San Francisco Public Art – Page 2 – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Helen Bruton’s Tile Murals at the Golden West Hotel

Posted by Cindy on January 22, 2014

Jan 222014

114 Powell Street
Union Square

In the very narrow entry way to the Hotel Union Square are these two exquisite tile murals. While the hotel was originally built in 1908 for the 1915 Pan Pacific International Exposition, the murals were not added until 1935.

The murals were done by Helen Bruton Bell (1898-1985) Ms. Bell was a fascinating woman. One of three artistic sisters, she was born in Alameda. She attended the University of California for one year.

During World War I, she worked with her sisters Esther and Margaret in occupational therapy at the Letterman Hospital in San Francisco. In 1920 she moved to New York to take classes at the Art Students League for one year under sculptors Stirling Calder and Leo Lentelli. (She returned several years later to study drawing with Boardman Robinson.)

After those two years, she joined her sisters in Europe to study art, mainly in Paris.

Returning home, she became interested in California-Spanish architecture. She was commissioned by tile producer Gladding-McBean and Company to create mosaic panels for the Mudd Memorial Library at the University of Southern California. In 1929 Helen, her mother and her sisters traveled to New Mexico where all three girls painted and sketched. When they returned they gave a joint exhibition at the Beaux Arts Gallery in San Francisco. Helen also exhibited at the California Society of Etchers and the Progressive California Painters in 1934.

Murals by the Bruton Sisters – The Fleishacker Building.

Helen later worked with her sister Margaret on a W.P.A. project for the Fleishacker Park in San Francisco. The sisters designed and implemented the two mosaic panels that were the first tile mosaics to be done in San Francisco by local artists. Helen later received a commission from the University of California Berkeley to create mosaic panels to adorn the University Art Gallery (1936).

She continued to live in the San Francisco Bay Area eventually settling in Monterey, California with her sister Margaret until her death in 1985.

There is a marvelous interview done by the Smithsonian of the two sisters in their later years that you can read here.

The hotel was known at the Golden State Hotel in the 1950’s and became the Hotel Union Square in 1982.

Painted Grain Silos in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on January 15, 2014

Jan 152014

696 Amador Street
off 3rd Street / Pier 90/92
Bayview/Hunters Point

A while back I wrote about these grain silos, I also mentioned at the time they eventually would become an art project. You can read all about the silos here.

This project is part of the Blue Greenway Project, a $2.2 million project funded through the Port of San Francisco.

The Project was awarded to the Seattle based firm of Haddad/Drugan. It is titled “Bayview Rise” and is expected to be in place for a minimum of 5 years.

According to their website:

Bayview Rise works 2-dimensionally as a graphic image, 3-dimensionally as it articulates the folded, rolling, and textured surfaces of the historic architecture with color and pattern, and 4-dimensionally at night as colored lights cycle through the colors red, green, and blue causing the mural imagery to change its appearance. Diffenrent light colors will cause parts of the mural of that same color to be highlighted while other colors recede into the dark background. As the light colors shift, images will appear to float in and out of the scene. This striking effect will result in the appearance of an animated graphic abstractly representing a neighborhood in transformation, Bayview Rising.

In early 2013 Haddad|Drugan researched the history, culture, and future plans for Bayview Hunters Point. They identified stories that could be included in the artwork, ranging from industry to infrastructure to community to ecology, and compiled them in a layered map. The artists met with community representatives and shared their research and a group of words inspired by the research. From this process they developed the artwork to emphasize the concept of “rise,” a word they had shared with the community and which tied together some of its most inspiring stories. The graphic imagery of the mural is rooted in the Bayview’s historic and future conditions, but with an emphasis on elements that float, fly, and rise.

The composition creates a spatial illusion in which elements appear to rise up and out from a horizon where water meets land and sky. Grounding the image is a bottom layer of water, representing both San Francisco Bay and the past marshlands of Islais Creek. Submerged in the water as a symbol of the neighborhood’s past is the head of a steer in homage to historic Butchertown and the cattle that once marched down Third Street. The primary icon rising from the horizon line is a soaring heron, which ties to nearby Heron’s Head Park, a successful environmental restoration by the Port. Other imagery represented in the artwork includes native cherry plants, shorebirds, and a reference to a quote by community activist Essie Webb who likened Hunters Point to a balloon waiting to be re-inflated. The images within the mural have been combined, overlapped, and juxtaposed in a triangular matrix so there appear to be metamorphoses between cherries and balloons, water and birds, land and leaves. This shift is emphasized with the changing colors of lights.

Bayview Rise was funded and commissioned by the Port of San Francisco with coordination from the SFAC. The painting was by R.B. Morris III and the lighting by Legend Theatrical.

The proposal by the Port of San Francisco can be read here.

These shots of the installation at night are from the Hadda/Drugan Website.

Mural on the grain silos in San Francisco

Tiled Stairways to Heaven

Posted by Cindy on January 9, 2014

Jan 092014

Golden Gate Heights
16th Avenue between Kirkham and Lawton

This is the second project by Aileen Barr and Colette Crutcher covering stairways in the Golden Gate Heights area. You can read about both of them and their first project here.

