Public Art – Page 10 – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Strong Roots, Healthy Tree

Posted by Cindy on January 25, 2013

Jan 252013

Olive and Polk
The Tenderloin

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

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

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

Old Time Fun

Posted by Cindy on January 24, 2013

Jan 242013

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

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

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

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

Taking Life Lying Down

Posted by Cindy on January 23, 2013

Jan 232013

100 Block of Hemlock
The Tenderloin

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

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

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

Nico Berry on York Street

Posted by Cindy on January 22, 2013

Jan 222013

1354 York Street
Mission/Potrero

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

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

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

Martin Luther King Memorial

Posted by Cindy on January 21, 2013

Jan 212013

Yerba Buena Center Gardens

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

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

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

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

Reflecting Pool on the upper level of Yerba Buena Gardens

Shapes and Letters

Posted by Cindy on January 21, 2013

Jan 212013

751 and 780 Valencia at 19th
The Mission

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

Here is a few interesting excerpts from the article:

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

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

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

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

750 Mission

780 Mission

Utility Boxes get Dressed Up

Posted by Cindy on January 18, 2013

Jan 182013

Duboce and Church
Castro

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

The title of this box is Manifestation Station.

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

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

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

Mona Caron has several murals throughout San Francisco.

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

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

Cloud Portal

Posted by Cindy on January 16, 2013

Jan 162013

Corner of Washington and Davis
Golden Gateway Center

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

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

Domestic Seating in Bronze

Posted by Cindy on January 15, 2013

Jan 152013

Duboce and Church
Castro

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

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

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

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

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

Where the Wild Things Gnar

Posted by Cindy on January 14, 2013

Jan 142013

20th and Mission
The Mission

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

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

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

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

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

The Beaded Quilt

Posted by Cindy on January 11, 2013

Jan 112013

214 Van Ness Avenue
Civic Center

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kinetic Sculpture in Dolores Park

Posted by Cindy on January 10, 2013

Jan 102013

Mission Dolores Park
The Mission District

Mission Dolores underwent a $17+ million, much-needed and beautiful transformation in 2011 and 2012. Part of the renovation was this kinetic sculpture.

The sculpture, by Lymon Whitaker is 23 feet tall.

Lyman has been a practicing sculptor for over 40 years, with a unique knowledge of materials and their application. The past 19 years have primarily been focused on creating Wind Sculptures, which are all produced by hand. The Wind Sculptures are innovative and artistic with a high degree of mechanical integrity.

Lyman feels that by placing the sculptures in settings dependent on natural elements for movement, opportunities are provided for participants to think about their surroundings. He has said that his sculptures are organic and natural like vegetation and are enjoyed best in interactive settings where they are viewed over time.

Lyman received a Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis on sculpture from the University of Utah in 1978. He still resides in Utah, often retreating to his off-grid yurt for inspiration.

The Art of the Jessie Street Substation

Posted by Cindy on January 9, 2013

Jan 092013

The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Substation
222-226 Jessie Street
Market Street/Yerba Buena Gardens

Tucked away in a dead-end alley between Market and Mission, is one of San Francisco’s few great examples of the architectural possibilities of the brick facade. Originally built in 1881, and subsequently enlarged twice, the substation was damaged in a fire in February, 1906, and almost destroyed in the earthquake and fire of April, 1906. Rebuilt in 1907, the building owes its present character to Willis Polk, at that time head of the San Francisco office of D. H. Burnham and Company, the Chicago firm that had prepared the 1905 plan for the conversion of San Francisco to a model of the “city beautiful” along the lines of Paris and Washington. As a result, it is not altogether surprising that the architectural ideas of Polk and Burnham should have been applied to an electric substation in a South-of-Market alley.

This noble structure is a simple (but quite sophisticated) exercise in the development of balance, line, and texture. Though the eye focuses on the ornamental, vertical, and symmetrical piercings and moldings, it is the horizontal line of the rough, red wall that catches the breath. Yet, of course, it is the elaborate applied inventions that make the plain surface more than just another brick wall. This is a building that many San Franciscans have never seen, and it is worth going out of one’s way to look at it. The above Here Today, San Francisco’s Architectural Heritage by Roger Olmsted and T.H. Watkins, 1969.

