Palou and 3rd Streets Bayview * * This mural (done in 2010) by Briana Fleming is part of the Street SmArts program of San Francisco. A collaboration between the San Francisco Arts Commission and SF Department of Public Works started in 2010, the program connects established urban artists with private property owners who own buildings with walls that are graffiti hot spots. Artists create vibrant murals on the walls and buildings become a canvas for art enjoyed by all. The outcome is a phenomenon of reduced incidences of graffiti tagging on the properties. Like many artists, Bryana Fleming is a product of her surroundings. Continue Reading
3rd and Palou Bayview This mural was painted by Brooke Fancher in 1987. It is titled Tuzuri Watu (Swahili for “we are beautiful people”). It is a tribute to Afro American culture inspired by black women writers. The design shows scenes of black peoples’ lives, rural and urban, with a strong emphasis on community and family life. Quotations from the works of five black women authors appear throughout the mural. Fancher explains her choice of location and topic by saying that “A lot of people don’t even know about black women writers. Their work is part of the self-affirmation of Continue Reading
Palou and 3rd Streets Bayview * Lenora LeVon Riley was a fashion designer from San Francisco whose work was prominently displayed in Ebony and Jet Magazine. Bryana Fleming is a native to the Bay Area who resides in Mill Valley, California. Both of her parents were working artists, and she instantly became interested in art from a young age. (Her father was a storyboard artist and her mother, a fine art painter.) Bryana attended the California College of the Arts from 2000-2004, receiving a BFA in illustration
Highway 101 -280 Interchange Street Level Freeway stantion paintings are starting to pop up around the country, this is the first one in San Francisco. The artist is Cory Ferris and the work was done in 2011. According to a June 2012 article on SF Gate by Sam Whiting: Cory Ferris is a 19-year-old who was a senior at Mission High School when she got the commission. “I’m just really happy that I get to have my art on a column,” she says, unaware of its larger historic significance: This might mark the first time Caltrans has permitted an artistic interpretation on Continue Reading
2201 Lawton Sunset District Sunset Playground This piece was commissioned by the SFAC for $70,000. The artist selected was Bryan Tedrick. Brian is a local boy, born in Oakland, he holds a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. He is a prolific and very versatile metal sculptor. These five sculptural elements were inspired by the Sunset District’s setting sun and plentiful wind. Sunset Playground is a four acre park that occupies a full city block between 28th and 29th Avenues, at Lawton and Moraga. In addition to a recreation center, the site has two tennis courts, a basketball court, a Continue Reading
39th and Ortega Ortega Library Ocean Beach Wowhaus consists of artists Scott Constable and Ene Oseraas-Constable. These two artists were also responsible for the Sunnyside Menagerie at the Sunnyside Conservatory here in San Francisco. Located near the entrance of the library, the artwork features a duo of large-scale, glass mosaic fish sculptures. The sculptures represent a silver Forage Fish and a vermillion Rockfish, two species that swim in the waters just off Ocean Beach that have played a vital role in the natural and cultural history of the region. The artwork’s title, Abundance, speaks to the concepts that inspired the Continue Reading
3495 16th Between Sanchez and Dehon Castro District Colette Crutcher is a multi discipline artist. Her career began with painting and printmaking, but now covers a broad spectrum, from very large to very small, from public to intensely personal, from abstract to figurative, and across a range of media: painting and drawing, collage, assemblage, paper mache, concrete, ceramic and mosaics. According to Collete’s website: This mural is a renovation of La Madre Tonantsin, a similar mural I painted there in 1991. The original fence was rotting, and along with it the mural. A grassroots fundraising campaign, helped by a grant from Precita Continue Reading
Mission Playground and Pool 19th and Linda The New World Tree by Juana Alicia, Susan Cervantes and Raul Martinez – 1987 Juana Alicia describes the history and the mural itself on her website: The Mission Pool and Playground at 19th and Linda Streets has been a gathering place for the neighborhood since the 1930′s, when it was called the Nickel Pool, dubbed for its entrance price. Heavily graffitied in the 1980′s, it received a recreation center addition under the auspices of then-mayor Diane Feinstein. In 1988, I also collaborated with Susan K. Cervantes and Raul Martinez to paint the Continue Reading
