Murals – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

“Advancement of Learning through the Printing Press” by Lucien Labaudt

Posted by Cindy on May 3, 2019

May 032019

George Washington High School
600 32nd Avenue

This mural, by Lucien Labaudt resides on the east wall of the library at George Washington High School it was completed in 1936 as part of the WPA.

In this mural you will find such notables as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Junipero Serra, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Alva Edison, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Labaut’s intent was to give an expression of mankind’s knowledge through the printed word by showing portraits of literary men, scientists, statesmen, and religious teachers, all grouped, with symbolic attributes surrounding the central figure of Gutenberg, patron saint of printed books.

Lucien Labaudt was a painter and a muralist. Born in Paris, France on May 14, 1880, he was educated in France but was essentially a self-taught artist. As a young painter, he was influenced by Cezanne and Seurat. After coming to the U.S. in 1906, he worked in Nashville, Tennesee as a costume designer while painting in his spare time.

Labaudt settled in San Francisco in 1910 into a studio at 526 Powell Street and is credited with introducing modern art to California. In 1919 he began teaching at the CSFA and later, with his wife Marcelle, founded his own school of costume design. A pioneer in modern art in America, he experimented with various idioms including Surrealism and Cubism. Labaudt died on December 12, 1943, in an airplane crash in Assam, India on his way to paint the war in Burma.

Labaudt is best known in San Francisco for his murals at the Beach Chalet.

“Contemporary Education” by Ralph Stockpole

Posted by Cindy on May 1, 2019

May 012019

George Washington High Schoool
600 32nd Street
Library

Contemporary Education by Ralph Stackpole resides on the west wall of the library at George Washington High School. It was painted in 1936 as part of the WPA and the New Deal.

Newspaper accounts at the time state that Stackpole was “interpreting contemporary education in the American high schools.”

Ralph Stackpole(1885-1973)

Stackpole grew up in Oregon and came to San Francisco after the turn of the century. He was a sculptor, muralist, etcher, and teacher and was one of the cities leady artists during the 1920s and 30s. He was already quite prominent as an artist before he was given a commission to create a mural at the Coit Tower Project. He had become well known based on his sculpture at the Pan Pacific International Exposition, his work at the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange and his teaching at the California School of Fine Arts.

Stackpole was primarily responsible for bringing Diego Rivera to San Francisco in1930.

WPA Murals at Laguna Honda Hospital

Posted by Cindy on August 21, 2018

Aug 212018

Laguna Honda Hospital
375 Laguna Honda Boulevard
Foresthill

Professions by Glen Wessels is one of five murals in the entry to the older wing of Laguna Honda Hospital. These five 8′ x 6′ murals were painted in 1934 with funding from the PWAP (Public Works Art Projects).

Glenn Anthony Wessels was born in Cape Town, South Africa on December 15, 1895, the son of a wealthy Dutch diamond merchant. The Wessels family moved to California about 1902, having lost everything in the Boer War. Wessels earned his B.F.A. at the California School of Arts and Crafts and his M.A. degree at UC Berkeley. He began his art career as an illustrator for the San Francisco Call. He furthered his art training at Academie Colarossi in Paris, and with Karl Hofer in Berlin and Hans Hofmann in Munich. While in Munich, he became Hofmann’s assistant and in 1930 returned to the U.S. as his interpreter and guide.

Earth by Glen Wessels

Wessels teaching career began at the California School of Arts and Crafts but he also taught at Mills College in Oakland, Washington State College, and the University of California Berkeley. He painted these five murals as part of the Federal Art Project and later became technical adviser and superviser in the Oakland area. In the early 1930s Wessels was the art critic for the San Francisco Fortnightly, and between 1934 and 1940, he was art editor for the San Francisco Argonaut. Wessels retired from teaching in 1963 and was invited by Governor Edmund (Pat) Brown to become a California State Commissioner of Fine Arts. He was a member of the San Francisco Art Association, Friends of Photography, the San Francisco Art Institute and the Oakland Art Museum.

Wessels final years were spent in Placerville, California where he died on July 23, 1982.