The Substation, which served as a power station until 1924 is now part of the Contemporary Jewish Museum (designed by Daniel Liebeskind). This lovely pediment sculpture is part of the original substation building.

facade_lg

The pediment sculpture is located above the left door and features matte-glazed terra cotta cherubs holding garlands above a plaque that reads 1907, the date the original building was completed. Restoration of the brick facade took six months during which time damaged pieces of terra cotta were built out using fiberglass and putty. The fixtures were then re-glazed to protect them from future environmental damage.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum addition

There are a lot of beautiful ornamentation on buildings throughout San Francisco, and like much of it, it was done by artists and craftspeople that left us with a legacy but not their name.

The Winged Lion that Holds Court in a Traffic Circle

Posted by Cindy on January 8, 2013

Jan 082013

8th and Townsend
SOMA

This winged lion sits in the traffic circle at 8th and Townsend.

The lion was a gift from a former Galleria showroom owner, Jack Shears. (Shears and Windows)

The Design Center placed the lion in the traffic circle in 1988, then installed a sprinkler system and planted the lawn. The Design Center has maintained the traffic circle since then.

The lion, purchased from Haddonstone, was designed as the center piece for a fountain, with plumbing lines running internally within the piece. Wouldn’t it be nice if someday the fountain is completed.

Update: As you can see by Evan Ward’s comments. The statue was actually purchased by Mr. Poland that owned the Showplace Square and Galleria. He purchased the Saint Marks Lion (symbol of Venice, Italy) from Haddonstone, through the Shears and Windows Showroom on the urging of Jack Shears and Adam Window after a trip they made to Venice.

2 Bears in the Haight

Posted by Cindy on January 7, 2013

Jan 072013

226 Filmore between Haight and Waller
The Haight

These two bears are by Bologna based, Italian artist Ericailcane, whose website is so delightful it is worth a visit. Ericailcane makes etchings, graphic art, street art (most notably in collaboration with street artist Blu), animations, sculptures, installations, tattoos and loads of drawings. Inspired by Victorian children’s illustrations, the works are often macabre but never sad. They depict animals dressed like humans in surreal situations

Presidio’s Arguello Gate

Posted by Cindy on January 4, 2013

Jan 042013

Arguello and Pacific
Entry to the Presidio

The Arguello Gate was built by the Army in 1896. The designer was architect J.B. Whittemore. The gate was commissioned in 1895 and installed between 1896 and 1897.

Over the decades, it experienced much wear and tear, including being hit by a truck in 1996. This collision knocked off one of the beautifully carved sandstone capstones. Additionally, one of the large piers upon which the capstones sit had a crack so sizable that a passerby could see through to the other side.

In 2008, the Presidio Trust worked with master carver Oleg Lobykin, founder of Stonesculpt, to repair the historic gate and its adjacent walls, and to recreate the intricate carvings on the capstone. “We very much respect the labor which went into creating something like that. It’s a monument. It’s an artifact. It’s a piece of history. So we try to preserve it as much as we can,” said Lobykin.

In 2009, the Presidio Trust was honored with a Preservation Design Award in the Craftsmanship Category from the California Preservation Foundation its efforts.

Essayons is the motto of the US ARMY CORP of Engineers. The literal meaning of essayons is “let us try” in French. It is the only non-latin motto in the U.S. Army heraldry.

The US Army Corps of Engineers was created during America’s War for Independence, with the support of professional French Military Engineers. Today, that French heritage is still seen not only in its motto but within the language of the Engineer – “abatis,” “gabions,” “fascines” and “pontons” — all have their roots in 18th century France.

A reader sent me the following, that I found very interesting:

You know that American Eagle with the olive branch and arrows? During peacetime the eagle is supposed to be facing the olive branch while during wartime it faces the arrows. This means that U.S. military officers need to buy a new hat when a war starts. Admiral Spruance was too cheap for that so in pictures from WW2 he is usually the only one with the eagle facing the olive branch.

Yes I had to look up Admiral Spruance, this is what Wikipedia had to say:

Raymond Ames Spruance (July 3, 1886 – December 13, 1969) was a United States Navy admiral in World War II.

Spruance commanded US naval forces during two of the most significant naval battles that took place in the Pacific theater, the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The Battle of Midway was the first major victory for the United States over Japan and is seen by many as the turning point of the Pacific war. The Battle of the Philippine Sea was also a significant victory for the US. The Navy’s official historian said of the Battle of Midway “…Spruance’s performance was superb…(he) emerged from this battle one of the greatest admirals in American naval history”. After the war, Spruance was appointed President of the Naval War College, and later served as American ambassador to the Philippines.