1199 Mason at Washington Chinatown This is the entry to the Betty Ong Recreation Center in Chinatown. Betty Ann Ong was a flight attendant on American Airlines, Flight 11, the first airplane to become hijacked on September 11, 2001. Shortly after the hijacking began, Betty chose to be involved and make a difference by taking action to notify the American Airlines ground crew of the hijacking situation on board the airplane. Amid horrific danger, she stayed on the telephone for 25 minutes, relaying vital information that eventually led to the closing of airspace by the FAA for the first time in Continue Reading
1199 Mason at Washington Chinatown Betty Ong Chinese Recreation Center * Colette Crutcher’s mosaic mural, titled Playthings of the Wind, located in the playground of the new center, honors China’s 2000-year tradition of kite making. The mural depicts a young child, in traditional dress, holding a string attached to a butterfly kite, which is joined among the swirling clouds and sun by two other kites in the form of a “flying lizard” and bat. The mural continues onto an adjacent wall with a depiction of a dragon kite. Using a combination of stained glass, mirror, broken fragments of Chinese cookery Continue Reading
351 9th Avenue SF Public Library Inner Richmond * According to Scott Donahue’s website “these sculptures were designed to integrate into the very symmetrical renovate library landscape and building. Each dome is a relief sculpture map. On is the entire Bay Area and portrays a time in history from 15000 years ago to 100 years ago. The other is a close0yo view of San Francisco and the Richmond District from today. The interpretation exaggerates certain features like the mountains and hills and there are little reliefs and images depicting how virtually everyone arrived, or their relatives arrived, to be looking Continue Reading
John McLaren Park Mansell Drive and John F. Shelley Drive Excelsior and Visitacion Valley This is the view towards downtown San Francisco from John McLaren Park. Named for John McLaren, the superintendent of Golden Gate Park from 1887 to 1943, it is the second largest park in the city, after Golden Gate Park. Within McLaren Park’s 312 acres are lawns and planted gardens, a lake and a reservoir, a golf course, picnic areas, playgrounds, baseball diamonds, basketball and tennis courts, an indoor swimming pool, a soccer field, dog play areas, and an amphitheater. Rich in native plants and animals, the park Continue Reading
* According to the artist, “The artwork is a playful interpretation of the Mission District’s diverse community and creativity. The procession’s cast of historical and imaginary characters evoke the neighborhood’s past while casting a cheerful look toward the future.” Mission Parade consists of 20 steel cut panels with 10 unique vignettes that repeat at both park entrances. Each panel features three fantastical characters. Some of the figures include a peg-legged pirate with a hook for a hand; a friendly one-eyed, one-toothed monster; an alligator with a top hat holding a flower; a fire-breathing dragon; a plant watering can following a Continue Reading
Candlestick Park Gate A Jamestown Avenue St Francis by Ruth Wakefield Cravath – 1971-1973 The sculpture is a standing abstract figure representing St. Francis, the patron saint of San Francisco. The figure is made of concrete, but the face, torso, halo, cross, and lower section of his robe are made of colored pieces of Plexiglas. The halo is gold; the face and torso are turquoise; the cross is red, and the lower section of the robe is gold. The sculpture is installed on a low base in the middle of the bus area at the stadium. Ruth Wakefield Cravath is known Continue Reading
Willie Woo Woo Playground Chinatown Sacramento Street and Waverly Place Willie Wong (b:1926,d:2005) was a Chinese-American basketball player who was born and raised in Chinatown, San Francisco. Though Wong was only 5’5″ tall, he excelled, and was known as one of the finest Chinese-American basketball players in the 1940s. He was nicknamed Willie “Woo Woo” Wong by a local sportswriter because fans would shout “Woo Woo” when he scored. He starred at Poly and Lowell high schools in San Francisco before being recruited to the University of San Francisco (USF). After playing for USF, Wong continued to compete at various local and national tournaments as part of the San Francisco Saints team. Wong died on Continue Reading