Air by Glen Wessels

These murals were lost for a time until they were “rediscovered” in 1981 when the hospital was being refurbished. Mayor Dianne Feinstein issued a proclamation in Wessels honor.

Water by Glen Wessels

Fire by Glen Wessels

Murals of the Merchant Exchange Building

Posted by Cindy on January 25, 2016

Jan 252016

465 California Street
Financial District

Julia Morgan was responsible for the artistic elements, under architect Willis Polk, in the Merchant Exchange Building.

Miss Morgan chose William A. Coulter, the leading marine artist of his time to fill the bays between the marble and bronze columns in what is now a bank lobby.

Arrived All Well was chosen by the U.S. Post Office for the 23 cent stamp in 1923

William Alexander Coulter, (March 7, 1849 – March 13, 1936) was a native of Glenariff, County Antrim, in what is today Northern Ireland. He became an apprentice seaman at the age of 13, and after seven years at sea, came to settle in San Francisco in 1869. A marine illustrator for the San Francisco Call, Coulter has been credited with virtually recording the entire history of maritime shipping in Northern California in his over 5000 paintings.

The five murals in the bank represent Port Costa, Honolulu Harbor and the San Francisco Bay, including the Golden Gate prior to the bridge being built.

Trader’s of the Adriatic

Posted by Cindy on August 31, 2015

Aug 312015

The banking lobby at the Sansome Street entrance to the Bentley Federal Reserve contains a mural by Jules Guerin. “Traders of the Adriatic” features prominently in the entrance to the main lobby. It pays homage to the world of banking with its depiction of Venetian shipping merchants accepting receipts for goods on deposit and slaves attending to the masters of galleons while the masters give the Venetians rugs, gold, silver, and incense for safekeeping. In the background there is the Venetian coat of arms. The mural is oil on canvas and is dated 1922.

As part of a building restoration in 2004 the mural by was cleaned and preserved.

Jules Vallée Guérin was born in St Louis, Missouri on November 18, 1866 and moved to Chicago to study art in 1880. In 1900 he established a studio in New York, where he made his name as an architectural delineator and illustrator. His first major break occurred when he was hired by Charles McKim to create some illustrations for the McMillan Plan for Washington D.C. These were exhibited and published in 1902. Architects began hiring Guérin to make similar renderings of their buildings. In 1912, when the architect Henry Bacon was competing with John Russell Pope to win the commission for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., he hired Guérin to create renderings of alternative designs. The paintings, still in the National Archives, were likely influential in Bacon’s winning the commission.

Despite his wish to be regarded as a major serious artist, Jules Guérin is most highly regarded as an illustrator and architectural delineator.

Maynard Dixon and A Pageant of Traditions

Posted by Cindy on March 23, 2015

Mar 232015

The Stanley Mosk Library and Court Building
Gillis Hall
914 Capitol Mall
Sacramento, CA

I recently toured the newly restored California State Library building. The $62 million restoration brought the library/courts building into the modern age. (The project came in under budget at around $49 million).

Although this Maynard Dixon mural experienced a small amount of damage during the restoration, it remains in Gillis Hall for all to enjoy.

Titled, A Pageant of Traditions, the mural is sixty nine feet long and fourteen feet tall.

The mural, painted after the library was opened in 1928, symbolically depicts the greatest influences on the history and development of California.

The left side shows the Spanish influences on California. Amongst these you will find a Spanish explorer, Jesuit and Franciscan priests, Californios, and an Hispanic workman with his wife. These are all pre-industrial California.

On the right side one sees symbolic references to the all that lies East of California. These figures include a colonial settler, a Revolutionary War officer, Native Americans and several Afro-Americans. There is a forty-niner from the gold rush and a 1920s worker and his family.

Over the entry way is a male figure depicting Power and a female figure depicting Beauty. Three books, encased in halos, are the books of philosophy, science and art .

Considered one of the nations greatest Western artists, L. Maynard Dixon was born near Fresno, California in 1875. He was an interpreter of western landscapes and Native American themes. He was a painter, a muralist, and an illustrator. He died in 1946 in Tucson, Arizona.