Spruance was nicknamed “electric brain” for his calmness even in moments of supreme crisis: a reputation enhanced by his successful tactics at Midway.

Rattlecan Blasters go back in Time

Posted by Cindy on January 3, 2013

Jan 032013

1340 York Street
Mission District

This mural is part of the SF StreetSmARTS program. Painted by Rattlecan Blasters in 2011. Rattlecan Blasters consists of graffiti artists, Cameron Moberg (aka Camer1 from San Francisco) and Aaron Vickery (aka Fasm from Modesto). The duo teams up frequently to paint church youth rooms and exhibit in art shows. They have traveled to several states to use their rattlecan skills on commissioned murals. They have several other murals around San Francisco.

In this are JW for Justin Werely, a friend of Camer1 whose name is on the right. The blue letters above say AMP which is the graffiti name of the third painter Buddy Raymonds.

I asked Cameron why the dinosaurs, he said that he had been reading a lot about them to his son and just likes them.

Zoe Ani and the SF StreetSmARTS program

Posted by Cindy on January 2, 2013

Jan 022013

2840 San Bruno
Excelsior District

M.K. Zoe Ani’s work ranges from representational to abstract landscapes. Her perspective is enriched by her Hawaiian and American Indian heritage. Her experience is one of a dichotomy of two cultures separated not only by a vast ocean, but also a mindset that is reflective of the dissemination of each indigenous group. She developed her skills in drawing during her travels and forged a unique art education by pursuing opportunities to learn and work in alternative settings.

Zoe began drawing as a teenager in southern Oregon. She began painting at The Art Students League in New York City from 1998 – 2002. She worked primarily in oil. She continued to pursue her craft in her tiny studio in Brooklyn, NY. In 2005 she transitioned from working in oil to encaustic painting after attending a workshop at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina.

The transition from oil to beeswax required more space to breathe. The natural inclination for expansion and a shift in perspective brought her full circle back to the west coast after twelve years in New York City. She has immersed herself in her new surroundings working out of a bigger studio located in the Dogpatch neighborhood in San Francisco, CA.

This is part of the SF StreetSmARTS program.

Wes Wong and the Phoenix Hotel

Posted by Cindy on December 31, 2012

Dec 312012

601 Eddy
The Tenderloin

This long series is part of the San Francisco StreetSmARTS program. The artist is Wes Wong, he is part of the Fresh Paint Crew.

Fresh Paint, a San Francisco Mural painting crew aims to defy assumptions of what is possible with a spray can. The group is comprised of and collaborates with some of the best aerosol painters from the Bay Area and beyond, creating innovative murals in San Francisco. Concepts vary in aesthetic tone from photorealistic to illustrative, utilizing the large pool of artistic backgrounds within the crew. They produce murals that fit with their environment and are easily digestible for everyone from blue-collar workers to aerosol art fanatics.

Wes Wong is a visual problem solver living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He works in various aspects of the web by day: branding, user experience, user interface design, web marketing and front end; while painting big murals by night. His background in graphic design has brought a unique approach to mural work, striving to build a strong visual concept that relates to the space or client’s vision, often times finding a mixture of the two.

He quit the typical aerosol life years ago to start a family and focus on professional work. The spray paint itch was hard to kick, so Wes shifted his focus to persuing walls where he can produce large scale murals.

The wall is part of the Hotel Phoenix, the neighborhood is rough and the graffiti prolific. The purpose of StreetSmARTS is to help prevent graffiti by having property owners hire select artists to paint a surface that has been vandalized in the past, in hopes to prevent further vandalism.

San Francisco’s Civic Center the Heart of the City Beautiful Movement

Posted by Cindy on December 29, 2012

Dec 292012

San Francisco’s 1906 fire and earthquake not only destroyed much of San Francisco, it also destroyed the dream of many to bring the City Beautiful Movement to large sections of San Francisco.

The City Beautiful Movement began with the “White City,” also known as the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. The Exposition took place in Chicago and was an exercise in light, order and forward thinking.

The shimmering “White City” was a model of early city planning and architectural cohesion. In the Court of Honor all of the buildings had uniform heights, were decorated roughly in the same manner, and painted bright white. The beauty of the main court, the well-planned balance of buildings, water, and open green spaces was a wholly new concept to the visitors of the fair. Dignified, monumental and well run, the White City boasted state-of-the-art sanitation and transportation systems. All of this was in sharp contrast to the grey, urban sprawl of Chicago in 1893.

