Mission – Page 2 – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

A New World Tree

Posted by Cindy on November 26, 2012

Nov 262012

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

Mission Parade

Posted by Cindy on November 21, 2012

Nov 212012

* 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

With Love and Respect for Moebius

Posted by Cindy on November 15, 2012

Nov 152012

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

Horfe paints San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on November 8, 2012

Nov 082012

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

The Jungle on Clarion Alley

Posted by Cindy on November 3, 2012

Nov 032012

Clarion Alley The Mission * This gorgeous woman is by BODE. This mural is in Clarion Alley in the Mission District. Clarion Alley runs just south of 17th Street from Mission to Valencia. CAMP, or the Clarion Alley Mural Project originated in 1982, inspired by San Francisco’s Balmy Avenue just down the street. None of the artists that formed CAMP had participated in the Balmy Alley project, nor did any of them have any background in mural projects. There is no theme to the alley or what artists are allowed to paint. Once an artist is given space, and as Continue Reading

Sirron Norris Paints Calumet

Posted by Cindy on October 22, 2012

Oct 222012

* As you can see, this piece by Sirron Norris is huge. This is what Sirron had to say about the piece before it began. (The scaffolding came down on August 31st). This mural will be funded by Calumet and will be a collaboration with Precita Eyes (www.precitaeyes.org)and the 3.9 art collective (www.threepointninecollective.com). My hope with this project, is to reach out to other artists and arts organizations in my community through collaboration. I also want to inspire my interns and give them one of the biggest challenges in their artistic life. On a personal note: this will be one Continue Reading

Few and Far Paint Clinton Park

Posted by Cindy on October 15, 2012

Oct 152012

As you turn onto Clinton Park from Valencia the first piece you are greeted with is the beauty by Amanda Lynn. Few and Far have covered the walls of Clinton Park to the delight of all that wonder down this very short alley. * * * * * * And a little further down Valencia at Duboce, you will find another by Mags and Amanda Lynn *

Avenida del Rio Bike Path and Greenbelt

Posted by Cindy on September 15, 2012

Sep 152012

16th and Harrison Mission District / SOMA Mission Creek Mosaic Mural Ceramic tile and mirror mosaic, 15 ft. x 8.5 ft. Funding provided by Potrero Nuevo Fund administered by New Langton Arts. Avenida del Rio tile mural marks one end of what is hoped to be the Mission Creek Bikeway and Greenbelt. The bikeway will follow the path of the now-buried creek. When the Forty-Niners arrived, they filled the creek in and built a railroad on top. Now what remains is a curved urban anomaly of a street cutting through the San Francisco street grid. The trail would follow this Continue Reading

Eduardo Pineda and Ray Patlan Grace the Jose Coronado Playground

Posted by Cindy on September 14, 2012

Sep 142012

Eduardo Pineda and Ray Patlan Grace the Jose Coronado Playground

Jose Coronado Playground and Clubhouse 21st and Folsom Mission District Raizes/Roots, Ray Patlan and Eduardo Pineda, Jose Coronado Playground Clubhouse The entire exterior of the Jose Coronado Clubhouse is sheathed in eleven hundred terra cotta-colored tiles, designed and hand-painted by artists Eduardo Pineda and Ray Patlan. The tiles depict Aztec-inspired images of birds and frogs in a repeated, checkerboard pattern. The pattern is interrupted periodically by large tile figures of animals and plant forms. Over the Center doorway are two highly stylized king buzzards (Cozcacuautli), in shades of terra cotta, near a blue coyote (Itzcuintli). A polka-dotted deer cavorts on the Continue Reading

Ornamental Gates at Rolph Playground

Posted by Cindy on September 13, 2012

Sep 132012

Rolph Playground Potrero at 25th & Utah and 25th Mission/Potrero Hill Isis Rodriguez has created two rolled iron ornamental artworks, one for each side of Rolph Playground. Isis Rodriguez is a second generation Mid-Western Latina who grew up in Topeka, Kansas and received her first lessons in art from copying Hannah-Barbera cartoons by hand. She attended the University of Kansas where she received her BFA in Painting in 1988. Two years later, she moved to San Francisco to pursue her cartoon inspired artwork using various art forms: murals, paintings, silk screens, graffiti, flyers, and posters. Isis worked on murals for Continue Reading

The Tragedy of the Gartland Apartments

Posted by Cindy on September 3, 2012

Sep 032012

Harrison and Alameda Mission/SOMA Mission Wall Dances is subtitled with a Robert Frost quote, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” During the 1970’s San Francisco’s Mission and SOMA areas were wracked by arson fires, many thought to be intentional. A fire that has left a large scar on the mission was the Gartland Apartments Fire. From a San Francisco Chronicle article of September 14, 2002: On the night of Dec. 12, (1975) somebody poured gasoline down the Gartland’s main stairwell and ignited it. The fire spread so quickly, so intensely that even veteran firefighters were stunned. “I’ve never heard Continue Reading

