California Volunteers Memorial on Market Street

 Posted by on July 17, 2012
Jul 172012
 
Market Street at Dolores
Mission/Castro
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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 the corner of Market and Dolores Streets. The monument shows an American soldier, with pointed gun in one hand and a sword in the other, standing over a fallen comrade, a cannon nearby. Above them the goddess of war, Bellona, is astride the winged horse Pegasus.
This sculpture originally sat at the corner of Van Ness and Market but as the city of San Francisco grew, the sculpture had to be moved from its original location. In 1917 it was moved about eleven feet and in 1925 it was moved from Van Ness and Market Streets to Market and Dolores Streets.
It is maintained by the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Tilden remained a recluse for most of his life and died in 1935. In 1987, many of Tilden’s personal artworks were discovered in an abandoned storage facility.

A Ross – Ziegler Collaboration

 Posted by on July 9, 2012
Jul 092012
 

435 Duboce
Duboce Triangle/ Lower Haight

Ian Ross and Zio Ziegler

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After these two worked together on a juxtaposed mural South of Market, it was an obvious step to combine forces.  The result is truly fabulous.  Obviously a temporary installation while construction is occurring behind this, but you have to love the person that decided this was a far better way to protect his construction site from trespassers than the standard metal gate.

The client is Doorman Property Management, they are the property managers for this mixed-use project of storefront and six residences. (scheduled to open in 2013)

Apparently there are also pieces of promotion in the mural as well.  Close inspection by Haighteration discovered these:

“GARAGE FEATURES CHARGING STATIONS FOR ELECTRIC + HYBRID VEHICLES”
“ALL INTERIOR WALLS ARE CONSTRUCTED WITH QUIETROCK ACOUSTICAL SOUNDBOARD”
“DETAILED WITH FLOOR TO CEILING WESTERN WINDOW & DOOR SYSTEMS COVETED BY MANY AS A MANUFACTURING MARVEL”
“UNPARALLELED ACCESS TO TRANSIT AND PARKS”
“INTEGRATED SMART HOME AUTOMATION & CONTROL SYSTEMS”
Thank you Doorman Property Managers for giving art to Duboce Street in such a fabulous and unique way.

 

S.F. Bicycle Coalition Mural

 Posted by on January 11, 2012
Jan 112012
 
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 produce a mural celebrating the first street closed to cars specifically for bicycles.
Joel convinced Mona Caron that she was capable of doing a mural and this was the result.  Mona has been in this site many times before, however, this was her first mural.  The mural is on the back side of the Market Street Safeway along the Duboce Bike Trail where muni heads underground.

According to Mona Caron’s website “At the center of the block long, 6,075 square foot mural is a depiction of the bikeway itself, (complete with its mural,) in geographic and historical context along the ancient streambed which cyclists follow to avoid hills. (The zig-zagging route is now known as “the Wiggle.”) To the east of the Wiggle is Downtown, to the West, residential neighborhoods, Golden Gate Park and, finally, the beach.

At the east end of the wall (downtown), Market Street’s bicycles are seen transforming into pedal-powered flying machines which rise out of the morass of pollution and gridlock. The scene alludes to the subversive nature of Critical Mass in particular, and generally symbolizes the freedom experienced by those with visions of alternatives to the status quo, represented in the mural by frowning corporate skyscrapers. Each of the flying contraptions trails its pilot’s dream of utopia in the form of a golden banner. The whole rest of the mural, westwards from this scene, starts in the shape of one of these golden banners, suggesting that this mural depicts just one of many ideas that make up our collective vision. Ours happens to deal with the issue of transportation, and the City depicted in the rest of the mural is a traffic and pollution free one, where the community takes back the space which now fragments it: the street.”

There is a fabulous, color photo, panel by panel, description of this mural, with stories, trivia and great bits and pieces of San Francisco history available at the Thinkwalks store.

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Check out this post about the utility boxes across the street.

Homes as Canvas

 Posted by on October 21, 2011
Oct 212011
 

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
 

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 triptych.
About the school…The original campus housed Douglass Elementary School until the early 1950′s.  On June 25, 1996, San Francisco Unified School District’s Board of Education voted to rename Douglass School to Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy. Their mission is to empower student learning by teaching tolerance and non-violence, celebrating diversity, achieving academic excellence, and fostering strong family-school-community connections.

 

Castro – A Celebration of Love

 Posted by on October 15, 2011
Oct 152011
 
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
 

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 into reality, and in the New Mexico paintings, brought back into the land, guarded by my protector figure.

In the past several years, I have flown over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the South China Sea, the Inland Sea of Japan, the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes. During this time, my life has undergone profound changes, and yet has seemed tranquil and at peace on its surface. So this my imagery, after many years of painting the human figure, speaking of respite available in the midst of turbulence.

I hope the paintings invoke the life force which was needed to paint them. They are simply the brush in my hands, close to the earth.”

First painted in 1993, this mural was dedicated to Claire Anderson, a popular director at the recreation center for 35 years, and the mural depicts waves of music as color moving out from a piano. The original composition was extended to cover two sides of the new Teen Center building when the builing was renovated in 2006.  The new work was done by Vicki Saulls.  The original mural, sponsored by the Eureka Valley Trails & Art Network, was painted with help from the surrounding community.

This mural is on the side of the rec center.  There is a very narrow alley and then the dog park.  You can not really get a clear shot of the mural as a whole so I had to bring it to you through the chain link fence and inside the dog park.

Mona Caron Brings You a Garden

 Posted by on October 13, 2011
Oct 132011
 
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 2006.  Ms. Caron received sponsorship from counterPulse as well as a $5000 grant for materials from San Francisco Beautiful and another grant from San Francisco’s Neighborhood Challenge Grant Program

Noe Valley — Market Street Railway Mural

 Posted by on October 12, 2011
Oct 122011
 
Noe Valley
Eureka Valley
Market Street Railway by Mona Caron
300 Church Street near 15th
38′ X 12′

This is Mona Caron’s own description of this wonderful mural.

The Market Street Railway mural shows a 180-degree bird’s-eye view of San Francisco’s Market Street through time.

The connecting theme of the mural is the historic Market Street Railway: streetcars from the 1920’s are shown traveling the whole length of the mural, passing through different eras and historic events, from their heyday in the 1920’s, through many changes in the traffic composition of Market Street over the years, into the present, and into the future.

The mural seeks to showcase a wide range of uses that Market Street as a public space has been able to accommodate over the years. Examples shown include normal daily life in different eras, a formal parade, a mass demonstration, a free-form celebration, a violent police riot (all based on real events). This is meant as a tribute to the urban center as a place uniquely conducive to both individual and collective expression, a place where history is made and politics become visible. It is also an homage to San Francisco in particular, as a place where people keep inventing new ways of utilizing the streets they share, which is what makes this a vibrant and engaging place to live.

The last section of the mural is a fantasy of what Market Street might look like in the future, with day lighted creeks, new transit modes, repurposed buildings, etcetera.”

I love the clean Venetian canals in this last panel. The mural is dedicated to Dave Pharr, streetcar mechanic and preservationist. This is his obituary, he passed away in 2003.

David L. Pharr, who played a key role in the restoration and operation of the vintage streetcars that run on San Francisco’s Market Street, died Sunday of heart failure at the California Pacific Medical Center. Mr. Pharr, who lived in San Francisco, was 70.

Mr. Pharr was a self-taught expert on the interior workings of electric streetcars, trolley buses and diesel transit vehicles, and he applied it to restoring cable cars and streetcars in partnership with the city’s Municipal Railway.

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