated rather than like products of enlarged thinking. Standing 24 feet high, the Foundry Square piece is an unusually good example. Its plaza setting touches off an apt association to the work of Alberto Giacometti, for whom urban crossings symbolized the modern world’s banishment of humanity from all common spaces. Much of Shapiro’s best sculpture updates the drama of emotional versus physical distance central to Giacometti’s mature work. As the public focal point of a corporate work environment, the Shapiro also monumentalizes the perilous balancing act that sums up so many employees’ experiences of office politics”

 

Joel Shapiro grew up in Sunnyside, Queens, New York. When he was twenty two he lived in India for two years while in the Peace Corps. He received a B.A. in 1964 and an M.A. in 1969 from New York University.  He lives with his artist wife, Ellen Phelan, in New York City.

SOMA – Time Signature

 Posted by on January 18, 2012
Jan 182012
 
Howard at First Street
Foundry Square
SOMA
 Time Signature
Richard Deutsch

*Richard Deutsch has several sculptures around San Francisco.  This piece has it’s own video on Richard’s website, and I highly recommend that you go and view it.  The film is a work of art unto itself, and I could not do justice to the process that you are shown, but I will try to summarize the intent of the piece.

He mentions that they wanted to use a light colored metal for the reflective properties and to interact with the glass.  The area that the sculpture is in is called Foundry Square.  The owner, Peter Donahue, opened the foundry in 1851.  Crucibles, a vital part of metal pouring, were the shapes that inspired Deutsch.  He was further inspired by music and was setting a tempo for a musical composition, attempting some sort of lyrical movement.

 

Restaurant Row – Maori Column

 Posted by on January 15, 2012
Jan 152012
 
50 Third Street
Ducca Restaurant Courtyard
Westin Hotel
Museum Row

This piece is titled Maori Column and is by Alan Shepp.  It was done in 1985.

Shepp, along with his artist wife, lives in Napa California.  He has a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and an MFA from the University of Washington.

He is a multimedia artist who creates large scale sculpture and public art.

There is not a lot of information out there, either about this artist or this piece, but his website has some really gorgeous work on it.

Isamu Noguchi on Museum Row

 Posted by on January 14, 2012
Jan 142012
 
50 Third Street
Ducca Restaurant Walkway
Museum Row
 Fat Dancer
 Rain Mountain
Figure Emerging

These three figures are by Isamu Noguchi. Noguchi ranks up there as one of my all time favorite sculptors, but I must admit, this is not my favorite medium for him.

(November 17, 1904 – December 30, 1988) Isamu Noguchi was a prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public works, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces, some of which are still manufactured and sold.

In 1947, Noguchi began a collaboration with the Herman Miller company, when he joined with George Nelson, Paul László and Charles Eames to produce a catalog containing what is often considered to be the most influential body of modern furniture ever produced, including the iconic Noguchi table which remains in production today. His work lives on around the world and at the Noguchi Museum in New York City.

The Noguchi Table

Paper Lamps by Noguchi

Museum Row – Stream of Vessels

 Posted by on January 13, 2012
Jan 132012
 
50 Third Street
Ducca Restaurant Walkway
Museum Row

 

These are in the walkway between Ducca Restaurant and the Contemporary Jewish Museum.  They are titled Stream of Vessels, done in 1997 by David Nash of charred oak.

David Nash  is a British sculptor based in Blaenau Ffestiniog.  He is known for works in wood and shaping living trees. His large wood sculptures are sometimes carved or partially burned to produce blackening. His main tools for these sculptures are a chainsaw and axe to carve the wood and a blowtorch to char the wood.

He attended Brighton College from 1959 to 1963, then Kingston College of Art from 1963 to 1967 and the Chelsea School of Art as a postgraduate from 1969 to 1970.

Museum Row – Les Funambules

 Posted by on January 12, 2012
Jan 122012
 
50 Third Street
Ducca Restaurant walkway
Museum Row

Attached to the Westin Hotel is Ducca Restaurant.  They have an open walkway between 3rd street and the Jewish Museum.  In that walkway is seating and dining.  Throughout that area is art.