580 California at Kearney Financial District This building sits on the corner of Kearny and California Streets. It has twelve untitled figures along the four top edges resembling ghost forms wrapped in long cloth garments. They were created by the sculptress Muriel Castanis from 1982-85 for a commission by the building architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee. The sculptures are made of molded fiberglass, selected due to its strength, light weight (1200-1300 lbs. each) and weathering properties. The three female figures in each tableau are reproduced on each of the four sides of the building. Muriel Brunner Castanis (September 27, 1926 Continue Reading
255 Third Street SOMA * * These three paintings are on the 3rd, 4th and 5th floors near the elevators of the Moscone Center Garage. Painted by Dan Rice in 1982 they convey the artist’s impression of motorized existence and depict the frenzy and banality of the daily commute. * * * Autoscape #3, Twin Spin, Driving Me Up a Wall by Dan Rice Dan Rice who received his MFA from UC San Diego said this about the paintings in 1982: ” “My paintings reflect my perceptions of the contemporary american way of life,’ Rice said. ‘They deal with symbols abstracted from our Continue Reading
Myrtle and Larkin The Tenderloin This piece is by Satyr. Satyr has some other murals in the Haight. Satyr is known for his quality murals in San Francisco. He was brought up by The Master Piece Creators, one of the original aerosol art crews to bring concept walls to the city. Years into his graffiti career, Satyr became formally trained in illustration.
Clarion Alley Mission District * This beauty is by BODE, CUBA and Stan153. With Love and Respect for Moebius. Jean Henri Gaston Giraud (8 May 1938 – 10 March 2012) was a French comics artist who earned worldwide fame, predominantly under the pseudonym Mœbius, and to a lesser extent Gir (used for the Blueberry series). He has been described as the most influential bandes dessinées artist after Hergé. (Herge is known to most in the U.S. as the author of TinTin) Among his most famous works are the Western comic series Blueberry he co-created with writer Jean-Michel Charlier, one of the first Western anti-heroes to appear in comics. Under the pseudonym Moebius he created a wide range Continue Reading
This piece is on the Laguna Side of Love in the Lower Haight. The artist is Krusch Rhoades. It is titled Native Tongue and was done in 2012. Krusch Rhoades, 33, spent the formative years of his youth in the “armpit of New York, the shoulders of New England and on the polluted teat of New Jersey.” Since then, Rhoades has travelled all over the country, and currently calls Santa Cruz his home. He has painted, drawn, molded, and scrawled for as long as he can remember. “Identifying myself as an “artist” at an early age somehow allowed me Continue Reading
1349 Mission Street at Grace SOMA This eclectic mural is being funded by the Center for Sex and Culture. According to their website: The Grace Alley Mural Project will be a highlight of San Francisco’s sexual history and culture– paying homage to our past sexual renegades, founders, activists and healers featuring some of our very own notorious and not so notorious mural artists. The Mural location is in an area of SF that is a mix of nightlife, non-profits, neighborhood residential, and mixed commerce– but it’s also an area in need of beautification to our public spaces. It will enhance the good Continue Reading
1301 Haight Street * * Jet Martinez, whose work is all over San Francisco is responsible for these colorful frogs. It is titled Bosque de Alebrijes. This is what Jet said on his Facebook page: Alebrijes are small animal figurines decorated with beautiful colors and patterns. They are really incredible on their own, but what is truly inspiring to me about them, is the fact that entire communities in Oaxaca will dedicate themselves to making this artform and have created an economy around the art they create. The art in turn, defines the community and creates the visual identity of Continue Reading
Tenderloin Shannon Alley between Geary and O’Farrell These murals were done in 2011 around Veterans Day. They are part of the SF Vets Mural Project. According to their website: The alley will contain murals painted by veterans which will tell their story. The significance of this alley is that the art regarding veterans is very often done by artists that are not veterans. This alley will give veterans a permanent voice and presence within the community. The SF veterans alley will work with all veterans regardless of discharge status, gender, sexual orientation, theater of conflict or time period served. Any Continue Reading
