The Lower Haight
650 Haight Street
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Painted by Sam Flores, these were commissioned by the eight owners of the building. They replaced murals done by small children in the same places, and while we all know it is important to encourage children in their art, I saw the originals and these are such a massive improvement to the area.
A New Mexico native, Sam Flores’ mythology is populated with costumed urchins and lithe beauties swathed in flowers; he is a painter of masked child-heroes with oversized hands. Flores’ subjects convey a melancholy power, resisting the gaze of the onlooker as if they alone understand how the world can be so painful and so beautiful at the same time.
This is what they look stitched together, you can see they really do tell a story.