Hands by Vicki Saulls

 Posted by on July 7, 2018
Jul 072018
 

Eureka Valley Rec Center
100 Collingwood
Castro

Titled From the Heart Outward, this piece sits in the lobby of the Eureka Valley Rec Center.

Titled From the Heart Outward, this piece sits in the lobby of the Eureka Valley Rec Center.

The project consists of casts of hands of citizens throughout the neighboring community.  The call for volunteers read:  “My sense of the center is that it’s a really welcoming place for diverse interests and community groups. I wanted to use the welcoming theme and came up with the idea of using hands and gestures. My plan is to use various groupings–parents and children, friends, couples, partners–doing gestures. They could be holding hands, holding a basketball, playing cards. I expect some people will have ideas better than mine as far as the final gestures used,” says Saulls.

The pieces, cast by Erick Dunn, are of cold cast bronze and zinc aluminum

The pieces, cast by Erick Dunn, are of cold cast bronze and zinc aluminum

There are three hands at the entry to the Rec Center

There are three hands at the entry to the Rec Center.  This piece is titled Welcome Hands

These hands are made of concrete and were cast by Concretework Studio

These hands are made of concrete and were cast by Concretework Studio

Vicki Saulls has been on this site several times before.

This project was commissioned by the SFAC at a cost of $42,000 in 2004.

The Seed in Jane Warner Plaza

 Posted by on January 23, 2018
Jan 232018
 
The Seed in Jane Warner Plaza

Castro District “The Seed” is part of a complete redo of the intersection of Castro and Market.  It was created by Los Angeles-based Aphidoidea, a multi-disciplinary design, architecture and art collective. “The Seed” was inspired by the Castro District’s culture and human rights movement in a form of a seed. This art piece is an homage to those seeds– “wishes” that have found their place in the world. Aphidoidea is composed of four main members, Paulina Bouyer-Magan, Jesus(Eddie) Magaña, Andrew Hernandez, and Jacqueline Muñoz. The four are formally trained architects, and, since 2008, has been engaged in a variety of Continue Reading

Labyrinth in Duboce Park

 Posted by on June 2, 2015
Jun 022015
 
Labyrinth in Duboce Park

Scott Street Lower Haight Duboce Triangle This labyrinth was part of Duboce Parks revitalization plan. The plan, funded by Friends of Duboce Park, began with fundraising in 1997 and took years to accomplish.  The labyrinth was laid in 2007. It was proposed by Friends’ Janet Scheuer, who had walked labyrinths all over the world. “We need to create a quiet spot for people,” she said. She volunteered to “own” the project, find funding and work with designers. Hal Fischer headed up the fund raising. They raised $90,000, with $5000 from San Francisco Beautiful, $25,000 from the CPMC Davies Campus that Continue Reading

Castro District History

 Posted by on May 12, 2015
May 122015
 
Castro District History

Castro Street The Castro Street Design Project was a street improvement project by the City of San Francisco that improved the cable car turn around at Market Street and Castro Street between Market and 19th.  This included the fabulous rainbow cross walk you see above and historic markers placed in the sidewalk up and down Castro Street on both sides of the street for those two blocks. The native Yelamu people lived nearby in the village of Chutchul relocating each winter to the bayside village of Sitlintac. A creek flows past grassland and chaparral toward the bay along the path Continue Reading

Rainbow Honor Walk

 Posted by on March 20, 2015
Mar 202015
 
Rainbow Honor Walk

Castro Street Between Market and 20th There are twenty individuals honored on the Rainbow Honor Walk.  According to the Walks website:  The Rainbow Honor Walk seeks to honor heroines & heroes of the LGBT communities through a sidewalk tribute in San Francisco’s historic Castro district to honor their contributions. The Rainbow Honor Walk is an all-volunteer organization. The criteria for the first 20 names to be placed on the Rainbow Honor Walk are as follows: Self expressed LGBT individuals, now deceased, who made significant contributions in their fields. Criteria for additional names to be added to the Walk over the Continue Reading

Harvey Milk Rec Center

 Posted by on April 15, 2013
Apr 152013
 
Harvey Milk Rec Center

50 Scott Castro This saying is over the back entry way to the Harvey Milk Recreation Center.  It is in Architectural foam and is by Michael Davis and Susan Schwartzenberg. This phrase comes from “A City of Neighborhoods,” speech Harvey Milk delivered during his inaugural dinner after his election to the Board of Supervisors in 1977. “Let’s make no mistake about this: the American dream starts with the neighborhoods, If we wish to rebuild our cities, we must first rebuild our neighborhoods. and to do that we must understand that the quality of life is more important than the standard Continue Reading