Although he was primarily self-taught, Dixon briefly studied at California Institute of Design in 1893. He worked as an illustrator for several California publications before going to New York where he worked at Scribner’s and Harper’s Monthly from 1907 to 1912.

He received a bronze medal for Trail in Oregon (1915) at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

The California State Library Foundations Bulletin put out a special issue on the restoration of the building in November of 2013. It has excellent accounts of the life of Dixon and his preparation and execution of this mural beginning on page 14.

The library is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm, excluding holidays.

Home Savings and Public Art

Posted by Cindy on December 17, 2014

Dec 172014

98 West Portal Avenue
Corner of Vicente and West Portal
West Portal

This mosaic is on the outside of the bank that stands at the corner. At the time of the commission of the art (1976-77), the bank was a Home Savings Bank. This particular mural was a collaboration between Millard Owen Sheets, Denis O’Connor and designer Susan L. Hertel.

Millard Owen Sheets (June 24, 1907 – March 31, 1989) was a native California. He was a painter and a representative of the California School of Painting, later a teacher and educational director, and architect of more than 50 branch banks. He attended the Chouinard Art Institute.

According to San Francisco Mosaic: Sheets used his architectural firm to promote and illustrate his philosophy that art should be incorporated into every aspect of daily living. Sheets designed interior and exterior plans for over forty Home Savings and Loan bank branches in California. The distinctive modular design that Sheets created highlighted local historical events or natural features, and became synonymous with the Home Savings of America. In 1999 Washington Mutual acquired the bank. Much of this original work was funded through an active and supportive public art program that was part of the Community Redevelopment Agency.

Denis O’Connor was the only child of a coal miner and his homemaker wife, O’Connor was born in 1933 in the English coastal town of Seaham Harbour. His mother died when he was 11. He earned a degree in drawing and sculpture from the Royal College of Art in London. With his wife and son, O’Connor came to the United States in 1959. O’Connor, was a mosaic muralist who executed massive portraits of idealized California life at many Home Savings of America buildings in the 1960s and 1970s as part of an ambitious public art program.

Susan Lautman Hertel, a former art student of Sheets, worked with him for 30 years, then took over his design firm when Sheets retired in the mid-70s. Hertel, who died of breast cancer at age 63 in 1993, attended Scripps College in Claremont, CA, which she entered in 1948. Originally from Illinois, she would marry, raise a family and live in Southern California before moving to a ranch in Cerrillos, New Mexico in 1980. She is known for both her mosaic work and her paintings prominently featuring animals.

There is an interesting explanation of the piece by a gentleman that appears to be the preeminent expert on Home Savings Murals, you can read it here.

Covering Construction

Posted by Cindy on June 23, 2014

Jun 232014

4th and Folsom
South of Market

This piece, sponsored by the SFAC, is by Randy Colosky. It is titled Ellipses in the Key of Blue.

According to Randy’s Website: Ellipses is the Key of Blue is 140 ft. long x 8 ft. tall, digitally printed and drawing mounted on plywood.

According to the sign on the wall next to the piece: Ellipsis in the Key of Blue is a temporary mural by Randy Colosky commissioned for the construction barricade at the site of the upcoming Central Subway Yerba Buena/Moscone Station. Colosky has worked in the building trades and is interested in the formal by products of the construction process. The imagery for this mural was crated with drafting templates used in mechanical drawing. Through repetition the template pattern becomes visually sculptural as it incrementally shifts, revealing how small movements make up a much larger gesture.

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The drafting template offers an interesting scenario in that it is a fixed pattern. Like fractals repeating in nature, the template pattern (as it is incrementally moved in the act of drawing) generates its own algorithm. According to the artist, “this fixed algorithm takes the decision making out of my hands as to the ultimate composition, which makes the drawing process more of a meditative execution of the piece.”

I personally thought it looked just like my screen when I win a game of spider solitaire. It is really and truly mesmerizing.

It is a bit tough to shoot as the surface is very, very shiny.

Randy is an Oakland based artist. He received his BFA in ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute.