Evan Bissell captures Artists on the Streets of SF

Posted by Cindy on September 1, 2012

Sep 012012

Evan Bissell captures Artists on the Streets of SF

Folsom and 17th Mission District “I write to organize my thoughts. I spit poems because it feels empowering to know there is a room full of people there to listen.” This is Luara Venturi, a local spoken word poet, as depicted by Evan Bissell. The Intersection for the Arts’ show “Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere* youth, imagination and transformation” took place in 2008. Bissell’s paintings of young artists from Youth Speaks were put around the city as a teaser for the show. The site for each was chosen by the subject, the location being one with some personal meaning to the Continue Reading

Muertos in the Mission

Posted by Cindy on August 31, 2012

Aug 312012

Valencia Street Between 15th and 19th Streets Mission District * These tree grates are part of Phase One of the Valencia Streetscape Improvement Project. They were designed by DPW architects John Dennis and Martha Ketterer and manufactured by Iron Age Grates company. Phase one of the Valencia Streetscape Improvement Project included removal of the striped center median, sidewalk widening, bulb-outs, more accommodating curbside loading zones for trucks, improved traffic, parking and bicycle lane alignments, the removal of the striped center median, pedestrian scale lighting, art elements, bike racks, and new street trees. The project included the replacement and addition of 76,000 square Continue Reading

Around San Francisco with Victor Reyes

Posted by Cindy on August 12, 2012

Aug 122012

Around Town With Victor Reyes * 23rd and Mission * * This was done by Victor Reyes in 2010. Reyes has several murals around San Francisco. 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 Continue Reading

Around Town with muralist Amanda Lynn

Posted by Cindy on August 11, 2012

Aug 112012

Amanda Lynn around Town * Sunday Flamenco by Amanda Lynn – 2012 18th and Mission Amanda Lynn works by day restoring and painting motorcycles and metal sculptures. When she is not working, she paints figures on doorways and walls around San Francisco and throughout the country, usually accompanying graffiti mural productions. As well as concentrating on her fine art career of painting seductive female imagery on large scale canvases. She studied at the Academy of Art in San Francisco and received a Bachelor’s of Fine Art with an Illustration major. You can see more of her work here on her website Continue Reading

Mission Cultures Mosaics

Posted by Cindy on August 10, 2012

Aug 102012

The Mission District Start on Hoff and 16th cross the Street and continue on Julian Woodward Gardens * * Gold Rush Low Riders Immigration Asian Influence Carnival These panels were done in 2001 by students participating in the St. John’s Educational Thresholds, Panel Project as part of the Urban Artworks program. They represent various parts of Mission District heritage and culture. In 2008, after 35 years, St John’s Education Threshold Center changed its name to Mission Graduates. Mission Graduates is a nonprofit organization that increases the number of K-12 students in San Francisco’s Mission District who are prepared for and Continue Reading

Gigantes in the Mission

Posted by Cindy on August 3, 2012

Aug 032012

The Mission District San Carlos and 19th * All of us are equal Some of us grow up to be Giants… * This mural is by Precita Eyes. This is the description of the mural from their website: The “Gigantes” mural project can be read in three concepts; History, Community, and the Future. It features Hispanic players, two of whom are Hall of Famers. Historically, the Giants have been a significant landmark for San Francisco, the Bay Area, and the community of fans who surround them. For this reason the mural includes all four stadiums to represent the four stages Continue Reading

Trapeze Artists in the Mission

Posted by Cindy on July 30, 2012

Jul 302012

The Mission Hoff and 16th Streets * Bending Over Backwards by Susan R. Green 2010 This mural is part of the Break the Silence Mural and Arts Program. It is the beginning of a truly monumental mural project that will connect San Francisco’s Mission District with SOMA. According to the website: Bending Over Backwards (BOB) is a collaborative community, interactive and interdisciplinary project of re-membering and creating histories of the Mission and SOMA. BOB explores the high wire act that thriving in today’s world can be, providing visual and audio metaphors for the tenacious, exhilarating and daring flights made in the Continue Reading

Miguel Hidalgo in Mission Dolores Park

Posted by Cindy on July 19, 2012

Jul 192012

Mission Dolores Park The Mission Miguel Hidalgo – Liberator of Mexico 1810 On the back in the marble is carved: Monument Presented by The Mexican Colony To the City of San Francisco September 16th, 1962 Below it is a brass plaque that reads Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla Father of Mexican Independence 1753-1811 The liberation of Mexico after 300 years of domination by Spain started on September 16, 1810 in the town of Dolores in what is now the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla a priest and other patriots, among whom were Juan Aldama and Ignacio Allende, were Continue Reading