This piece is “Les Funambules” by Charles Ginnever, done in Bronze in 1991.

Ginnever is an American sculptor. He was born in San Mateo, California, in 1931. In 1957, he received his BA from the San Francisco Art Institute and received his MFA from Cornell University in 1959. He started working with canvas and steel scraps painted with bright patterns. The movement toward Minimalism saw the use of color fade and he focused on steel shapes consisting of triangles and trapezoids that cause his work to change shape as the viewer moves around it.

S.F. Bicycle Coalition Mural

 Posted by on January 11, 2012
Jan 112012
 
Castro/Duboce Avenue/Nob Hill
Back of
2020 Market Street

 

In 1972 BART built the Market Street subway, including Muni Metro. Along the Duboce Avenue tunnel entrance was a single eastbound lane for cars. During the 1994 closure of the street, for construction, The Bicycle Coalition worked to show that this street, which when used by both cyclists and cars was highly dangerous, was better served as a bikeway.  They were successful.

In 1995 Peter Tannen of the SF Bicycle Coalition obtained grant funds and Joel Pomerantz, then, co-founder of the bicycle coalition but now, leader of ThinkWalks, was recruited to produce a mural celebrating the first street closed to cars specifically for bicycles.
Joel convinced Mona Caron that she was capable of doing a mural and this was the result.  Mona has been in this site many times before, however, this was her first mural.  The mural is on the back side of the Market Street Safeway along the Duboce Bike Trail where muni heads underground.

According to Mona Caron’s website “At the center of the block long, 6,075 square foot mural is a depiction of the bikeway itself, (complete with its mural,) in geographic and historical context along the ancient streambed which cyclists follow to avoid hills. (The zig-zagging route is now known as “the Wiggle.”) To the east of the Wiggle is Downtown, to the West, residential neighborhoods, Golden Gate Park and, finally, the beach.

At the east end of the wall (downtown), Market Street’s bicycles are seen transforming into pedal-powered flying machines which rise out of the morass of pollution and gridlock. The scene alludes to the subversive nature of Critical Mass in particular, and generally symbolizes the freedom experienced by those with visions of alternatives to the status quo, represented in the mural by frowning corporate skyscrapers. Each of the flying contraptions trails its pilot’s dream of utopia in the form of a golden banner. The whole rest of the mural, westwards from this scene, starts in the shape of one of these golden banners, suggesting that this mural depicts just one of many ideas that make up our collective vision. Ours happens to deal with the issue of transportation, and the City depicted in the rest of the mural is a traffic and pollution free one, where the community takes back the space which now fragments it: the street.”

There is a fabulous, color photo, panel by panel, description of this mural, with stories, trivia and great bits and pieces of San Francisco history available at the Thinkwalks store.

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Check out this post about the utility boxes across the street.

Yerba Buena Gardens – Urge

 Posted by on January 10, 2012
Jan 102012
 
Yerba Buena Gardens
Childrens Museum side of Howard Street
 Urge by Chico Macmurtrie

This has always been one of my favorite sculptures in San Francisco.  There is something so lifelike and yet so robotic about the figure.  The sculptor works in a team that he formed in 1992, called Amorphic Robot Works.  They are a group of artists, engineers and technicians.  Some of their work is based on the concept of moving robotic figures, and yet other pieces are haunting and so diverse to belay any attempt to categorize it.

This piece also gives credit to others – Engineer: Dave Fleming – Fabrication/Sculptural Crew: Andrew Forrest, Mark9, Vicente Contredas, Bruce Milligan, Juan Martines – Project Manager: Todd Blair

Chico MacMurtrie was born in New Mexico in 1961 and lives in San Francisco. He holds a B.F.A. from the University of Arizona and an M.F.A. in New Forms and Concepts from the University of California at Los Angeles.