The Central Subway is a line being built connecting ATT Park with Chinatown, going through SOMA and Union Square, a distance of 1.7 miles at a cost of $1.578 billion. The project is funded primarily through the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts program. In October 2012, the FTA approved a Full Funding Grant Agreement, the federal commitment of funding through New Starts, for the Central Subway for a total amount of $942.2 million. The Central Subway is also funded by the State of California, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and the City and County of San Francisco.

The three stops, this one in SOMA, Union Square and Chinatown, all are large construction sites at this time, if you are a visitor to San Francisco, that is what is happening, and will for several more years.

The SFAC funding was accomplished with Resolution number 0603-13-151: Motion to authorize the Director of Cultural Affairs to enter into an agreement with Randy Colosky for an amount not to exceed $25,000 to design artwork imagery and create production files for the Central Subway: Construction Barricade Temporary Art Public Art Project for Yerba Buena/Moscone Station, which will be on display for one year from approximately mid-2013 through mid-2014.

Sargent Johnson Tile’s the Maritime Museum

Posted by Cindy on May 11, 2014

May 112014

Maritime Museum
Aquatic Park

This 14′ x 125′ glazed tile mural was created by Sargent Johnson in 1939 with the help of FAP (Federal Art Project) funds. The east end, however, is incomplete.

When the project began, the building was to be a publicly-accessible bathhouse. However, shortly after it opened, the City leased a majority of the building to a group of private businessmen who operated it as the Aquatic Park Casino, limiting the public’s use of the building. Because of this, Johnson walked away from the project before he had completed this interior tile mosaic.

Johnson has been in this website before here for the slate art piece on the front of the building.

This shows the unfinished section of the mural.

And yes, those two animals are by Beniamino Bufano.

Peace

Posted by Cindy on March 31, 2014

Mar 312014

154 McAllister Street
Civic Center

According to Reka’s own website:

James Reka – Melbourne, Australia

Self-taught artist

James Reka is a young contemporary Australian artist based in Berlin, Germany. His origins lie in the alleyways and train lines of Melbourne’s inner-suburbs where he spent over a decade refining his now-emblematic aesthetic. His character work has come to represent the beginnings of a new style of street art: clean, unique and not necessarily on the street (much to his mother’s joy). With influences in pop culture, cartoons and illustration, Reka’s style has become known for its fusion of high and low art. This style emerged from his Pop-Art-influenced logo design background, featuring simple but striking lines and colour ways. Over time, the logos and symbols he created for clients evolved into more structured, animated forms and embraced variances of the different media he began experimenting with.

This is Reka’s art: a paradox between sharp design and graffiti, held together with a fuse of passion and spray paint.

This installation was a result of Reka’s show at White Walls Gallery titled 3am Femmes. The show ran October 12 – November 2, 2013.

Atlantis and Mu

Posted by Cindy on March 13, 2014

Mar 132014

Maritime Museum
Aquatic Park

The interior of the museum is painted with a large mural by Hilaire Hiler, These murals depict the mythic continents of Atlantis and Mu.

Many know the story of Atlantis, but Mu is not as well known. Mu is the name of a suggested lost continent whose concept and the name were proposed by 19th-century early Mayanist, archaeologist, photographer, traveler and writer, Augustus Le Plongeon Le Plongeon claimed that several ancient civilizations, such as those of Egypt and Mesoamerica, were created by refugees from Mu—which he located in the Atlantic Ocean. This concept was popularized and expanded by James Churchward, who asserted that Mu was once located in the Pacific

Hilaire Hiler was born in St Paul, Minnesota on July 16, 1898. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania; University of Denver; Golden State University, Los Angeles; and the Nat’l College, Ontario, Canada. Sailing to France in 1919, he continued at the University of Paris while playing saxophone in a jazz band. During the 1920s he ran the Jockey Club (an artists’ hangout) on the Left Bank. At the club he often played jazz piano with a live monkey on his back.

Upon moving to San Francisco in the 1930s, he was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration to paint these murals in the Maritime Museum. He contributed illustrated maps for the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939 and exhibited at the fair.

From San Francisco he moved south to Hollywood where he opened a short-lived nightclub on the Sunset Strip. He then lived in Santa Fe (New Mexico), New York City, and in the early 1960s returned to Paris where he remained until his death on January 19, 1966.