This project was made possible by a group called Hidden Garden Steps. According to their website: The Hidden Garden Steps Project is a community-based, public art initiative to create mosaic steps, a public garden and a wall mural on 16th Avenue extending uphill from Kirkham to Lawton in the Golden Gate Heights/Inner Sunset neighborhood. Formal partners include the San Francisco Parks Alliance, the San Francisco Department of Public Works Street Parks program, and artists Colette Crutcher and Aileen Barr who designed the Moraga Mosaic Steps. Other collaborations include the Inner Sunset Park Neighbors, the Golden Gate Heights Neighborhood Association, Woodside International School, volunteers from Nature in the City’s Green Hairstreak (Butterfly) Ecosystem Corridor project, and individual local merchants.

Glass that challenges your understanding

Posted by Cindy on December 27, 2013

Dec 272013

San Francisco International Terminal
Terminal Two

Air Over Under by Norie Sato – 2011

These two Huge panels are easier to see than to photograph. (The above photo is courtesy of FlySFO) They are hand painted and silkscreened glass enamels on float glass and measure 16 ft. x 150 ft. each.

Norie Sato’s imagery was inspired by our relationship to clouds and flight. Specifically, her work delves into some of flight’s inherent qualities: ephemeral, abstract, pictorial, natural, man-made, symmetrical and changeable. The artwork depicts the dual experience of being under or over clouds when flying in a plane. According to the artist, “Air Over Under is about perception, relativity and how our position and situations are never static.”

This was taken from inside the building notice the vibrant colors

The façade installation is comprised of a grid of 120 pieces of laminated glass panels approximately 4’ x 10’ each covering two 16’ x 150’ areas. Produced at Franz Mayer Studios in Munich, Germany, the laminated panels are comprised of one layer of glass with hand-painted glass enamels and another layer that includes a silkscreened pixilated image in white. The combined effect is of a photographic image that, depending on the viewer’s distance or point of view, either looks clear or more abstract and atmospheric. The colors are subtle, and change gradually from blue to green on one side and from blue to purple on the other side.

The view from AirBart is one of the best.

Norie Sato is an artist living in Seattle, whose artwork for public places over the past 25 years has incorporated individual, collaborative, design team and planning of public art projects. Much of her work involves collaboration with architects and integration with the site or context.

Flight Patterns

Posted by Cindy on December 23, 2013

Dec 232013

San Francisco International Airport
Terminal One
Boarding Area C

Flight Patterns by Larry Kirkland – 1987

Stainless steel cables, painted aluminum tubing, sheeting and screening
264 in. x 276 in. x 756 in.

Born in 1950 in Port Hueneme, California, Larry Kirkland moved with his military family throughout the U.S. and abroad during his childhood. He received his undergraduate degree in environmental design in 1972 from Oregon State University and his Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1974 from the University of Kansas.

Kirkland created these large, aerial sculptures that are characterized by its nearly transparent, ethereal quality. This work was conceived by Kirkland after he spent time observing airport activities from an air traffic control room. Each of the 1500 elements suspended by 3000 wires represents an air traffic control symbol: triangles (landmarks),dotted lines (land boundaries) and x’s (flying objects).

A Mosaic of Bay Area History

Posted by Cindy on December 20, 2013

Dec 202013

San Francisco International Airport
Terminal 1 Connector
Level 2

Bay Area Victorian, Bay Area, Deco, Bay Area Funk by Joyce Kozloff – 1982

This artwork is inspired by historical decorative styles found in the Bay Area. The left panel, Bay Area Victorian, draws its sources from the ornament on old homes in the Mission District, Pacific Heights, the Western Addition and Potrero Hill. The right panel, Bay Area Deco, references downtown Oakland in its heyday, when the Fox and Paramount theaters were built. Both the celadon grey-green of the I. Magnin store and the cobalt blue and silver facade of the Flower Depot were inspirations. Bay Area Funk, the center panel, is the collection of Berkeley memorabilia from the 1960’s. There is a humor and lightness to the appropriations of comic books and record album covers, alongside flyers and posters from clubs that were popular during that decade, such as the Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom.

Joyce Kozloff was born December 14, 1942, in Somerville, New Jersey. She received her

B.F.A. from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1964 and her M.F.A. from Columbia University, New York, NY in 1967.

The mosaics were fabricated by Crovatto Mosaics, Yonkers, New York. The tiles were fabricated by the artist and art consultant Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz.

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Thousands and Thousands of Tiles

Posted by Cindy on December 19, 2013

Dec 192013

San Francisco International Airport
International Terminal
Main Hall

Gateway 2000- by Ik-Joong Kang

This artwork contains 5,400 unique 3 in. x 3 in. paintings, wood carvings, tiles and cast acrylic cubes. The artist began working in this 3 in. x 3 in. format when he was a student and commuted long distances to various part-time jobs. The 3 in. canvases were small enough for him to carry in his backpack and paint on the subway.

The piece is mixed media including canvas, wood, ceramic tile and found objects, it measures 120 X 720 inches.

Born in 1960, in Cheong Ju, Korea, Ik-Joong Kang has lived and worked in New York City since 1984. He received his BFA from Hong-Ik University in Seoul, Korea, and his MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

Stacking Stones

Posted by Cindy on December 18, 2013

Dec 182013

San Francisco International Airport
Terminal Two
Level Two

Stacking Stones by Seiji Kunishma – 1983

These stones were commissioned by SFAC for the airport in 1983. They remained in the airport during the new construction.

Born in Nagoya, Japan, Seiji Kunishima is an internationally renowned artist whose sculptures are characterized by a serene balance between the traditional and the modern. Stacking Stones weighs 14 tons and is created from stone quarried near Nagoya. Each section of rock was shaped to fit into the next and the outer surface was chiseled or polished to create contrasts of color, texture and depth. The stones weigh over 14 tons.

