Category: All of SAN FRANCISCO
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South San Francisco
Today’s post is, well honestly, a soap box. Most people know the City of South San Francisco because they see the above when they drive into San Francisco from the airport. That is it, that is probably all you need to know as well. It is a delightful little town with an old downtown where…
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Mission District- Balmy Avenue
Balmy Alley, Mission District, San Francisco. Part II. Part of the wooden cut out mural at the 24th end of Balmy Alley “The birth of a silence is written in the agony of a sigh” I continue with just a few more Balmy Alley murals today. There are many, many more and I again encourage…
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Mission District – Balmy Alley
Balmy Alley Inspired by Huichol Indian Yarn Paintings by Mia Gonzales, Susan Cervantes and Others 1991 This is the beginning of Balmy Avenue. It is runs between 25th and 24th streets in the Mission District, between Harrison and Treat. This block long alley is one of several great alleys in San Francisco with a highly concentrated…
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Oddities in San Francisco – Aeolian Harp
This is one of the more obscure pieces of art in the San Francisco area. It is actually in South San Francisco off Grandview Drive in the Oyster Point area. It is difficult to find, and surrounded by ugly industrial buildings that over shadow it. Which is sad, because it is really rather magnificent. 92-feet-tall…
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Winner of Best Public Art 2011
This is a special piece to me. The artist is Owen Smith, he is an award-winning illustrator whose work has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers. Smith’s WPA-style mosaic murals and bas relief sculptures at the new Laguna Honda pay homage to Glen Wessels’ W.P.A. mural series “Professions” located in the hospital’s 1926 building. Painted in…
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Gay Pride – June 27, 2011 – San Francisco
Gay Pride Parade – San Francisco – 2011. It was a beautiful day on Sunday for a parade, and the town was out in full force. The first event resembling the modern San Francisco Pride celebration was held in 1970–a small “gay-in” in Golden Gate Park. Since 1972, the event has been held each year.…
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San Francisco City College Mosaics
Two polished marble mosaics stand at either end of the Science Hall on the City College of San Francisco Campus. These mosaics are by the Swiss-born artist Herman Volz and represent fields such as physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics in tiny tiles. Completed on site, the mosaics took two years to install with a staff…
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Olmec Heads in San Francisco
San Francisco City College Ocean Avenue Campus Frida Kahlo Garden The giant Olmec head, “El Rey,” San Lorenzo #1 was carved by Ignacio Perez Solano, also know as “il Maestro.” The head is an accurate reproduction of the original piece from San Lorenzo in Veracruz, Mexico. The 3,000 year old original basalt head is…
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Peace in San Francisco
This statue of “Pacifica” is in the courtyard of the Diego Rivera Theater on the City College of San Francisco Ocean Avenue Campus. Originally, an 80 foot tall sculpture of Pacifica graced the Golden Gate International Exhibition on Treasure Island, she was destroyed by the Navy in 1941 when they took possession of the island. Sal…
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The Art of Concrete at CCSF
San Francisco City College Ocean Avenue Campus This is called “Sculptural deck and Bicentennial Wings” by Jacques Overhoff. It was done in 1979. It is typical of Overhoff work, cast concrete with ceramic tile. Jacques Overhoff was born in 1933 in the Netherlands and studied at the Graphics School of Design and the University of…
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Guns and Roses
San Francisco City College Ocean Avenue At the entrance to San Francisco City College is “St. Francis of the Guns” by Bufano. Born in Italy, in 1898, Beniamino Benvenuto Bufano taught at the California School of Fine Arts, now the San Francisco Art Institute, (but was dismissed in 1923 because he was considered too modern), the…
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Geneva Terrace
Viscitation Valley – Geneva Terrace – San Francisco Corner of Schwerein and Velasco Streets In the early 1960s, Joseph Eichler enlisted the help of architect Claude Oakland to design affordable housing in the Visitacion Valley. They came up with the Geneva Terrace Townhouse complex that you can see behind the park and the Geneva Towers…
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Mission District – Public Post
Valencia Street Between 16th and 19th, Mission District, San Francisco Valencia Street Post by Michael Arcega * Crafted out of steel and aluminum and painted with a durable urethane alkyd enamel, the ornamental crowns are sort of Victorian architecture that is intended to recall the neighborhood’s past history. The Department of Public Works added a…
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Excelsior District – Blue Bird of Happiness
A little blue bird in Cayuga Park, San Francisco Cayuga Park sits at the end of Cayuga lane under the 280 freeway and the Bart tracks in an area called The Excelsior district in San Francisco. I had been hearing for years about this little park and its grounds attendant Demetrio Braceros, but we…
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Tutubi Plaza – Make it Healthy
More Tutubi Plaza This is Super Hygiene Man. He and his mates are on the Russ side of what used to be the SOMA health center. These fellows sit on the wall of Tutubi Plaza that faces the butterflies.
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Tutubi Plaza – Dragonflies
Tutubi Plaza – SOMA – San Francisco This little area has become a hub for the Filipino Community in the San Francisco area. Tutubi means dragonfly in Tagalog. This mural is by Johanna Poethig.. Johanna was born in the Philippines, so I am sure this was especially important to her. She received her BFA from UC…
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SOMA – Tutubi Plaza
Tutubi Plaza Russ street, between Natoma and Minna in SOMA, San Francisco. This is a San Francisco Redevelopment project, first proposed in 2008 it was finally finished in February of 2011. This pavement installation is by Jovi Schnell. Jovi was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas and lives in San Francisco, she studied…
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Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge Plaza San Francisco Side This is a piece of the cable that holds up the Golden Gate Bridge. I have loved this piece since I first laid eyes on it. The sign tells you that the length of one cable is 7640 feet, the diameter is 36 3/8 inches, there are 27,…
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Memorial Day
Presidio Cemetery – San Francisco
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Golden Gate Bridge – Fort Point
Fort Point Golden Gate Bridge The building at the bottom of this picture is Fort Point. Many people look down upon this structure when they walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, but they never go to visit, which is a shame. Fort Point was completed just before the American civil war. Its purpose was…
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Golden Gate Bridge – Hopper’s Hands
Fort Point Golden Gate Bridge These are Hopper’s Hands. This plaque is at Fort Point, under the Golden Gate Bridge on the San Francisco side. The area is a turn around spot for people running the Presidio area, and slapping the hands is a tradition. Hopper’s hands has a great story, that I am sure…
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Oddities in San Francisco
915 Fulton Street This is Ron Henggeler’s Tower at 915 Fulton Street in San Francisco. Ron is a collector, he started building this 45 foot tower after the Loma Prieta Earthquake. He wandered down to where they were tearing up the Fell Street Freeway exit and scavenged the rebar, the tower grew from there. Ron…
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Market Street – Blossoms of Interest
Mid Market U.N. Plaza Black Rock Arts Foundation and the San Francisco Arts Commission has an Art In Storefronts Program that was intended to help the revitalization of the mid-market area of San Francisco. I don’t know if that can be done, but I do love the fact that art is being brought out to…
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Rincon Center – Obelisk
Rincon Center Embarcadero This sculpture, simply titled “Obelisk” is in the Rincon Center. It is by Joan Brown. Joan Brown was an American figurative painter who was born in San Francisco and lived and worked in Northern California. She was a notable member of the “second generation” of the Bay Area Figurative Movement. She studied at…