Hiler was a Modernist. He helped found the idea of ‘Structuralism’ which aims to create harmony by the presentation of organized color and form. Structuralism design is made for contemplation.

Hiler’s works are in many museums including the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of New Mexico, Oakland Museum of California, Portland Art Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and Georgia Museum of Art. His work is in numerous private collections in the United States and abroad.

I found this when pursuing the Hiler papers in the Archives of American Art. I thought it to much fun not to share.This was drawn up around 1965.

Os Gemeos, Bode and The Warfield

Posted by Cindy on January 27, 2014

Jan 272014

Taylor and Turk
The Tenderloin

This fun mural was finished in September of 2013. It is a collaboration between Os Gemeos and Mark Bode, both whom have been in this site before.

This whimsical piece sits on the back of the Warfield Theater on Market street. The two cousins from Brazil and San Francisco artist Mark Bode painted this mural which includes one of Os Gemeos’ characters and the iconic comic character “Cheech Wizard” created by Mark’s father Vaughn Bodé in 1957.

Cheech Wizard

The wall was organized by the Luggage Store Gallery and Wallspace SF.

Give me your tired, your poor…

Posted by Cindy on September 16, 2013

Sep 162013

Welsh and 5th Street
SOMA

Thanks to a recent upgrade to this mural I can write about it. It was originally done in 1992 and has been so faded it was difficult to see.

The mural is by Johanna Poethig who has been in the website so very many times.

Staff members from the San Francisco Human Services Agency contacted her about restoring her mural, “To Cause to Remember,” better known as the Statue of Liberty mural. It’s located on the side of a homeless shelter in the city’s South of Market district.

On the 40-foot by 80-foot wall, Lady Liberty lies on her side with chains on her feet and her hand outstretched.

According to Johanna’s blog:

“Everyone who comments on the mural mentions the chains first of all. . . . This symbol, the fallen Liberty, speaks to the issues of poverty, immigration, mental illness, incarceration, drugs, war veterans, families and the elderly.

“The image has been published in books about street art. In my 30-year career as a muralist and public artist, this work of art has weathered the test of time. The Liberty in recline has proven herself to really mean something to the people who live with her chains and to those who remember what she means.”

The assistants were all students at Cal State Monterey Bay Visual and Public Art School.

If you would like read more of Johanna’s ruminations on the mural click here.

Queseda Gardens

Posted by Cindy on August 19, 2013

Aug 192013

Queseda and Newcomb
Bayview/Hunters Point

The Quesada Gardens Community Mural & Gathering Space emerged with leadership from QGI Co-Founders Sharon Bliss and Mike Aisenfeld. Neighbors wanted to express the magic of the garden and spirit of community. In the end, a gritty urban space was transformed when community-based artist Deirdre DeFranceaux, with fellow artist Santie Huckaby, breathed life into a potent symbol of hope and unity. The mural was dedicated in 2004.

Santie Huckaby’s work has been in this site before. According to his website: Born in Ohio, I have spent the past 40 years in San Francisco working as a professional musician, sign painter and muralist. My mural career includes over 15 interior and 12 exterior murals painted over a span of 14 years. Included in my resume is the Rosa Parks mural, awarded best mural of 1997. My work-in-progress is the Tribute to jazz: mural at What a Grind cafe at Fillmore and Eddy. St. in San Francisco. I am currently the artist in residence at Hunter’s Point Shipyard, artist in residence at the Bayview Opera House, an art teacher with the Carver Mural Program in San Francisco and continuing my vocation as a sign painter.

Dierdre De Franceaux is a painter and sculptor residing in San Francisco, California. She received her AA from the Maryland College of Art and Design, her BFA from Skidmore College and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her additional studies included the Ecole des Beaux Arts, in Paris, France and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. Her large scale public sculptures have graced the Playa at the Burning Man Festival, in Black Rock City, Nevada. Deidre has taught at such schools as the San Francisco Art Institute, UC Berkeley, The College of Marin, and the San Francisco Waldorf High School. She has also taught numerous years with various non-profits, working with at risk youth, and creating large scale murals with groups of school children throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

This project was funded by the Mayor’s Neighborhood Beautification Fund and approved by the Visual Arts Commission.