Tapestries to take your breath away

Posted by Cindy on December 1, 2013

Dec 012013

San Francisco International Airport
Terminal 2
Waiting Area

This is a series by Mark Adams. They include Garden Outside Gate, Garden in Golden Gate Park, and Garden in San Andreas Valley. They have been in storage for over 20 years at the SFAC. They were brought out and installed as part of the complete remodel of Terminal 2 at SFO. They are absolutely stunning, and thank goodness they have been brought out for all to enjoy.

Woven in the traditional Aubusson style, these flax woven wool tapestries represent various gardens that the artist remembers from his years living in San Francisco. Irises, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums and wild dahlias are featured in rich, deep shades.

His 2006 obituary Reads:

Mr. Adams was known for the grace and delicacy of his spare, single-object still life pictures, and for the big stained-glass windows and tapestries he was commissioned to create for churches, synagogues, libraries and office buildings around the Bay Area. He made stained-glass windows for Temple Emanu-El and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and the Lafayette-Orinda United Presbyterian Church, among others, and did tapestries for such diverse places as the San Francisco International Airport, the Marina branch of the San Francisco Public Library and the Dallas Fairmont Hotel.

Mr. Adams’ more intimate work was shown in group and solo exhibitions at museums and galleries around the Bay Area and the country and found its way into many private collections.

“He was a lovely man, a real gentleman with a great soul,” said San Francisco art dealer John Berggruen, who showed Mr. Adams’ work for 25 years. “He did these beautifully poetic watercolors that had a real presence about them. His floral images, and his depiction of common everyday objects, were very compelling. We would exhibit his watercolors every two or three years, and they’d all sell. People would be lined up at the gallery at 9:30 in the morning to buy them. He had a wonderful run.”

Berggruen recalled the warm feeling of the old Mission District firehouse where Mr. Adams and his wife, artist Beth Van Hoesen, lived, worked and entertained friends for more than 50 years.

Mr. Adams was born in Fort Plain, N.Y., and studied at the University of Syracuse’s School of Fine Arts. He moved to New York City in 1945 and studied at painter Hans Hoffman’s School of Fine Arts and at Atelier 17. The next year, he hitchhiked to San Francisco and worked on the restoration of Carmel’s Mission San Carlos Borromeo under the leadership of Harry Downie, digging ditches and painting the Stations of the Cross in a Spanish Colonial style in the mission chapel.

After further study at Columbia University, Mr. Adams returned to San Francisco and got a job making window displays at Gump’s. Inspired by the tapestries he had seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, he began creating his own tapestries in 1952. His first piece was included in a show of religious art that year at the de Young Museum. Three years later, he apprenticed with French tapestry designer Jean Lurçat and traveled with his wife through Europe and North Africa.

Returning to San Francisco, Mr. Adams began doing commissioned tapestries for public and private buildings, and in 1960 got the first of many stained-glass commissions, for San Francisco’s Clarendon School. He was painter in residence at the American Academy in Rome in 1963 and over the years taught at various colleges in the Bay Area and beyond

Topo in Cloth and aluminum

Posted by Cindy on November 27, 2013

Nov 272013

San Francisco International Airport
Departure Lobby
Terminal 2

Kendall Buster -Powder coated steel tubing; greenhouse shade cloth- 288 in. x 288 in. x 192 in

Topograph I & II

Kendall Buster earned a BFA degree from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington DC and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University as well as participating in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Studio Program in New York City.

His website explains the piece:

Topograph was designed and constructed for the San Francisco International Airport Terminal 2 departures area. A raised entryway forms a kind of narrow bridge above a massive open space in the main floor of the terminal and this presented very specific opportunities both functionally and formally. Travelers are typically moving quickly across the bridge and through the lower level. The form was intended to participate in what I saw as rapidly and sequentially changing positions of viewer to object. The work is constructed out of a series of vertically hung planes that behave like slats. As one moves in relation to the work, whether looking from above into the sculpture or from below, the planes seem to pivot. At one point when one is perpendicular to the thin slats that form the sculpture the form almost disappears. Alternatively, from some vantage points there is a suggestion that the planes have been compressed into a single form. But viewed from other points these vertical planes decompress and expand. Perhaps suggesting clouds dispersing or shifting landscapes.

The design grew out of my interest in these dynamic viewing points from above and below as well as an interest in how I might create a single sculpture in two sections – one on either side of the bridge in such a way that a viewer would walk between fragments of a kind of ephemeral landscape. To this end Topograph consists of two groups of vertically hung panels sighted on either side of the bridge/mezzanine to create a fragmented topography map.

Rigging by Methods and Materials
Project management by Mark G. Anderson Consultants

Welcome

Posted by Cindy on November 26, 2013

Nov 262013

San Francisco International Airport
Terminal 2
Baggage Claim Level 1

Dan Snyder – Polyurethane Paint on Aluminum -1983

Titled Welcome North, Welcome South, Welcome East, Welcome West, is designed to greet visitors from around the world.

According to Mr Snyder’s website:

Dan was born in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands in 1941. His father was a naval officer stationed there at the time. Growing up he lived largely in seaport towns in the United States. After graduating from Wesleyan University in Connecticut with a major in theater, he attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and then went on to the University of New Mexico where he received an MFA in studio art and art history.