Chicago – 1893 World Columbian Exposition – (Photo courtesy of Boston College)

The City Beautiful Movement was a response to failing urban life. An attempt to improve cities through beautification, it was hoped that the solution of social ills would inspire civic loyalty, and make city centers more inviting to the upper classes, in hopes that they would return to them for work and therefore spend money.

The City Beautiful Movement used the language of the Beaux Arts (Fine Arts) Style. This style was named after the art and architecture school of Paris the Ecoles des Beaux Arts and flourished between 1885 and 1920.

The Beaux Arts is a classical style with a full range of Grecian and Roman elements, including columns, arches, vaults and domes.

General defining elements include the following:

Symmetry
Highly ornamented exterior decorations
A single architectural element as the center of the building composition. This could be an over-scaled
archway or a dramatic line of columns.
A dramatic roofline, often with sculptured figures
Monumental steps approaching the entrance
Floor plans that culminate in a single grand room
Axial floor plans so that vistas can be obtained throughout the building

Classic Elements of Beaux Art Architecture.

The City Beautiful Movement began in San Francisco in 1904, when James Duval Phelan, former mayor and president of the “Association for the Improvement and Adornment of San Francisco,” invited Daniel Hudson Burnham to town. Daniel Burnham was the indisputable “Father of City Beautiful.” He was the Director of Works for the Worlds Columbian Exhibition in Chicago and took a leading role in the creation of master plans for a number of cities.

Burnham’s group proposed that a new Civic Center complex be built at the corner of Market and Van Ness with radiating grand boulevards. A landscaped park would begin at the Civic Center and extend to the Golden Gate Park Panhandle. Twin Peaks was to be crowned with a neo-classic library overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The plan created neighborhoods, which would be accessed by a grid pattern, and tied the transportation systems to scenic views. The groups’ plan prescribed careful treatment of the hills and streets and even took into consideration the issues of building costs, maintenance and upkeep.

The War Memorial Veterans Building – San Francisco

The War Memorial Opera House is almost identical to the Veterans Building.

In 1906 the earthquake and fire presented the City Beautiful movement with a blank canvas-with one caveat, the merchants of San Francisco, eager to regenerate commerce, would have the final say as to the direction of future building in San Francisco.

Nevertheless, there was still a significant Beaux Arts influence in a number of buildings that were built after the earthquake, and the Civic Center we know today is one of the finest examples of the movement.

The Bill Graham Auditorium

The Beaux Arts buildings that create the heart of Civic Center include City Hall and the Exposition Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Auditorium) completed in 1915 in time for the Pan Pacific Exhibition, the War Memorial Opera House and the War Memorial Veterans Building, the Main Library and the State and Old Federal Buildings built in the 1920s and 1930s.

These classic buildings give the San Francisco Civic Center a visual cohesion that should encourage visitors to sit and enjoy this area. Sadly, due to the continued onslaught of vagrancy, the City of San Francisco has destroyed the central park area, Civic Center Plaza, that brings the buildings together.

“The biggest single obstacle to the provision of better public space is the undesirables problem,” wrote William H. Whyte in his 1980 book, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. “They are themselves not too much of a problem. It is the actions taken to combat them that is the problem.”

The Civic Center open space has no benches, and if you are looking for a place to sit, you will find poorly maintained lawns interrupted by sparsely planted annuals. A colonnade of pollarded London Plane trees stands like sentinels over a vast bed of decomposed granite that used to house a reflective pool. While the Asian Art Museum has often placed intriguing and world-class art in the plaza, it is not yet enough to make the average citizen want to visit.

Dealing with the homeless problem in San Francisco has never been one of calm and reason; making the area scream, “go away” has not worked. It is time to find a way to bring vibrancy and humanity back to the area. It is time that the city slowly works its way back to the ideals of the City Beautiful Movement within its own Civic Center.

The State of California building

Beautification of a Utility Box by Malik Seneferu

Posted by Cindy on December 28, 2012

Dec 282012

3rd and Oakdale
Bayview

This utility box was painted by Malik Seneferu.

Malik is a self-taught and extremely prolific African-American artist that has created more than 1,000 different pieces of artwork, including paintings, murals, and mixed media projects in the past 25 years. Despite the fact that he has no formal college training, Malik’s art has hung in many different professional arenas throughout the world, such as galleries, museums, magazines, and newspapers.