 

Yerba Buena Gardens – Deep Gradient/Suspect Terrain

 Posted by on January 9, 2012
Jan 092012
 
Yerba Buena Center
San Francisco
 Deep Gradient/Suspect Terrain
(Seasons of the Sea ‘Adrift)
John Roloff
with NGA Industries and Wes-Co Industries
1993
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The accompanying plaque says:
This glass ship is an art work that refers to the natural and geological history of California.  Sediment gathered from the ocean floor four miles off the coast of San Francisco was placed inside in 1993.  This sediment contains diverse mineral and organic matter extracted from the landscape by the rivers that flow to the sea through the Golden Gate.  The greenhouse environment of the ship interacts subtly with these materials producing ongoing natural cycles of growth, decay and rebirth.
John Roloff is a visual artist who works conceptually with site, process and natural systems.  He is known primarily for his outdoor kiln/furnace projects done from the late 1970’s to the early 1990’s as well as other large-scale environmental and gallery installations investigating geologic and natural phenomena.  Based on a background in science, his work engages poetic and site-specific relationships between material, concept and performance in the domains of geology, ecology, architecture, ceramics, industry and mining, metabolic systems and history.  He studied geology at UC Davis, Davis, CA with Professor Eldridge Moores and others during the formative days of plate tectonics in the mid-1960’s.  Subsequently, he studied art with Bob Arneson and William T. Wiley also at UC Davis in the late 1960’s.    He is currently Chair of the Sculpture/Ceramics Department at the San Francisco Art Institute.
You can find the a history of Yerba Buena Gardens at Untapped Cities.

Mission District – Community Thrift Store Mural

 Posted by on January 8, 2012
Jan 082012
 
Mission District
Sycamore Street at 623 Valencia

 

 

 

 

 

This mural goes along the top of the Community Thrift Store.  The mural is actually on Sycamore Street.
Done by a  school group they developed a mural design that emphasized the social as opposed to the currency value of objects, settling on a clothesline motif to represent the borderland between public and private.  Someone from the group blogged about the entire concept and this is what they said “The group voted to limit the parameters of design and color scheme to ensure a consistency in the final product. However, individual style will always assert itself, as reflected in the variety of rendering approaches used in the different objects. For comparison purposes: the boombox is by Mei-Tsung, the sock monkey & coffee grinder are by America, the lamp is by Suzie Bucholz, Lucy van Pelt Pez dispenser by Tom (mostly), salt shaker & cassette tape by Erin, nightshirt by Seija (who did very careful preparatory drawings), mixer by Brooke. ”

Michael Kershnar Around Town

 Posted by on January 7, 2012
Jan 072012
 
San Francisco
Around Town
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Market and 6th Street

Hemlock Alley
Caledonia Street, The Mission

These are all by Mike Kershnar

The Citrus Report did a great interview with Mike, a fun excerpt: The greatest way graffiti has changed my life is the ever-present knowledge that whatever the visual landscape is, it has the potential to be artfully altered. Like if the intersection of Haight and Ashbury is important to me because of what it represented culturally, then I can make sure there is always a visual reminder of me around.

According to StudioVisit: Michael Kershnar is a 32-year old artist from California. His background in urban skateboarding and wilderness survival has given him a lifestyle that is in constant motion

 

SOMA – 1AM

 Posted by on January 6, 2012
Jan 062012
 
1 AM Gallery
SOMA
Howard and Sixth Street
1 AM Gallery always has murals done on their wall to celebrate their newest art installation inside.  The installation this month is “When We Were Kids”.  The background to this is lettering, but I thought the cartoon characters were worth a shout out.
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Here is the overall mural taken from across the street.
1 AM Gallery has been in this website many times before. Check out their work around town.  Please also note – that 1:AM uses this wall as a teaching experience so the murals change all the time.