For many years Mr. Snyder taught both art and theater in private schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut. After teaching he worked as an illustrator for advertising, editorial illustration for The Hartford Courant, and children’s book illustration, as well as designing and painting sets for local theater productions. Then for three years he was head designer of exhibits at the Science Center of Connecticut. In 1995 Dan moved to Maine with fellow artist Betsy Gardiner. He continues to paint and exhibit his work, as well as do design and illustration for businesses and organizations.

Kokeshi to Kaiju

Posted by Cindy on November 13, 2013

Nov 132013

San Francisco International Airport

Astro Boy (Tesuwan Atomu)

When the SFO Museum began Twittering about their upcoming Japanese Toy exhibit, I knew I needed to see it. Sadly, it is behind TSA. It is in Terminal Three for all you lucky people flying in and/or out of SFO in the next 6 months.

I contacted the museum, and Exhibits Curator, Nicole Mullen, was kind enough to get me past TSA to view the exhibit.

I was a kid in a candy shop. I have been a fan of Astro Boy and Ultraman since I was a child. I have a huge collection of both, to say nothing of my Robot and Godzilla collection (all from Japan).

This collection was put together from private collectors that include Boss Robot Hobby, The California Academy of Sciences, Chizuko Kuroda, Kalim Winata, Kimono My House, Mark Nagata, Reed Darmon, Rory Yellin and Sanrio.

Sanrio donated a huge Hello Kitty, as well as, a dress made of pink and white stuffed Hello Kitty’s. Being a Badtz Maru fan myself, I am afraid I didn’t get any Hello Kitty photos, my apologize to her fans.

Ultraman costume

The exhibit is titled Japanese Toys! From Kokeshi to Kaiju and runs through April of 2014. Beautifully laid out by category, the exhibit covers an amazing diversity of toys and history. There is also a wonderful handout that accompanies the exhibit that you can pick up.

As you enter the exhibit from the street side you are first greeted by this huge Dog. (don’t worry, I thought it was a cat too). This dog was done by a member of the exhibits staff, Steven Villano.

Colorful, mythical Japanese characters have traditionally appeared in the form of papier-mâché, a centuries-old craft technique in Japan. Guardian dogs are among some of the most popular papier-mâché figurines.

Many legendary stories about guardian dogs developed during the Edo period (1615–1868) in Japan. One story tells the tale of Kobo Daishi (774–835), a Buddhist monk who spent the night at a local farmer’s home during a pilgrimage. This courteous farmer told Daishi that he was troubled by boars in his fields and asked him for a protective amulet. Kobo Daishi allegedly created a paper-dog charm, which he folded, sealed, and gave to the farmer to hang in his fields to protect his crops. When the farmer, curious about the highly effective amulet, eventually opened it, the paper dog flew away. From the SFO Museum Website

If you were a Saturday cartoon nut, you should recognize Speed Racer. Introduced in 1966 by Tatsuo Yoshida as car racing manga, Mach Go Go, the figure was influenced by American culture so the characters were western in appearance. Mach Go Go was syndicated for TV in the US in 1967 as Speed Racer. Although not as technically advanced as cartoons in the US, the moral themes, the complex plots and the unique sound effects and camera angles were very different from cartoons popular at the time.

Ultraman’s central characters were created by Eiji Tsuburaya a pioneer in special effects who was responsible for bringing Godzilla to life in 1954. To learn more about Ultraman you can read about him at the SFO site here.

Kawaii Dolls

Kawaii means cute or childlike, a term used for the obsession that the Japanese tend to have with cutesy characters, toys, stationary, housewares and fashion.

With the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Lucky Dragon 5 incident still fresh in the Japanese consciousness, Godzilla was conceived as a metaphor for nuclear weapons. As the film series expanded, some stories took on less serious undertones portraying Godzilla as a hero while other plots still portrayed Godzilla as a destructive monster. The other character you see here is Mothra an adversary of Ultraman, as was Godzilla.

Daruma Doll

The traditional Daruma doll represents the silhouette of Bodhidharma in deep meditation, sitting in the customary zazen position. Daruma is closely associated with a beloved Japanese proverb, Nana korobi yaoki, which states, “Fall down seven times, get up eight”. The Daruma doll’s unique rounded shape allows it to return to its original position even if knocked over, representing such persistence.

Yokai Monster Figures

Long before kaiju, Japan had a long tradition of yōkai or supernatural ghouls, some imported from China, others spawned directly from local lore and superstition. Yōkai lurked in the mountains, forests, and fields of Japan, and are depicted in folktales, woodblock prints, and paintings. During the 1960s, the Daiei Motion Picture Company also produced a series of tokusatsu films featuring yōkai monsters. Today, they even make appearances in video games, manga, and popular toys. – From the SFO Museum Website

Kokeshi Dolls

Kokeshi, probably the most beloved folk dolls in Japan, stem from a tradition that dates at least to the 1800s. Craftsmen first made kokeshi in the northern region of Tohoku during the cold winter months. Kokeshi dolls are characterized by their lack of arms and legs and the brightly painted floral or geometrical designs on their cylindrical bodies. The process for making these rounded, wooden dolls is similar to the lathe-turning method employed to make legs for chairs or tables. These dolls served as simple toys for children and were also purchased at hot springs as souvenirs. Over time, the popularity of these figures spread and craftsmen in other regions began to make the dolls. Each area developed its own unique decorative traits allowing one to distinguish a doll’s region of origin. – From the SFO Museum Website.