While growing up in the 1970s and 80s, Malik saw his peers going to jail and getting killed. Living a life of crime did not appeal to him, so he chose to follow his dreams and began creating art. His interest in art became a pursuit for spiritual, mental, and physical elevation. In addition to creating original art pieces, Malik works with communities that have seen hardship.

This piece was sponsored by the SF Housing Development Corporation with support by the Bayview Opera House, 4800 Home Owners Association and the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center.

April Berger paints the Mission

Posted by Cindy on December 27, 2012

Dec 272012

3300 Block of 18th
Mission District

April Berger is an artist who has been living and creating art in San Francisco for thirty years. Her work is primarily non-figurative, which allows the viewer to have an immediate response to the color, texture, pattern, and forms that they are seeing. Her love of color has been the main focus of her works of art. “Color is an extremely powerful tool. Its impact is strong and far reaching. It promotes health, well being, vitality and peace.”

One of Ms. Berger’s goals is to have her rich color palettes beautify walls throughout her beloved city. “San Francisco’s tendency has been to have political and urban style murals. I think it’s very important to have a wide variety of styles on our city streets.”

Berger has exhibited and sold her works both nationally and internationally. She received her arts degree at SUNY Purchase in New York

This particular mural was part of April’s Paint it Forward Program.

She raised over $5000 through Kick Starter and this was the proposal:

The idea of The Paint it Forward Project came to me last year after completing a mural that I was commissioned to paint in order to cover graffiti. It’s been demonstrated over and over again that once a mural is on a wall, it no longer gets “tagged” with graffiti. The goal of the project is to collaborate on the design and creation of two new murals in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA. Paint it Forward will be a true collaboration between artists who bring very different styles and content to their work.

The Paint It Forward project is about empowering our youth and beautifying our neighborhood. I will be engaging young “taggers” who have the desire to be true artists and make their mark on the world around them. If given the proper mentoring and support, these dynamic young people will develop into successful public artists, creating dynamic murals, feeling a sense of pride, belonging and responsibility to their city.

I’d like to raise $5,000 in order to pay these kids for their time, for the materials, and for a huge party to celebrate the completion of the murals.

Ruth Asawa at the Parc 55

Posted by Cindy on December 26, 2012

Dec 262012

55 Cyril Magnin
Union Square Area
Parc 55 Hotel porte-cochere

San Francisco Yesterday and Today by Ruth Asawa 1984 – Cast Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Ruth Asawa used baker’s clay to sculpt these panels. Ms. Asawa has many works around San Francisco. An American artist, who is nationally recognized for her wire sculpture. Ruth, at the age of 16, along with her family, was interned in Rohwer camp in Rohwer, Arkansas at a time when it was feared the people of Japanese descent on the West Coast would commit acts of sabotage. It was the first step on a journey into the art world for Ruth. In 1994, when she was 68 years old, she said of the experience: “I hold no hostilities for what happened; I blame no one. Sometimes good comes through adversity. I would not be who I am today had it not been for the Internment, and I like who I am.”

RESPECT

Posted by Cindy on December 21, 2012

Dec 212012

1601 Lane
Bayview/Hunters Point

Respect

This mural is on the side of the YMCA in the Bayview. It was funded by SF StreetSmARTS program and was done by Senay Dennis, also known as Refa One.

Refa’s website had this to say about his calligraphy murals.

Style

1: a distinctive manner of expression (as in writing or speech).

Characteristics or elements combined and expressed in a particular (often unique) and consistent manner. Derived from ‘stylus,’ the Latin word for a sharp instrument for making relatively permanent marks.

Style Writing is the art form and culture I am MOST passionate about. Writing exemplifies the highest expression of my creative abilities. If there was a single body of work I had to use to represent my being,it would be the “Wild Style”. When I’m doing a Burner, my spirit is in it’s most active and peaceful state.

Bufano in Valencia Gardens

Posted by Cindy on December 20, 2012

Dec 202012

Valencia Gardens Housing Project
Corner of Maxwell Court and Rosa Parks Way

These animal sculptures at Valencia Gardens were sculpted by Beniamino (Benny) Bufano. They were done in the 1930s for the Work Progress Administration Project at Aquatic Park. In the 1940s, when the federal government pulled out of San Francisco the sculptures were given to the City of San Francisco and became the charge of the San Francisco Art Commission.