Utility Boxes get Dressed Up

 Posted by on January 18, 2013
Jan 182013
 
Utility Boxes get Dressed Up

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, Continue Reading

Domestic Seating in Bronze

 Posted by on January 15, 2013
Jan 152013
 
Domestic Seating in Bronze

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 Continue Reading

La Madre Tonantsin

 Posted by on November 27, 2012
Nov 272012
 
La Madre Tonantsin

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

Watching the Wind at the Randall Museum

 Posted by on September 6, 2012
Sep 062012
 
Watching the Wind at the Randall Museum

Randall Museum 199 Museum Way Castro * The plaque that accompanies the piece reads: Charles Sowers is an artist whose practice links art and science.  Here wind currents activate over 500 aluminum arrows to reveal the ever-changing ways the wind interacts with the building and its environment.  “My work presents actual physical phenomena, often of striking visual beauty, that draw people into careful noticing and interaction” This piece is from the Collection of the City and County of San Francisco commissioned by the SFAC for the Randall Museum Funded by the Public Utilities Company. According to a February 21, 2012 Continue Reading

California Volunteers Memorial on Market Street

 Posted by on July 17, 2012
Jul 172012
 
California Volunteers Memorial on Market Street

Market Street at Dolores Mission/Castro * * * California Volunteers by Douglas Tilden – Bronze on a granite base Dedicated August 12, 1906 Erected by the Citizens of San Francisco In Honor Of The California Volunteers Spanish American War 1898 First to The Front At the end of the Spanish-American War, when the troops returned, San Franciscans went wild. Sixty-five thousand dollars was raised, $25,000 of which was allocated for a memorial. Douglas Tilden won the national competition. California Volunteers, a bronze work sixteen feet high and ten feet long mounted atop a granite base ten feet high, stands at Continue Reading

S.F. Bicycle Coalition Mural

 Posted by on January 11, 2012
Jan 112012
 
S.F. Bicycle Coalition Mural

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 Continue Reading

Homes as Canvas

 Posted by on October 21, 2011
Oct 212011
 
Homes as Canvas

Mission District Castro District 3014 22nd Street So many times I walk by homes that look like canvases.  I fantasize that some wonderful artist lives in this abode.  I have no way of knowing but here are a few that I have enjoyed. This is the garage door of a home at the corner of Saturn and Lower Terrace. Notice the stenciled 2nd floor and the “mosaic” gutter. The neighbors did the same.

Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy

 Posted by on October 16, 2011
Oct 162011
 
Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy

Castro District Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy   The “Books & Reading” Mural is located at the school’s facade. This mural is a part 1 of a triptych. Created by students with Artist in Residence Ellen Blakeley in 2000, each child drew a 4″ picture of their favorite book or a picture of themselves reading. Materials included paper, glass, metal, and paint. This section is approximately 18′ x 6′. The “Math & Numbers” Mural is part 2 of the triptych. Each child worked out a math problem on paper. The “Civil Rights, Human Rights” Mural is part 3 of the Continue Reading

Castro – A Celebration of Love

 Posted by on October 15, 2011
Oct 152011
 
Castro - A Celebration of Love

Castro District Noe and 19th Street This is a Precita Eyes Mural.  It was done in 2008 and is titled “A Celebration of Love”

Eureka Valley Rec Center

 Posted by on October 14, 2011
Oct 142011
 
Eureka Valley Rec Center

Castro District/Eureka Valley Eureka Valley Rec Center 157 Collingwood Street Time After Time by Betsie Miller-Kusz 2005   Betsie was Born in Los Alamos, New Mexico and resides in Jemez, New Mexico.  This is from her website “I paint and only paint.  My installations are extensions of this act, which gives meaning to my existence. These paintings speak about the field of consciousness as it transforms itself, with a great guardian figure as the mediator.  Through rivers, into seas, through trees and mesas, the sentience of life flows into the light. This is the territory which I have then painted Continue Reading

Mona Caron Brings You a Garden

 Posted by on October 13, 2011
Oct 132011
 
Mona Caron Brings You a Garden

Noe Valley/Castro Corner of Church and 22nd Streets Botanical Mural by Mona Caron This mural is immense.  It is impossible to capture it in one photo and have any idea of what is being portrayed, so I have chosen to shoot it and show it to you in sections.  Mona Caron has shown up several times in this website.  This mural features greatly magnified botanical illustrations of locally occurring, small wild plants, both native species and non-native, invasive weeds. This is a real eye catcher, the massive scale of the plants and insects is just spectacular. The mural was painted in Continue Reading

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