I can’t thank the SFO museum enough for letting me wallow in my fantasies of Japanese toys and manga. I also would like to thank DC Denise Schmitt of the SFPD Police Department – SFO. Despite the fact that she wouldn’t let me play with the toys, we had a great chat.

A Museum for the Cost of a BART Ticket

Posted by Cindy on November 12, 2013

Nov 122013

San Francisco International Airport

Addison Model 2A Radio c. 1940

Many people know that there is art at SFO, but did you know there is an actual museum? Much of the art you see scattered around the airport as single pieces belong to the SFAC, however, the exhibits you see, carefully crafted for your enjoyment, are by an entirely different organization.

The SFO Museum was established by the Airport Commission in 1980 for the purpose of humanizing the airport environment. In 1999, SFO Museum became the first exhibitions program in an airport to receive accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums. The museum contains more than twenty galleries throughout the airport with a rotating schedule (every 6 months) of art, history, science and culture.

Cape Clasp c. 1875

I recently had the absolute pleasure of meeting Nicole Mullen, the curator of exhibitions at the SFO Museum. She let me loose at the Japanese Toy Exhibit (more on that in the future). Our airBART ride to the exhibit was most informative. She explained that the museum had a chance to engage with the public for just a short period of time, most often when they were anxious, tired or hungry. To curate exhibits for SFO was different than a typical art gallery, engaging people of all walks of life, many different cultures and different age groups, and all in a hurry to get somewhere, is challenging and very rewarding.

The collections are often put together with private collectors, giving the museum a unique pool to pull from of varying items.

There are four public displays in the International Terminal that don’t need a ticket to view. There is also an Aviation Museum and Library off International Terminal A that is open to the public.

SFO Museum has an excellent on-line map with links to all of the exhibits throughout the airport. You can view it here.

The photo above is from the Classic Plastics 1870’s – 1970’s. It runs until January of next year.

Chicken Coop (Ubi) 20th Century

The Philippine Basketry is from the Fowler Museum at UCLA and also runs through January of 2014.

These photographs come from beautiful handouts that accompany the exhibits. They are gorgeous, well-organized and extremely informative.

If you are looking for a unique museum experience, hop on BART and head to SFO. You can view their many exhibits before you go and plan your visit by going to their website and seeing what is currently showing.

Woman’s basket and rain cape (tudang) 20th century

Guglielmo Marconi Memorial

Posted by Cindy on October 31, 2013

Oct 312013

Lombard Avenue
On the drive up to Coit Tower
North Beach

This memorial to Guglielmo Marconi was placed sometime in 1938-1939.

A group called the Marconi Memorial Foundation incorporated in the 1930s for the purpose of enshrining Marconi as the inventor of the wireless (a fact contested by the Russians). They placed two memorials one on the slopes of San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill and one at 16th and Lamont Streets in Washington D.C..

The Foundation collected public subscriptions from the supportive Italian-American community in North Beach, and on April 13, 1938, received permission from the U.S. Congress and President Franklin Roosevelt to erect memorials on public land. The foundation spent $65,115 for the two memorials.

Carved in Raymond California granite the latin on the base reads: Outstripping the lighting, the voice races through the empty sky.”

Marconi, is credited with not only developing radio telegraphy (wireless), but he brought it to England. A patent was granted him in 1896.

“In 1899 a team of San Franciscans reproduced Guglielmo Marconi’s method of communicating by radio waves and demonstrated its usefulness by sending a message in Morse code from a lightship anchored outside the Golden Gate to the Cliff House on the San Francisco Shore. This was the first wireless message broadcast on the West coast and the first ship-to-shore broadcast in the United States.” University of Santa Clara: A History, 1851-1977 by Gerald McKevitt

A month later Marconi himself came to America and repeated some of his experiments.

On April 27th , 1934 Marconi celebrated his 60th birthday by receiving an honorary citizenship of San Francisco. It was conferred in a ceremony at the Academy of Italy by Father Oreste Trinchieri, representing Mayor Angelo Rossi. The inventor made a 10-minute talk. Marconi recalled his visit to San Francisco and the fact that California had welcomed thousands of Italians to her bosom. He asked Trinchieri to convey to the mayor his heartfelt thanks and say that he hopes to return to San Francisco soon.

The statues are often credited to Attilio Piccirilli (May 16, 1866 – October 8, 1945) an American sculptor, born in the province of Massa-Carrara, Italy, and educated at the Accademia di San Luca of Rome. He in fact did do the Marconi Memorial in Washington D.C. However, the sculpture in San Francisco has been attributed to Raymond Puccinelli by the Smithsonian Institute.

Puccinelli has been in this site before with his Bison Sculpture. Son of Antonio and Pearl Puccinelli, Raymond was born in 1904, on Jessie Street in San Francisco, and attended Lowell High School. Puccinelli studied art in both California and Italy, and for a time maintained a studio in Lucca, Italy. He was sculptor in residence of the Rinehart School of Sculpture of the Maryland Institute of Art and Peabody Institute.

The view from the Memorial is one reason many people don’t notice it is there.

Telegraph hill was named, not for radio telegraphy (wireless), but for the semaphore visual signaling device erected there at the instructions of ship Captain John B. Montgomery and used from 1846 until the turn of the century.

Pennsylvania Comes to San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on June 27, 2013

Jun 272013

600 California Street
Chinatown

These two bronze plaques were originally the doors to a hand operated elevator. The doors, designed by Lee O. Lawrie in 1930-1931 were in the Education Building of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Capitol Park in Harrisburg.