Herakut #7

Posted by Cindy on June 17, 2013

Jun 172013

McCoppin
Between Gough and Valencia
Mission / SOMA

This mura, by Herakut is on the walls of the Flax Art Store on Market Street. Herakut has been in this website before with a piece in the Tenderloin.

According to Flax’s website:

In 2004 Herakut came together, finding a magic synthesis between the artistic skills and specialties of Hera’s broad, quick strokes and Akut’s photorealistic detail that has become an internationally recognized style. Their latest concept is the The Giant Storybook Project, which chronicles the creation of a new children’s book that Herakut is developing in collaboration with actor Jim Carrey. Launched in September 2012 and continuing through winter 2013, the project follows the artists as they introduce the story’s characters in murals they are painting around the world.

For the seventh mural in the series, Herakut used a roughly 30′x80′ canvas above our back parking lot. In Herakut’s artwork the people and animals are created as a commentary on human nature, on the ups and downs of all the small wars we fight within ourselves. This mural features a fearful looking Creative Spirit, perhaps an extension of Jay’s creative spirit in Mural 6, chasing a girl over the city rooftops. She appears calm, protected by the Silly Monkeys, and the mural’s text reads ”It’s all in your head. When we can let go of our fear, we are safe.” A growing cast of characters of the imagination, perfect for an illustrated children’s book.

She’s Hera, he’s Akut.

Herakut is a German artist duo made of Jasmin Siddiqui and Falk Lehmann. They share a symbiosis in their art, as well as in their name, which is a blend of their street names Hera and Akut. In addition to their highly visual murals, Herakut’s paintings have appeared in dozens of gallery exhibitions, and two books have been published,The Perfect Merge and After the Laughter.

Mona Caron in Noe Valley

Posted by Cindy on May 27, 2013

May 272013

3871 24th Street
Noe Valley

These two murals sit on the two sides of a parking lot on 24th Street

They are by Mona Caron who has been in this website many, many times.

According to Caron’s website:
The mural comprises two paintings that face each other over a small park and parking lot in the Noe Valley neighborhood. As a tie-in to the weekly farmer’s market that is held there, both murals feature giant botanical illustrations of vegetables and their leaves and blossoms. A scroll-like ribbon weaves around the vegetables. Wherever the ribbon is larger and appears closer, there are views of the neighborhood depicted within it. On the Eastern wall, these views show scenes from Noe Valley’s past (late 1930’s) and a positive future vision. On the western wall, there are two views of the present: one of the upper, Western part of 24th Street (Noe Valley), and one of the adjacent Mission District part of the same street.

The Fire Next Time II

Posted by Cindy on April 2, 2013

Apr 022013

Joseph P. Lee Rec Center
1395 Mendell
Backside
Bayview

Fire Next Time II

Excerpt from San Francisco Bay Area Murals by Timothy W. Drescher regarding the original mural:

Crumpler depicted three aspects of black people’s lives in the United States: education, religion, and culture. The contemporary figures, a teacher and student, athletes and dancers, are watched over by exemplary portraits of Harriet Tubman and Paul Robeson. Above them are two Senufo birds which are mythical beings in Africa but here oversee the cultural and creative lives of the community…

By 1984, Crumpler continued the mural on the adjacent gymnasium at the Recreation Center. More stylized than the first part of the mural, it continues the same visual motifs, with large portraits of black leaders and a background of dualist flames. Wrapped around the northern corner is a hand holding a quilt from Alabama. Up Newcombe Street is another hand, but with a section of cloth with an African textile design on it…Between the two hands is a giant replica of a 16th-centuray Ife bronze figure against a background of Egyptian and United States Figures: King Tut, Muhammed Ali, Willie Mays, Wilma Rudolph, Arthur Ashe. The second part measures over five thousand square feet.

Oni – of Fire Next Time II

In 2007, the San Francisco Arts Commission contracted with ARG Conservation Services (ARG/CS) to restore and stabilize the mural. The main objective of the treatment was to prevent further deterioration of the mural and achieve an overall integrated visual restoration.