There are two other sculptures that were part of this grouping. The Frog and The Seal are still at Aquatic Park.

This collection of statuary is by San Francisco darling Beniamino Bufano. They sit in a courtyard of the completely newly rebuilt Valencia Garden Housing Project.

During the work that was done at Valencia Gardens, the statues were placed at the Randall Museum for restoration and the enjoyment of the citizens of San Francisco.

The $66 million development of the new Valencia Gardens replaced 246 dilapidated and blighted housing units with 260 affordable homes for extremely-low and low-income families and seniors. Valencia Gardens is located on a 4.9-acre site between Valencia, Guerrero, 15th, and 14th Streets in the Mission District, the same location as the previous public housing which stood for over sixty years.

After almost a decade of planning, the revitalization of Valencia Gardens was made possible through a network of partnerships and collaborations at the local, state and federal levels. As a HOPE VI development, $66 million in development financing was provided by both the public and private sectors.

The design and architecture of Valencia Gardens are based on new urbanism principles that have shown to increase the quality of life and sense of community in other HOPE VI affordable housing developments. Most importantly, Valencia Gardens is integrated into its neighborhood with new public roads and walkways, as opposed to being isolated by fencing, as was the case with the previous project.

Liberty Ship at Islais Creek

Posted by Cindy on December 19, 2012

Dec 192012

SFMTA Islais Motor Coach Facility
Sitting on Islais Creek in the new Shoreline Park
Indiana Street and Ceasar Chavez
Bayview

This 340′ Long Steel Sculpture is an abstract representation of the old Liberty Ships that were built in the Shipyards of this neighborhood.

The sculpture is by Nobuho Nagasawa a New York based artist. Nobuho had this to say on ArtNet

My work ranges from site-specific projects to installations and public art. I create an interactive space that is informed by the actual place — its history, people and spatial narrative. This approach requires detective-like investigation and quasi-archeological research, exploring sociological and psychological aspects of each site. Immediate physical and social context influences the form, content, and choice of materials and media.

I see my artist’s identity as inevitably “hybrid” – in my case, part sculptor, journalist, poet, architect, and urban designer. Materials and methodology follow upon the necessary diversity of evolving concepts as a project reveals its conditions. I see this process as an excavation of meanings – cultural, geopolitical, social, personal – that lie hidden within the materials themselves. By revealing personal memories, collective histories, unacknowledged myths, and contradictory issues, I try to open up key social and personal reserves that can galvanize public interaction. Art, after all, has the power to deconstruct the blockages of social energy and serve as a catalyst to new vision and public self-discovery. My goal is to create artwork that provokes and revives a site and wakes people up to the poetry of place.

I am intrigued by the sense of scale, both human and civic, and how relatively small change can enhance private experience within the public setting. A truly livable space should stand the test of time. It spurs social communication and inspires reconstruction. When history is brought to the surface through public art, it can serve as source for the renewal of cultural identity and the evolution of social values.

My goal is to create works that attract people to possibility where and as they live. The development and realization of art in public is a dialogue with a place and its time – land and substance, its past, its people, the future they create – made new, immediate, and somehow timeless.

Based in New York City since 2001, Nobuho Nagasawa was born in Tokyo, and raised in Europe and Japan, and received her MFA at Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. She came to the United States as a visiting scholar through the invitation of California Institute of the Arts in 1986, where she studied visual art, critical theory and music.

This piece was commissioned by the SFAC for $750,000 in the 2008-2009 budget year.

San Francisco All Wrapped Up in a Fountain

Posted by Cindy on December 18, 2012

Dec 182012

Union Square
Hyatt Hotel
345 Stockton Street

This fountain by Ruth Asawa was commissioned by Hyatt in 1970 and completed in 1972, the fountain consists of 41 individual bronzed plaques each about 26X32 inches depicting San Francisco landmarks covering the entire circular wall of the fountain bowl and measuring over 14 feet in diameter. At the center of the high wall of the drum, you will notice HH which represents the Grand Hyatt on Union Square. Everything to the south of Union Square is to the left, everything north is to the right. The Ocean is the top boundary, the bay is at the bottom. You may recognize the Powell St Cable Car turnabout, the opera house, Nob Hill, the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge, the Ferry Building, Ghiradelli Square, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Palace of Fine Arts, and the Golden Gate Bridge, among many other familiar sights. In addition, you may notice fantasies such as Superman flying past the Montgomery St Skyscraper over Snoopy on his dog house or the Wizard of Oz character. Total effect is a real and unreal world where anyone can enter.