The sculpture was one of six sets of elevator doors that the artist originally fabricated. This set of door panels remained there until 1972, when the building’s hand-operated elevators were replaced with automatic ones. From about 1980 to 1989, the doors were in a private collection in Virginia. They were installed at the new Federal Home Bank in 1990.

Lee Oskar Lawrie (1877-1963) was born in Rixdorf, Germany, and came to the United States in 1882 as a young child, settling in Chicago. It was there, at the age of 14, that he began working for the sculptor Richard Henry Park.

In 1892 he assisted many of the sculptors in Chicago, constructing the “White City” for the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Following the completion of the work at the Exposition, Lawrie returned East and became an assistant to William Ordway Partridge. The next decade found him working with other established sculptors:Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Philip Martiny, Alexander Phimister Proctor, John William Kitson and others. His work at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St Louis, 1904, under Karl Bitter, the foremost architectural sculptor of the time, allowed Lawrie to further develop both his skills and his reputation as an architectural sculptor.

Lawrie received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Yale University in 1910. He was an instructor in Yale’s School of Fine Arts from 1908 to 1919 and taught in the architecture program at Harvard University from 1910 to 1912.

His most prominent work is the free-standing bronze Atlas (installed 1937) at New York City’s Rockefeller Center.

This panel on the left has allegorical figures representing Exploration, Literature, Architecture and Drama.

The allegorical figures on the right represent Religion, Physical Labor, Sculpture and Music.

Washington High School and the WPA

Posted by Cindy on June 18, 2013

Jun 182013

George Washington High School
600 32nd Avenue
Richmond District

George Washington High School opened on August 4, 1936, to serve as a secondary school for the people of San Francisco’s Richmond District. The school was built on a budget of $8,000,000 on a site overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.

The architect was Timothy Pflueger, here he begins moving away from the highly decorative elements of his earlier Telephone Company Building and begins using symmetrical central elements, minimally embellished with fluted speed lines and simple plaques.

The lobby is decorated with WPA murals by Victor Arnautoff in the “buon fresco” styles. They depict scenes from the life and times of George Washington. In the second floor library, there is a WPA mural produced by Lucien Labaudt, entitled “Advancement of Learning through the Printing Press”, another by Ralph Stackpole titled “Contemporary Education” and “Modern and Ancient Science” by Gordon Langdon.

The stadium, auditorium, and gymnasium were added in 1940. The school was formally dedicated on Armistice Day of 1940.

The three figures over the door were sculpted by Victor Arnautoff.

Victor Arnautoff, painter, muralist, lithographer, sculptor and teacher, was born in Mariupol, Ukraine, in 1896. He served as a Cavalry officer in Czar Nicholas II’s army, receiving the Cross of the Order of St. George before escaping to Manchuria to avoid the Bolshevik Revolution. Arnautoff traveled to China and Mexico before emigrating to the U.S. and San Francisco in 1925.

He enrolled at the California School of Fine Arts where he studied sculpture with Ralph Stackpole and painting with Edgar Walters. Arnautoff returned to Mexico and studied mural painting with Diego Rivera.

By 1931 he had returned to San Francisco and shortly thereafter taught sculpture and fresco painting at the California School of Fine Arts. He also taught at Stanford University where he was Professor of Art from 1939 – 1960. His art affiliations included memberships in the San Francisco Art Association and the California Society of mural painters. Arnautoff was technical director and art chief of the Coit Tower murals project and is represented by a mural depicting city life.

He exhibited at the Golden Gate International Exposition, New York World’s Fair, Art Institute of Chicago, Palace of the Legion of Honor, Toledo Museum of Art, Foundation of Western Art, California Pacific Exposition, as well as annual shows of the San Francisco Art Association.

After the death of his wife in the 1960s, he returned to the USSR and died in Leningrad in 1979.

Shakespeare

George Washington

Thomas Edison

On the science building are two Arnautoff sculptures titled Power and Industry.

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.

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.

Utility Boxes get Dressed Up

Posted by Cindy on January 18, 2013

Jan 182013

Duboce and Church
Castro

Mona Caron, who created the adjacent Bicycle Coalition mural on the back of the Safeway has added new touches to the Muni utility boxes on the sidewalk. On one side of the boxes, bicyclists entering the Wiggle are greeted by an illustrated flowing banner that lists the names of the streets that make up the route. On the other side, pedestrians are treated with a window to a re-imagined intersection featuring an uncovered Sans Souci Creek (which once roughly followed the path of the Wiggle).

The title of this box is Manifestation Station.

This photo, from Mona Caron’s website, shows exactly how the box was meant to be viewed.

Update: There was fire in this particular utility box, and the utility company has replaced it with a plain unpainted box, Mona’s beautiful creation is not to return. But you can enjoy her video about it here:

Cross the street, and you get lovely depictions of “weeds” sprouting from the ground. “They may be tiny yet they push through concrete. They are everywhere and yet unseen. But the more they get stepped on, the stronger they grow back.”…Mona Caron

Mona Caron has several murals throughout San Francisco.

These boxes are part of the Church and Duboce Track Improvement Project by the SFMTA

For a great day spent learning about the area and the mural check out ThinkWalks, if you don’t have time to actually take a walk, they have a wonderful full color description of the mural with facts, trivia, and lots of bits of San Francisco History in their store.