Dewey Crumpler painted over 15 murals throughout the Bay Area. His large-scale San Francisco projects include: A Celebration of African and African American Artists, 1984, at the African American Art and Culture Complex, formerly the Western Addition Cultural Center; The Children of San Francisco, 1986; and Knowledge, 1988. Crumpler now focuses his art practice on studio work. Dewey Crumpler received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, an MA from San Francisco State University, and an MFA from Mills College in Oakland, CA. He resides in Berkeley, CA, with his wife Sandra and their two sons Saeed and Malik. Dewey Crumpler is Associate Professor of Painting at the San Francisco Art Institute.

In 1984 Crumpler was assisted by Dr. Timothy W. Drescher. Drescher has been studying and documenting community murals since 1972, was co-editor of Community Murals magazine from 1976 to 1987, and is the author of San Francisco Bay Area Murals: Communities Create Their Muses, 1904-1997. He wrote the Afterward to the revised edition of Toward A People’s Art, and consults and lectures widely on murals. Dr. Drescher has a Ph.D. in English Literature and Art History from the University of Wisconsin.

The restoration had a budget of $105,000 for cleaning and stabilization of the Dewey Crumpler mural, Fire Next Time II, and commemorative plaque for Fire Next Time I. $33,000 went to ARG and a $5000 honorarium payment went to Dewey Crumpler.

Fire Next Time I was removed during the remodeling of the Recreation Center, photos of it can be found inside the center.

Precita Eyes covers McDonald’s in Paint

Posted by Cindy on March 25, 2013

Mar 252013

2801 Mission Street
Mission District

This mural, titled Culture of the Crossroads, was done in 1998 by Precita Eyes. It covers the 24th Street side of the McDonalds Restaurant.

Precita Eyes is a multipurpose community based arts organization that has played an integral role in the city’s cultural heritage and arts education. One of only three community mural centers in the United States, the organization sponsors and implements ongoing mural projects throughout the Bay Area and internationally. In addition, it has a direct impact on arts education in the San Francisco Mission District by offering four weekly art classes for children and youth (18 months through 19 years) and other classes for adults. These classes and community mural projects enable children and youth to develop their individuality and confidence through creative activities and to experience unifying, positive social interaction through collaboration.

December 2013 update. This McDonald’s is going through a complete remodel. The mural will be gone, with the exception of the back wall. The mural has truly served its purpose and changes happen. Art and Architecture is glad that we were able to document the mural and bring it to you.

If you are interested in reading further Mission Local has written a very nice article here.

Zio Ziegler Paints the Mission

Posted by Cindy on February 25, 2013

Feb 252013

Bartlett and 24th

Mission and Sycamore

Zio Ziegler has several murals around San Francisco.

According to his website:

For me painting is balance. Within this balance there is consciousness, instinct and distraction. My work is a constant fusion of all three. Torn between the classical and the contemporary in my inspirations, but constantly reminded of the paradigm shift towards the digital age around us, my paintings walk a fine line of voyeurism and awareness both is process and perception. The paintings have organic growth cycles of their own, but the inexplicable instinct of a paintings necessity for completion calls for the greatest changes of all. I create public art that forms as much from the environment it is painted in, than the studio where the gestation takes places. For me, the balance of working publicly, and privately assists the entire creative process in a symbiotic way. It is the open source template of the streets that is a constant reminder of the democratic yet organic nature of art these days. To be aware of this ephemeral state of painting, assists the visceral encouragement of instinct in the studio. And so, with balance of both studio and streets, consciousness and aloofness, instinct and thought comes my paintings.

Familia

Posted by Cindy on February 4, 2013

Feb 042013

Potrero del Sol Park
Potrero Hill
Potrero at 25th Street

Familia is by Victor Reyes, who has many pieces around San Francisco.

On June 9, 2011 the San Francisco Examiner ran this article about the mural:

A community that came together to solve the problem of persistent graffiti at a neighborhood park celebrated the unveiling of a mural painted in the hope of staving off vandalism.

Potrero del Sol Park, which is a favorite among skaters and schoolchildren, is bordered by Buena Vista Elementary School and a building maintained by San Francisco General Hospital.