The Tenderloin – Zombie Michael

 Posted by on January 5, 2012
Jan 052012
 
The Tenderloin
Hemlock Street at Polk
Zombie Michael
The artist on this is Ezra Li Eismont. It was in support of his solo exhibition at Space Gallery, “Now I Lay me down to Sleep”
This is the gallery description of the exhibition.  Now! I Lay Me Down To Sleep.
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
Guide me through the starry night
And wake me with the morning light
Thank you for another Day,
A chance to learn, a chance to play.
Paintings exploring the darker side of media manipulation of the minds of the masses. An ode to John Carpenter.

Ezra is an Oakland, California painter, designer and DJ. He earned his BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts in 1997. His blog has a very thorough bio and photos of other works. Ezra has another mural on Bartlett Street in the mission.

I found this little excerpt on his blog, I think it explains a lot about this series. “I am interested in how mythologies are reflected in media, how threads of mythologies intertwine. Who are our heroes? Our enemies? Whom do we learn to look up to, whom do we learn to despise? What cultivates our self control and mastery? Fear or Love? How are mythologies used to help define our decision making process? How are mythologies used to reinforce stereotypes? What images do we find offensive? What images do we find attractive? How do images shape and mold our consciousness? I’ve got more questions than answers.”

Fish Mural on Langton

 Posted by on January 2, 2012
Jan 022012
 
SOMA
Langton Street
Between Folsom and Howard

This lovely mural was done to hopefully stop the graffiti that had been occurring on the door.  The artist is Deborah Yoon and according website she is a self taught multimedia artist who considers both San Francisco and New York home. She works primarily with pen, sumi-e, paint, and has experimented with steel. Deborah received a bachelors of Fine Art and Art History at New York University.

As you can see by the comments the owner of the house saw this post.  I asked him for some further information and here is what he had to say “The house is a residential live/work space, “Langton Labs”, where a dozen or so folks live together and use our big common space to build art and technology projects, host events, and so on.

Our friend Deborah painted the mural a few months ago and it is quite lovely. It was indeed on top of some ugly tagging, though we’d been meaning to do SOMETHING there for a while.”

Japantown – Fan

 Posted by on December 30, 2011
Dec 302011
 
Japantown
Webster Street, San Francisco

There is a plaque near this fan – or Sensu – and this is what it reads:

The Japantown Sensu (fan) is a modern interpretation of traditional Japanese forms blended with the unique Japanese American culture that has existed, persisted and grown in San Francisco’s Nihonmachi since 1906.

Invented in Japan 1300 years ago, the sensu is a palette for artists, an instrument of dance and drama, a graceful and practical part of everyday life. It is an important link to our Japanese culture and continues to be used in the Japanese American community.

Elements of the Design
The design of the Sensu incorporates key elements from Japantown:

• Peace Pagoda – Designed by Yoshiro Taniguchi, the Pagoda was donated by the people of Osaka,
San Francisco’s Sister City, in 1968.
• Origami Fountain – One of the two sculptures inspired by Japanese paper folding, designed by Ruth
Asawa.  ((Found on this blog here))
• Mountain stream motif – Architect Rai Okamoto designed this pattern as the setting for the Buchanan
Mall.

The four seasons are represented by traditional Japanese plant motifs:
• Sakura – The springtime cherry blossom is a symbol of the beauty and impermanence of life.
• Ayame (Shobu) – The summer iris flower symbolizes feminine beauty, its leaves masculine strength and
courage.
• Momiji – The autumn maple leaves evoke the flow of time.
• Matsu – The evergreen pine symbolizes strength and longevity.

Original concept and Sensu design by Tony Kaz Naganuma, Grace Horikiri and Karen Kai of NDD Creative, Japanese calligraphy by Mutsuyo Horikiri, former principal of Kinmon Gakuen Japanese Language School.

 

Japantown – Landmarks Project

 Posted by on December 29, 2011
Dec 292011
 
Japantown
Post Street
San Francisco

This sculpture is part of the California Japantown Landmarks Project. It is made of bronze and stone, stands 9 feet high, and weighs 1000 pounds.  The sculpture is by Louis Quaintance and Eugene Daub.  It was installed in San Francisco’s Japantown in 2005.