San Francisco’s Civic Center the Heart of the City Beautiful Movement

Posted by Cindy on December 29, 2012

Dec 292012

San Francisco’s 1906 fire and earthquake not only destroyed much of San Francisco, it also destroyed the dream of many to bring the City Beautiful Movement to large sections of San Francisco.

The City Beautiful Movement began with the “White City,” also known as the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. The Exposition took place in Chicago and was an exercise in light, order and forward thinking.

The shimmering “White City” was a model of early city planning and architectural cohesion. In the Court of Honor all of the buildings had uniform heights, were decorated roughly in the same manner, and painted bright white. The beauty of the main court, the well-planned balance of buildings, water, and open green spaces was a wholly new concept to the visitors of the fair. Dignified, monumental and well run, the White City boasted state-of-the-art sanitation and transportation systems. All of this was in sharp contrast to the grey, urban sprawl of Chicago in 1893.

Chicago – 1893 World Columbian Exposition – (Photo courtesy of Boston College)

The City Beautiful Movement was a response to failing urban life. An attempt to improve cities through beautification, it was hoped that the solution of social ills would inspire civic loyalty, and make city centers more inviting to the upper classes, in hopes that they would return to them for work and therefore spend money.

The City Beautiful Movement used the language of the Beaux Arts (Fine Arts) Style. This style was named after the art and architecture school of Paris the Ecoles des Beaux Arts and flourished between 1885 and 1920.

The Beaux Arts is a classical style with a full range of Grecian and Roman elements, including columns, arches, vaults and domes.

General defining elements include the following:

Symmetry
Highly ornamented exterior decorations
A single architectural element as the center of the building composition. This could be an over-scaled
archway or a dramatic line of columns.
A dramatic roofline, often with sculptured figures
Monumental steps approaching the entrance
Floor plans that culminate in a single grand room
Axial floor plans so that vistas can be obtained throughout the building

Classic Elements of Beaux Art Architecture.

The City Beautiful Movement began in San Francisco in 1904, when James Duval Phelan, former mayor and president of the “Association for the Improvement and Adornment of San Francisco,” invited Daniel Hudson Burnham to town. Daniel Burnham was the indisputable “Father of City Beautiful.” He was the Director of Works for the Worlds Columbian Exhibition in Chicago and took a leading role in the creation of master plans for a number of cities.

Burnham’s group proposed that a new Civic Center complex be built at the corner of Market and Van Ness with radiating grand boulevards. A landscaped park would begin at the Civic Center and extend to the Golden Gate Park Panhandle. Twin Peaks was to be crowned with a neo-classic library overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The plan created neighborhoods, which would be accessed by a grid pattern, and tied the transportation systems to scenic views. The groups’ plan prescribed careful treatment of the hills and streets and even took into consideration the issues of building costs, maintenance and upkeep.

The War Memorial Veterans Building – San Francisco

The War Memorial Opera House is almost identical to the Veterans Building.

In 1906 the earthquake and fire presented the City Beautiful movement with a blank canvas-with one caveat, the merchants of San Francisco, eager to regenerate commerce, would have the final say as to the direction of future building in San Francisco.

Nevertheless, there was still a significant Beaux Arts influence in a number of buildings that were built after the earthquake, and the Civic Center we know today is one of the finest examples of the movement.

The Bill Graham Auditorium

The Beaux Arts buildings that create the heart of Civic Center include City Hall and the Exposition Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Auditorium) completed in 1915 in time for the Pan Pacific Exhibition, the War Memorial Opera House and the War Memorial Veterans Building, the Main Library and the State and Old Federal Buildings built in the 1920s and 1930s.

These classic buildings give the San Francisco Civic Center a visual cohesion that should encourage visitors to sit and enjoy this area. Sadly, due to the continued onslaught of vagrancy, the City of San Francisco has destroyed the central park area, Civic Center Plaza, that brings the buildings together.

“The biggest single obstacle to the provision of better public space is the undesirables problem,” wrote William H. Whyte in his 1980 book, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. “They are themselves not too much of a problem. It is the actions taken to combat them that is the problem.”

The Civic Center open space has no benches, and if you are looking for a place to sit, you will find poorly maintained lawns interrupted by sparsely planted annuals. A colonnade of pollarded London Plane trees stands like sentinels over a vast bed of decomposed granite that used to house a reflective pool. While the Asian Art Museum has often placed intriguing and world-class art in the plaza, it is not yet enough to make the average citizen want to visit.

Dealing with the homeless problem in San Francisco has never been one of calm and reason; making the area scream, “go away” has not worked. It is time to find a way to bring vibrancy and humanity back to the area. It is time that the city slowly works its way back to the ideals of the City Beautiful Movement within its own Civic Center.

The State of California building

Golden Gate Park – Our National Pastime

Posted by Cindy on February 16, 2012

Feb 162012

Golden Gate Park

Our National Pastime by Douglas Tilden – 1889

Presented

to the Golden Gate Park

by a friend of the sculptor

as a tribute to his

energy, industry and ability

Cruet Fondeur, Paris

(John Cruet was a moldmaker in Paris, he also worked with Rodin. Fondeur means owner of the foundry)

Tilden originally displayed the piece as part of the American Exhibit at the Paris International Exposition, where it was extremely well received. It is widely recognized as the single most famous and classic baseball figural art piece ever created. As a result of its popularity at the time, a very small number of replicas was ordered by Tiffany’s. While the exact number of Tiffany replica’s produced is uncertain (possibly as few as four), only three have ever surfaced (two are 34 inches in height, the other 21 inches), one of which is on permanent exhibit in the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2006 a newly minted small replica sold for over $18,000.