Taggers constantly targeted a wall of the hospital building, according to The City’s Recreation and Park Department. After hospital painters’ efforts to efface the wall were thwarted time and time again, the community rallied.

The school’s PTA found the artist Victor Reyes to compose a mural, and the students competed in a naming contest. The parks department waived the permit fee, the hospital donated paint and scaffolding and navigated the plan through the San Francisco Arts Commission.

The “Familia” mural, whose bright blocks of colors pop against the otherwise neutral surroundings, was unveiled 10 a.m. Wednesday at the park located at 25th and Utah streets.

According to the parks department, the mural is the story of “a shared problem and a creative solution.
”

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

StreetSmARTS covers the History of Bayview

Posted by Cindy on December 6, 2012

Dec 062012

Palou and 3rd Street
Bayview

Titled the History of Bayview this is a 2011 Street SmArts mural by Bryana Fleming.

Panel 1 and 3: Originally dominated by grassland and tidal marshland, Bayview-Hunters Point has a unique history for its transformation into an urban industrial neighborhood while segregated from the metropolitan area. Slaughterhouses and their associated industries in the 1800s and shipbuilding in the 1900s drove its urbanization.

Panel 2: Constructed in 1888, the Bayview Opera House Ruth Williams Memorial Theatre (known affectionately as “the Opera House” or the “BVOH”) is located at 4705 Third Street in the heart of the Bayview Hunters Point district. The Opera House is San Francisco’s oldest theater and a registered historical landmark.

Mr. Sam Jordan was born in Diboll, Texas, and served in the U.S. Navy before coming to San Francisco. Soon after his arrival here in 1947, Mr. Jordan became a regular on the city’s boxing scene. He grew popular as “Singing Sam” because he sang the national anthem and other songs before and after his fights. His first year in the city, he fought in the light heavyweight championships of the San Francisco Golden Gloves Tournament, winning the diamond belt.

In 1959, he opened his bar on Third Street, known to most as Sam’s or Sam Jordan’s, a popular spot for more than four decades where neighborhood regulars, politicians and city leaders dropped by before or after a trip to nearby Candlestick Park.

Sam Jordan died in 2003, the bar is up for SF Landmark status.

If you lived on Quesada Avenue in Bayview Hunters Point before the Queseda Gardens Initiative, you would have pulled down the blinds and dreaded the inevitable dash to the bus stop or your car. But that changed in 2002 when Annette Smith and Karl Paige started planting flowers and vegetables here and there around the block. Other residents jumped in to help them, and to create art, share history, organize block events, and commit to working together to strengthen the community where they live. Together, they formed the Quesada Gardens Initiative, changed their world, and inspired all those around them.

Street SmArts Mural in Bayview

Posted by Cindy on December 3, 2012

Dec 032012

Palou and 3rd Streets
Bayview

This mural (done in 2010) by Briana Fleming is part of the Street SmArts program of San Francisco. A collaboration between the San Francisco Arts Commission and SF Department of Public Works started in 2010, the program connects established urban artists with private property owners who own buildings with walls that are graffiti hot spots. Artists create vibrant murals on the walls and buildings become a canvas for art enjoyed by all. The outcome is a phenomenon of reduced incidences of graffiti tagging on the properties.

Like many artists, Bryana Fleming is a product of her surroundings. Growing up in a household that place a high value on art, Bryana was encouraged to follow her creative passions. She credits her mother and father for directing her towards a life as an artist and for giving her first drawing lessons. She attended the California College of Arts and Crafts and graduated with high honors and was the in-store artist at Trader Joe’s in Emeryville from 2002 to 2005.

In 2005, she was commissioned to paint a 300-square foot mural in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Her 2006 painting, Spinning Lesson, won second prize in the nationwide competition for the 70th Anniversary of American Artist Magazine in 2007, and was featured in the December issue. After a brief hiatus, she returned to painting murals in 2008 as the lead muralist/educator for the Mural Music and Art Project in the Bay Area. She also returned to Trader Joe’s to paint murals at various locations. To date she is credited with ten murals

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