A 20th-century sculptor, Eugene Daub has been an instructor at the Scottsdale Artists’ School and designer of the first Philadelphia Liberty Medal, which the city of Philadelphia awards every year to a champion of world peace. He is also a former vice president of the American Medallic Sculpture Association and a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society.

Louis Quaintance  has an MFA in sculpture from Southern Illinois University.  He lives in Berkeley, California.

The landmark was funded by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program with additional resources from Proposition 40 historical and cultural heritage preservation funds.

The story behind the monument:

“From the late 1800s Japantowns began to emerge in California’s port towns and agricultural areas where Japanese immigrants helped build the state’s economy through fishing, farming and other businesses. By the 1930s, as many as forty Japantowns existed throughout the state. The forced evacuation of Japanese Americans during World War II, and later, urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s, greatly impacted the fate of these unique historic districts. This common landmark resides in three of the remaining japantowns in San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles. It pays tribute to the contributions of Californians of Japanese ancestry and is dedicated to Japantowns that today exist only in memories.”

On the first panel is inscribed:
Footsteps lead to destiny, poem by Janice Mirikitani:
We dance honoring ancestors/who claim our home,/and freedom to pursue our dreams./Our voices carve a path for justice:/Equal rights for all./We prevail./Our future harvested from generations./From my life/opens countless lives./The Journey continues…

This panel reads:

A journey detained
Interned by injustice
What lies before us?

There is also a list of all the internment camps.

 

The third panel reads:

Sojourners
Visionaries open hands to the earth
Harvest hope for a future in America

Western Addition – Blue Wall

 Posted by on December 28, 2011
Dec 282011
 
Western Addition
San Francisco
Geary and Fillmore Streets

This is Geary Street in San Francisco.  On the left is Japantown and on the right is the Western Addition.

The Fillmore street overpass has stretches of blue glass on either side.  This installation is titled 3 Shades of Blue by Mildred Howard.

The piece is a “Tribute to the music the continues to define the Fillmore”  It is 20 blue glass panes inscribed with a poem by poet laureate Quincy Troupe – Shades of Blue for a Blue Bridge for Mildred Howard, Joe Rudolph and Yori Wada.

three shades of blue
evoke minnie’s can do,
soo chow’s, yori wada

jimbo’s bop city
john lee’s boom boom room,
history riffing blue matzoh balls,
fried chicken, soba

the jigoku club inside
j town, bold rebels jamming
cross from black town, udon,
grits, barbecue

cherry blossoms blooming
in lady day’s hair, greens and fat back,
sashimi staining kimonos

you walking filmore,
crossing geary with duke,
street cars running over ghost-tracks,
pigfeet in vinegar

indigo-blue & white
red satin, sticky fingers handling
chop sticks, hot cornbread,
sweet potato pie

Mildred Howard has been in this site before.  She is an artist that best uses words as her medium.  The mixed cultures of this area are well represented in the poem.  The neighborhood has a long history of struggle not only between cultures, but between the city and it’s residents as well as the visions that everyone has versus reality.  There have been books written about this strife, suffice it to say I think the poem sums it up very, very well.

Due to the light, it was almost impossible to get a good shot of the etched words, here is a small sampling.

Walking across the Fillmore overpass.

Potrero Hill – Cars and Birds

 Posted by on December 27, 2011
Dec 272011
 
16th and Bryant
Potrero Hill, San Francisco

This mural at 16th and Bryant is by Rigo and was done in 1997.  Rigo has been in this website many times. was born and raised on the Portuguese island of Madeira. He later established himself as an artist in San Francisco, earning a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 1991 and an MFA from Stanford University in 1997. From 1984-2002, Rigo used the last two digits of the current year as part of his name, finally settling upon “23″ in 2003

 

Mission, Norm’s Market

 Posted by on December 26, 2011
Dec 262011
 
Mission District
20th and Bryant
San Francisco
Sirron Norris

Across from the Deli-up Cafe with its work by Sirron  is this at Norm’s market. Here are all the photos for your enjoyment.