Tilden, sculptor of the Mechanics Memorial on Market Street, 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.

The original base, made of sandstone at the turn of the century, was too badly worn to be refurbished. The new base is made of mahogany granite with a carved-raised panel and gold leaf lettering was done in November, 1998.

Our National Pastime is on JFK Drive across the street from the Conservatory of Flowers.

S.F. Bicycle Coalition Mural

Posted by Cindy 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.

***

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

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 of his work. The term emphasizes the use of cartoons as a vehicle to express life.

His rather extensive body of work, and a complete bio can be found on his website.

20th and Bryant Streets
San Francisco

November 2014 update – The garage on 5th street has been painted over – it now has just a remnant of Norris’ work and looks like this…

UN Plaza

Posted by Cindy on August 5, 2011

Aug 052011

Civic Center – San Francisco

United Nations Plaza

United Nations Plaza is an area off of Market Street with a walkable corridor straight to Civic Center, which includes City Hall and Herbst Theatre. The United Nations Charter was signed in the War Memorial Veterans Building’s Herbst Theatre in 1945, leading to the creation of the United Nations.

According to Wikipedia “Civic Center has a seedy, run-down, high crime reputation and appearance with large amounts of Homeless encampments which has prevented it from attracting the large amounts of tourists seen in other areas of the city. Despite repeated redevelopment of Civic Center over the years aimed primarily at discouraging the homeless from camping there, large amounts of homeless continue to camp and loiter in the area.” Sadly, this is true.

The architecture of the Plaza itself is really beautiful. It was designed by world famous Lawrence Halprin in the 1970s. It is lined with granite columns engraved with a particular year and the countries that were inducted into the U.N. during that year. On the walkway are engraved sayings promoting peace over war, and there is of course, the ubiquitous water feature.

Sadly, none of this beauty has kept the less fortunate from making it a play ground and scaring others away.

Looking from the Water fountain towards City Hall

Looking Back towards Market Street

It was a beautiful day and really good music could be heard for blocks. These fellas, Machaiara, (apparently are a Nonprofit, Non Denominational Christian Music Outreach & Support Ministry), were there to convert the onlookers. Not sure if it is proper to mix church and state, but I can promise everyone was enjoying their music.

The Eastern Outfitting Company

Posted by Cindy on March 10, 2001

Mar 102001

1017 Market Street
Mid-Market

This gorgeous building sits on Market between 6th and 7th. It has been sheathed and scaffolded for quite awhile now, and it is a pleasure to see that it has come out from behind its blanket much better for the stay.

The seven story building, with its terra-cotta finish and steel frame construction has a unique steel and glass façade that begins above the ground floor retail space and is framed by Corinthian pillars. The giant Corinthian order columns and capitals are constructed of terra-cotta tiles; and the entablature, seemingly so massive, is in fact hollow—a galvanized-iron box. The words Furniture and Carpets stand out from that galvanized iron entablature reminding us that at one time it was the Union Furniture Store.

During the restoration they have put back the 700 lights that go around the windows. They had simply been empty holes for many many years now.

To see some gorgeous photos of the building prior to its make over, visit Mark Ellinger’s wonderful piece Grand Illusion.

The building was designed in 1909 by George Applegarth (1875-1972).

Applegarth, born in Oakland, was a student of Bernard Maybeck, who encouraged him to train at the Ecoles des Beaux-Arts.

Applegarth’s most famous works were under the commission of Alma de Bretteville Spreckles. He designed both the Spreckles Mansion and the Palace of the Legion of Honor for Alma.

In 1921 and 1922, Applegarth was President of the San Francisco Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

A shot of the windows before restoration:

Poetry of Pier 14

Posted by Cindy on January 19, 2000

Jan 192000

Pier 14
Waterfront/Embarcadero

This 637-foot-long pedestrian span opened in 2006. It is the newest recreational pier on the San Francisco waterfront.

The reason it exists is the breakwater on which it rests, a shield for ferries from winter storms; the design, by ROMA Design group was to top the pier with a 15-foot-wide corridor of concrete framed by long thin rails of horizontal steel.

This $2.3 Million was done in two phases.

Phase I construction was completed in 2004, and included building a 115-foot pier extension to connect the breakwater to the Embarcadero Promenade, a 30-foot diameter terminus at the outer

end, entry railings, and a portal structure with a rollup gate.

The playful swivel chairs, designed by ROMA Design Group and the Port, were fabricated by Eclipse Design, who also fabricated all 1300 feet of the Pier’s railing. These items were done in 2005 under Phase II.

Along the way you can read the Sailor’s Song (From Death’s Jest Book, Act I) by Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803-1849)

TO sea, to sea! The calm is o’er
The wanton water leaps in sport
And rattles down the pebbly shore
The dolphin wheels, the sea-cows snort,
And unseen mermaids’ pearly song
Comes bubbling up, the weeds among.
Fling broad the sail, dip deep the oar:

To sea, to sea! the calm is over.
To sea, to sea! our wide-winged bark
Shall billowy cleave its sunny way,
And with its shadow, fleet and dark,
Break the caved Tritons’ azure day,
Like mighty eagle soaring light
O’er antelopes on Alpine height.
The anchor heaves, the ship swings free,
The sails swell full. To sea, to sea!

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