Outer Mission – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Peter VandenBerge at CCSF

Posted by Cindy on July 27, 2018

Jul 272018

Childcare and Development Center
CCSF Phelan Campus
The building is now Closed

This whimsical mural is by ceramic artist Peter VandenBerge. It measures 8′ by 5′ and is made of ceramic tiles.

Vandenberge has been on this site before.

VandenBerge was part of the legendary group at University of California, Davis, during the 1960s. Working under Robert Arneson he was part of the Funk Art movement but evolved in his own direction. He is best known for his larger-than-life busts and figures, elongated beings that are roughly constructed, reminiscent of ancient tribal art, and finished with texturing, glazes, and stains. VandenBerge has said that the figures arise out of long ago memories of puppet shows he loved as a child in Indonesia, the memories blurred and mixed with the variety of experiences that have comprised his life since those days. In addition to his work as a studio artist, VandenBerge has had a long and successful career as a teacher: first at California State University, San Francisco and then for nearly 30 years at his alma mater, California State University, Sacramento where he is presently Professor Emeritus having fully retired in 2003.

This piece was originally commissioned by the SFAC, who was unable to locate an appropriate location for it. It was offered to CCSF and was displayed at the south end of the library reading room in Cloud Hall. Following construction of the Rosenberg Library, the mural was placed in storage and then installed at the Orfalea Center in 2008. The center has since closed permanently.

The mural is still there, and hopefully, it will be moved to a new location when the area is rehabbed.

* *

A small indication of the state of the buildings that made up the Orfalea Center, and why it is no longer in use, but whose architecture is fascinating.

Mosaics of Balboa Park

Posted by Cindy on December 13, 2016

Dec 132016

Ocean and San Jose Avenue Mission Terrace/Outer Mission There are several mosaics throughout the new Balboa Park Playground. This bench sits on the exterior of the playground and explains about the restoration of the park, it also lists all the donors that helped to make the project possible. The mosaic work is by Rachel Rodi. Students from Denman Middle School and Lick Wilmerding helped to design and build the mosaics on the two stairways, under the supervision of Rachel Rodi. Rachel received a BA in Ceramics from Regis University, Denver Colorado and studied at the Institute of Mosaic Art in Continue Reading

Balboa Park’s Art Fence

Posted by Cindy on December 10, 2016

Dec 102016

Ocean and San Jose Avenue Mission Terrace/Outer Mission Balboa Park became part of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department in 1908. In the 1950s a swimming pool and baseball fields were added. Then in 1953 a 3,000 person soccer stadium was included in the park. The 1970s brought a tot park, and then age and neglect brought about the need for a complete overhaul. The playground was completely rebuilt by the neighbors, along with tennis courts in 2008, as of 2016, the city is still trying to find the budget to upgrade the swimming facilities, but the park itself is Continue Reading

The Gates of Cayuga Playground

Posted by Cindy on October 30, 2013

Oct 302013

End of Cayuga Avenue at Naglee Avenue Under the Bart Train and The 280 Freeway Outer Mission Cayuga Playground is once again open. Your first greeting is the painted still fence, titled Cayuga Portal. Through the City’s two-percent-for-art program, the SFAC commissioned artist Eric Powell to create two new decorative gates for the park. The design for the main entry gateway features vignettes drawn from Braceros’s sculptures linked together by images of plants and leaves that echo the park’s lush plant life. The gates were commissioned for $78,000 in the 2009 City Budget, Cultural Affairs Department. Berkeley artist Eric Powell Continue Reading

The Artist of Cayuga Playground

Posted by Cindy on October 29, 2013

Oct 292013

Cayuga and Naglee Avenue Outer Mission In 2011 I read this wonderful article in Conversations.org and was intrigued to visit Cayuga Park and Demetrio Braceros’ work. I drove to Cayuga Playground to discover that it was closed. The sign said it would reopen in a few months. Alas, the work took until August of 2013 to actually finish the work. Here is an excerpt from the interview: …Demetrio was born in the Philippines. He had taught industrial arts there. He’d come to the Bay Area in 1977, I think He’d worked at the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park for three years. I didn’t Continue Reading

The Rebirth of Cayuga Playground

Posted by Cindy on October 28, 2013

Oct 282013

Cayuga and Naglee Avenues Outer Mission The 3.89 acre, 63 year old, Cayuga Playground closed December 2011 for a badly needed $8.4 million renovation. About $7.3 million of the renovation was paid for by the 2008 voter-approved parks bond, $711,000 from a state urban greening grant and $1.36 million from BART’s Earthquake Safety Program Impact Compensation. The playground’s old clubhouse had fallen into disrepair before the renovation, vandalism had increased and the baseball field was usable for only about three months of the year because of irrigation problems from the creek that runs beneath the park. On one occasion, a lawnmower Continue Reading

Alemany Emergency Hospital

Posted by Cindy on October 25, 2013

Oct 252013

35 Onandaga Avenue at Alemany Mission Terrace / Outer Mission This beautiful building was once the Alemany Emergency Hospital. There were no other emergency rooms other than San Francisco General Hospital before 1966, therefore the County was responsible for all emergency care and all emergency ambulance transport. Emergency care was provided throughout San Francisco free of charge by the citywide system, which consisted of the primary emergency room—Mission Emergency—and four other “Emergency Hospitals” scattered throughout the City. These hospitals were Central, located adjacent to City Hall; Harbor, located on the downtown waterfront; Park, located on the eastern edge of Continue Reading

Transverse and Column at the Balboa Park Bart Station

Posted by Cindy on December 11, 2012

Dec 112012

Transverse and Column at the Balboa Park Bart Station

Balboa Park Bart Station Ocean and San Jose Avenue Transverse and Column by Carroll Barnes – 1977 Corten Steel 9’H x 8’W x 19’L * Carroll Barnes was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1906. He attended Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC and was awarded a national scholarship to study with Carl Milles at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills Michigan. He was awarded the California Cultural Citation from Governor Earl Warren. Carol Barnes and his artist wife Evangel Barnes discovered the town of Three Rivers when they decided to honeymoon in Sequoia National Park, fell in Continue Reading

Outer Mission – Swoon

Posted by Cindy on September 1, 2011

Sep 012011

Outer Mission – San Francisco Hampshire and 24th Street This was done in 2008, and is showing it’s age. But the elegance of it is worth showing, even in its present state. Swoon is a street artist originally from Daytona Beach, Florida. She moved to New York City at age nineteen, and specializes in life-size wheatpaste prints and paper cutouts of figures. Swoon, real name Caledonia Dance Curry, studied painting at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and started doing street art around 1999. Swoon’s paste works depict realistically rendered people, often her friends and family, on the streets in various Continue Reading