1391 Haight Street This creature by Bode is on the side of the new Happy High Herb Shop in the Haight. Happy High Herbs is not your everyday head shop. Their website and sign promise to “promote herbs that bring happiness, bring wellness, increase horniness and bring contentment,” and they say their products “are marketed only in our physical shops, in a face to face situation, as alternatives to drugs of harm and addiction.” That said, you still have to be 18 to buy them. The company was founded in Australia by Ray Thorpe to offer safer alternatives to typical party drugs. The Haight Continue Reading
My interest in the revitalization of Market Street came about when I wrote this piece for Untapped Cities about the Hibernia Bank Building. A friend who has a wonderful website about the architecture of Mid Market and other areas of San Francisco, titled Up From The Deep, introduced me to this project, and I feel so passionately about it and its success that I would like everyone to take the time to view the video, go to the website, and please, if you can, donate to the cause. This is the purpose of the project “In San Francisco, an unusual Continue Reading
Mission/SOMA Folsom and Erie * * This mural at the corner of Folsom and Division is by French artist Horfe. According to Alternative Paris: Horfe is considered to be one of, if not the leading graffiti writer in the world. Horfe has been writing his name on walls for the past 12 years, mainly in Paris, where his graffiti can be found on shop fronts, trucks, walls, train sidings and roof tops, city-wide. His style of graffiti is extremely unique, blending typography and flat coloured illustration – it’s rumoured that Horfe attended the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, the distinguished National School of Fine Arts in Paris. Horfe’s Continue Reading
Love in The Lower Haight Haight Side of the Project Laguna and Haight Streets * This piece is part of the Love in the Lower Haight Project, it is a collaboration between Max Ehrman, aka EON75, Ernest Doty and Griffin One. Its title is The Last Caravan. Max Ehrman AKA E.O.N. 75 (Extermination of Normality) was born in 1975 in Naples Florida. After attending the University of Florida heaved to Europe and studied architecture at the Dessau Institute of Architecture where he received his masters. Max presently resides in San Francisco. Ernest Doty is from Albuquerque, New Mexico and now resides Continue Reading
Portsmouth Square Chinatown During China’s 1989 Tianamen Square protests, when hope for sought-after reforms seemed to be fading, artist activists unveiled a 33-ft. tall paper mache and foam sculpture of the “Goddess of Democracy.” The statue, in the tradition of other giant torch-brandishing women, became an icon for the Democratic Movement, though it was demolished by government troops only five days after its appearance. Not surprisingly, replicas and tributes to the figure cropped up in other countries. In San Francisco’s Chinatown, a 10-ft. tall bronze version on a granite base was dedicated in 1994. The work was created by Continue Reading
Laguna and Haight Streets Love in the Lower Haight Haight Street Side This piece is part of the Love in the Lower Haight Project, it is a collaboration between GATS, Dead Eyes and RAS Terms. GATS (Graffiti Against The System) “GATS is one of the West Coast’s most prolific and rampant graffiti artists. Their iconic characters litter the landscape from coast to coast and have been spotted in over half a dozen different countries around the world.” He was the focus of a video that I have found to be one of the best produced regarding the subject. It is Continue Reading
Olive and Larkin and Geary The Tenderloin This beauty (though sadly tagged) is by Melbourne-based artist & Everfresh member, RONE. Made possible by Rogue Projects, the wall spans more than two car lengths and is located just off Larkin and Olive. Just at the end of the Olive on Larkin is this other lovely creature by RONE. This is at Larkin and Geary. RONE has this to say on his website: Rone’s posters are some of the most iconic in Australia, hiding under overpasses throughout Melbourne. He is renowned for the stylised images of ‘girls’ faces – it wouldn’t be a stretch to say Continue Reading