 

 

 

 

SOMA – Tuloy po Kayo

 Posted by on December 24, 2011
Dec 242011
 
SOMA
Filipino Education Center
824 Harrison Street

Tuloy po Kayo, is Filipino for “welcome.” The mural was designed by internationally-acclaimed muralist Cece Carpio, and painted with Miguel Bounce Perez and other volunteer artists, the mural represents the Filipino community’s shared experiences, history, and culture.

To prepare for this mural, Carpio led an arts workshop with Bessie Carmichael students, ( the elementary school in the neighborhood) where the children created drawings on themes of self-identity, family, and community. Using the children’s input as her guide, Carpio led a community meeting at the Bayanihan Center  (neighboring Filipino Center) to gather more feedback and flesh out ideas. Once a final sketch was in hand, community members came back once more – this time, to paint their mural on the wall with a celebratory paint day.

The final work includes several layers of meaning. In the center, a “balangay” (boat) and “araw” (sun) convey the significance of the Filipino peoples’ ancient sea faring ways and the overseas journey of immigration to the US. Cleverly, the poles of the balangay form a star-shape – when viewed with the two star-shaped parol lanterns at each end of the mural, the stars and sun evoke the Filipino flag. The parol lanterns themselves are important symbols of light and blessings, evoking holiday traditions widely celebrated among Filipinos. In SOMA, the annual Parol Festival brings thousands to Jessie Square each December. Against a foreground of waves and a background of sky, the mural includes many children and family groups, playing traditional games or strolling down city streets. Throughout, the composition creates links between San Francisco’s busy city life and memories of Filipino landscapes.

Miguel Perez received a BFA in Communication Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and currently works as a freelance designer and muralist. He is co-founder of Pueblo Nuevo Gallery, a community art space in Berkeley, California.

This is how Cece describes herself on her own website.  From the islands of the Philippines to the streets of Brooklyn, Cece Carpio paints people and places on the edges of survival. Using acrylic, ink, aerosol and installations, her work tells stories of immigration, ancestry, resistance and resilience. She documents evolving traditions by combining folkloric forms, bold portraits and natural elements with urban art techniques.  She has produced and exhibited work in the Philippines, Fiji Islands, Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Italy, Norway and throughout the United States. She can often be found collaborating with her crew, Trust Your Struggle, teaching, and traveling around the world in pursuit of the perfect wall.

 

SOMA – Victor Reyes

 Posted by on December 23, 2011
Dec 232011
 
SOMA
1420 Harrison Street

This magnificent and show stopping mural is by Victor Reyes.

Reyes has been painting since the early 90s, and has shown extensively around the world in cities and countries such as Bosnia, Germany, Switzerland, Taipei, Japan, and Miami. Reyes is inspired by his peers, including a community of new California artists “The Seventh Letter,” who play an integral role in the development and motivation for his body of work.  Reyes, who has no formal art training, moved to San Francisco in 1998 and took a variety of jobs for rent money – he’s a freelance illustrator now.

The article “Man of Letters on a Mission” was the cover story for the San Francisco Chronicle, and is a fascinating read.

 

 

SOMA – Youth Art Project

 Posted by on December 22, 2011
Dec 222011
 
SOMA
501 Minna Street at 6th

 

 

 

This set of small mosaic murals are part of the ArtSpan’s South of Market Youth and Public Art Project.

Lead artist, Johanna Poethig who has been in this site numerous times is director for the Inner City Public Art Projects for Youth, a program of San Francisco’s South of Market Cultural Center and Artspan. They have completed a body of ceramic public art works installed throughout downtown San Francisco

These are a result of the Stop, Look, Listen to Me program which operates on $32,000 from the city’s Neighborhood Beautification Fund, and has the support of the Art Commission and private benefactors.

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