Liberty Bell of Mission Dolores Park

Posted by Cindy on July 18, 2012

Jul 182012

Mission Dolores Park The Mission * * The plaque reads: Mexico’s Liberty Bell (A Replica) On the early morning of Sunday September 16th a.d. 1810, Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla rang the bell of his church in the town of Dolores, in the now state of Guanajuato calling the people to mass and to bear arms against the Spanish yoke Continue Reading

California Volunteers Memorial on Market Street

Posted by Cindy 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

16th and Mission Bart Station

Posted by Cindy on July 14, 2012

Jul 142012

The Mission 16th and Mission * * * * * * * Palaza del Colibri by Victor Mario Zaballa 2003 Lawrence Berk – Metal Fabricator Colibri are hummingbirds. They are a medium to large species found in Mexico, and Central and northern South America. 16th Street Mission Station is a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station in the Mission District. It is used by the Richmond–Millbrae line, the Pittsburg/Bay Point – SFO line, the Fremont – Daly City line, and the Dublin/Pleasanton – Daly City line. It is an underground station. This particular intersection of San Francisco is one of Continue Reading

Money Mural on South Van Ness and 15th

Posted by Cindy on July 11, 2012

Jul 112012

The Mission South Van Ness and 15th * * * Signed Curve E. Pastime, one must assume this was done by Pastime of the LORDS crew. Pastime has other work in San Francisco. LORDS Production Crew has been operating in San Francisco for almost two decades, manipulating the stark walls of the urban landscape to make the wasteland a tad more livable for those of us lucky enough to notice and appreciate their nocturnal artwork. For example, the wall across from Amoeba Records on Haight is one of their collaborative murals, generally referred to as “productions” in graffiti lingo. Continue Reading

Generator by Andrew Schoultz and Aaron Noble

Posted by Cindy on July 10, 2012

Jul 102012

The Mission 18th and Lexington Generator by Andrew Schoultz and Aaron Noble * * * * * This description of the mural is from an absolutely amazing, September 1, 2004, article in the SF Weekly by Sam Chennault. It not only gives a wonderful description of the two artists, but chronicles their artistic life. More importantly, Chennault addresses the various concerns many people have about street art. Please take the time to give it a read. The mural’s central images are two large birdhouses that haphazardly spiral into each other. Smaller structures jut from the two main houses, and groups Continue Reading

Mission District – Carnaval

Posted by Cindy on June 17, 2012

Jun 172012

Mission District 18th and Harrison P.G.& E. Service Yard * * * * * * * Carnaval by Joshua Sarantitis – 1995 33 X 100 feet Joshua, a Minnesota resident, is a truly prolific muralist. Joshua Sarantitis has been creating monumental professional work in public spaces for over 20 years. His 40 commissioned works include glass installations and mosaic murals located regionally and abroad including San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Tucson. His ability to collaborate successfully with design professionals, arts administrators and community is rooted in a desire to find common language between our everyday lives Continue Reading

The Mission – 23

Posted by Cindy on May 2, 2012

May 022012

Mission and 23rd The Mission District * 23 in Binary Code 23 in Roman Numerals * * Mission 23 by Rigo23 – 2003 Mission 23 is a multi-part mosaic tile art piece embedded in the north-east and south-west sidewalks of Mission Street at 23rd Street. On each one of the white squares is a sentence painted in green that provides a fact about the number 23. Each of the large rectangles is a graphic symbol of the number 23, in white against a green background, to mimic a standard street sign, all of 1-inch mosaic tile. The number 23 holds Continue Reading

Mission District Composite Mural

Posted by Cindy on March 20, 2012

Mar 202012

Mission District Side of 161 Erie * * This wall began with nothing but a Banksy, it was just the center tree with bird. Apparently the neighborhood artists decided to run with the theme and added more all in one day. While Chor Boogie’s bird, that is identifiable, all other artists remain unknown. A blogger at Gone Tommorrow has a wonderful time lapse video of the “art day”.

Mission District – Community Thrift Store Mural

Posted by Cindy on January 8, 2012

Jan 082012

Mission District - Community Thrift Store Mural

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. Continue Reading

Mission, Norm’s Market

Posted by Cindy 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’s Fun Creatures

Posted by Cindy on December 19, 2011

Dec 192011

354 5th Street This work is by Sirron Norris. Born in Cleveland, Ohio he graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, eventually settling down in San Francisco in 1997. Sirron worked as a production artist in the video game industry while he perfected his skill set as a fine artist. In 1999, Sirron quickly gained notoriety from his first showing at The Luggage Store. Sirron was the recipient of the prestigious Wattis Artist in Residence from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2002. It was during that residency that he coined the term “Cartoon Literalism” as a description Continue Reading

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