Because of Ruth’s desire to show what many many hands working together could do, help from visitors and over 100 children in the area was solicited. Rather than the traditional sculpture’s material, Asawa used a bread dough bakers clay to model the fountain. When finished the piece of sculptured dough was arranged on the panels surface and stuck down with white glue. The panel were then set aside the thoroughly dry before being taken to the fountain for casting.

Lombard Street

The French Laundry, one of the Bay Areas renowned restaurants, and at the time of this sculpture was owned by Don and Sally Schmitt, whose legacy lives on at The Apple Farm. The Schmitts sold the restaurant to it’s current chef, Thomas Keller.

Mission Dolores

The Conservatory in Golden Gate Park

Fleishacker Pool was a public saltwater swimming pool located in the southwest corner of San Francisco, next to the zoo for 47 years. Upon its completion in 1925, it was one of the largest heated outdoor swimming pools in the world.

Palace of Fine Arts

Soul Journey

Posted by Cindy on December 17, 2012

Dec 172012

1625 Carroll at Third Street
Bayview

Titled Soul Journey this mural was done by Precita Eyes in 2000. It was designed by their director, Susan Kelk Cervantes and executed by Ronnie Goodman, Tomashi Red Jackson, “Diallo” John H. Jones, Dan Macchiarini and Mel Simmons.

Under the fawn it reads: Home sickness on a quiet night…on the ground before my bed is spread the bright moonlight, but I take it for frost, when I wake up at the first light. Then I look up at the bright full moon in the sky suddenly homesickness strikes me as I bow my head with a deep sigh.

In the waves of this panel you can read this:

The soul journey of tears has slowed from people’s eyes for many years

The soul journey of tears has dropped to the ground forced through cultivated soil that has transformed their lives and wiped away their sorrow and pain from their lives.

This soul journey of tears have given us new meaning to life. By R. Goodman

This project, executed in 2000, was funded by the Mayors Neighborhood Beautification Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Carroll Avenue Associates.

Benny Bufano in the Sunnydale Projects

Posted by Cindy on December 12, 2012

Dec 122012

1654 Sunnydale
Visitacion Valley

This Beniamino Bufano statue is of a Bear over the Head of Peace. It was done somewhere around 1935-1940 and stands in front of the Community Center at the Sunnydale Projects. Bufano was a prolific sculptor in his time and his work can be found all over San Francisco.

Sunnydale was built in the 1940’s as a means to house military personnel and their families, it was later bought by the city of San Francisco and converted to a low-income housing project.

The Housing Authority was created in 1938 to help poor families build better lives by creating temporary subsidized housing. Over the years, the once well-kept projects turned into havens for crime, and the services that families need to get out and move on – such as child care, job training, legal help and counseling – evaporated with cutbacks.

Sunnydale, is quite possibly the most dangerous, depressed and decrepit area of the city. The dilapidated barracks that make up the development are lined up on a hillside in the shadow of the Cow Palace, opposite McLaren Park.

An estimated 1,633 people live in the square mile of concrete housing. Once considered a nice place for a family to live, the development is now home to those who can’t afford anything else.

The above was from a February 2008 SF Gate article by Leslie Fulbright. A two part series titled Life at the Bottom.

Meagan Spendlove collaborates with Cavalier Design Studio

Posted by Cindy on December 10, 2012

Dec 102012

1035 Post Street
Back of the Building on Cedar

This mural sits on Cedar Street. It was commissioned by Cavalier Design Studio which resides at 135 Post Street in San Francisco. The artist is Meagan Spendlove, whose work can be found all around San Francisco.

Meagan Spendlove, often artistically entitled as “Siloette”currently works in San Francisco, California as a conceptual artist and project coordinator. Her current endeavors include yet are not limited to achieving an MA in Integral Arts Therapy and teaching public artwork within the Bay Area.

For the last decade Spendlove has painted or promoted at multicultural events in over 50 cities around the world. Creating portraits that have become recognized primarily for their ethereal tones and vivid color spectrums. Aesthetically speaking her style has been compared to Art Nouveau, stained glass & waves.

This mural is part of the San Francisco StreetSmARTS program.

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