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In 2011 Max Good and Nathan Wollman produced a film Vigilante Vigilante that focuses on anti graffiti vigilantes who expend their energy getting rid of graffiti as fast as it goes up. Their operations tend to be as covert as the taggers, bombers, and free thinkers who leave their thoughts on the street. Both parties co-exist in the same communities across the country and feel equally as passionate and enabled about their activities.

Apparently San Francisco is no exception to the rule with one of these self appointed crusaders, with a street name of Dolores Clean, living in the Mission District. So who is this Dolores Clean? Dolores is a high tech vigilante who uses a phone camera, twitter and blogs to identify and report anything.

Dolores set up a blogspot  called Dolores Clean in May,2010 to express their intentions and ideas. The site tag line reads

“Striving to make an ambiental change in the Mission District through the use of camera phone technology to clean things up.”

And the first post defines Graffiti.

“Graffiti is… the difference between living in one of the best neighborhoods in the most beautiful city in America, and living in a ghetto.”

Dolores Clean continues on to say they are concentrating first on public graffiti on public property, which they consider to be the City’s responsibility to clean up, with a secondary focus on private property where they chastise the owners for having unoccupied buildings because they are rent greedy and yet are sympathetic to business owners who have to deal with the graffiti. Their focus is cleaning up the Mission District on everyone’s behalf and their weapon is their phone, twitter and SF311, San Francisco’s 24/7 customer service center for providing and receiving information about multiple issues related to living, working and visiting San Francisco.

Over the course of less than 1 year, Dolores posted hundreds of photos on a Tumblr site DPClean over 5700 tweets and created 79 posts reporting cleaner streets as a result of their activity, somewhat berating the public for enjoying the fruits of their unasked for labor and reporting their calculation of the economics of their graffiti clean up. The last blog entry was in March, 2011 where they state they are no longer reporting the graffiti to SF311 citing the City’s low response rate and time  in relation to their efforts spent on reporting. Also that nominal effort, included no energy spent attacking the unaddressed problem with graffiti on  commercial property. Tumblr activity, with almost 2,800 photos ended a few months later.

“I’ve reported commercial graffiti on the same properties, and the response has been total ineffective.   I mean 100’s of reports and reply that it will be cleaned in 3 days, that never happen.    So that corporate commercial graffiti a key problem that needs to be resolved before I find it worth spending time on other graffiti.       Otherwise, reporting graffiti is always something like bailing water from a leaking boat, but the gaping hole of commercial graffiti is not addressed,….”

 

A quick look now at Twitter shows there was continued tweeting through April, 2012 with some recent activity in November stating their address had been hijacked. There has been no additional activity.

The interesting thing is that the Chronicle published an article on December 27, 2012 titled SF murals become targets for vandals by Matthai Kuruvila stating that muralist have seen increased tagging and monikers to murals throughout the city this past year, making it time consuming and expensive to restore their murals. One muralist, Jet Martinez, who has been one of the directors of the Clarion Alley Mural Project,” called 2012 the worst year for tagging of his murals since he started in 1997″. The city spends about $3.5 million a year on graffiti abatement.

So Dolores Clean’s frustration has been felt by many who are also dealing with the problem. It will be interesting if Dolores Clean comes up with a new strategy and starts up again.

Streetartsf.com takes no position in the legalities of graffiti, defining it or stating if it is good or bad or right or wrong.

Walking through Mission streets, you are greeted by murals adorning storefronts, doorways, schools, and entire alleys. They are playful, confrontational, political, tongue-in-cheek. Some are painted with brushes and acrylics, some done with spraycans, still others look like children’s drawings. Behind many of these works of public art stands Precita Eyes, a mural arts organization keeping the Mission’s muralismo tradition thriving since 1977.

The Precita Eyes Mural Arts & Visitors Center, located in the heart of the Mission on 24th St., is hard to miss. The bright blue building with its yellow sign evokes the vibrant hues of local murals. The walls of the colorfully cluttered visitors’ center are decked out with art by Precita muralists; a larger-than-life Frida Kahlo looks down from a wall mural over the racks of postcards, books, and shelves of paint. Precita Eyes is a hub for both public art and education, and leads mural tours in the neighborhood. I chose their Sunday Classic Mural Tour as a starting off point.

Our tour group – some locals, a recent transplant to San Francisco, and a couple of high school students on assignment – was greeted by Patricia Rose, a muralist with Precita Eyes since 1980, who intimately knows the painters and the behind-the-scenes stories of the murals. Walking through a storage area brimming with half-finished mosaics, brushes, and paint cans, we start our tour with a slideshow overview of the mural movement’s history. Although “painting on walls” has existed as a concept since prehistory, it was during the ‘Golden Age’ in 1920’s Mexico that the mural as social commentary really took off. After new paint innovations, murals started appearing outdoors and became at once more accessible to the public and more rooted in populist themes. Taking this democratization one step further, the Mujeres Muralistas shifted the focus of the murals away from the ‘masculine’ themes of struggle and war to instead celebrate life affirming themes like community, heritage and family – themes very visible in the Mission today.

After the dark room and faded slides, it was a relief to get outside and see the murals in person. Although murals crop up in the neighborhood as often as taquerías, nowhere are they denser than Balmy Alley, with 40 murals on walls and garages along a 1-block stretch. The oldest of these are 40 years old; the peeling paint and faded color gives away the murals’ age. Old murals are never painted over or destroyed. In one case, a damaged garage door had to be replaced, taking a section of a mural with it. The new garage door was repainted in the spirit of the older mural still framing it, and now depicts a close-up of a young girl’s eyes: a soldier is reflected in one, a dove in the other.

The neighborhood’s murals are deeply rooted in the heritage and culture of the Mission. A utility box on Harrison and 24th is painted with portraits of actual Mission residents: a bakery owner, a flower vendor. Alongside murals representing the Nicaraguan and El Salvadoran revolutions, the most recent Balmy Alley mural portrays more immediate and local issues, such as foreclosures and gentrification in this traditionally Hispanic and immigrant neighborhood. The mural is bright, almost cartoonish, but doesn’t shy from heavy themes; for example, there is a reference to the Trayvon Martin shooting in the foreground.

In addition to community collaborations and private commissions, Precita muralists partner with StreetSmARTS, a San Francisco initiative that seeks to replace graffiti-prone blank walls with art. Precita also works with with local organizations and communities to help them design and paint their own murals. One such mural in Balmy Alley, titled “Those We Love, We Remember,” was done in collaboration with Children’s HOPE Project for children affected by HIV/AIDS;  it is all the more poignant to see the clearly childlike lines in the mural’s figures.

At the heart of it, Precita Eyes is about community, with art as the medium. You can support Precita by volunteering, taking a class, or going on an educational mural tour – though Balmy Alley is the most well known, the intricate mural on St. Peter’s Church and the mosaics in the 24th Street Mini Park should not be overlooked.

Visit Precita Eyes

Precita Eyes offers the following tours: the Classic Mural Tour on Sat. & Sun. at 1:30pm; the Mission Trail Mural Walk on Sat. at 11:00 am; and the Precita Park Tour on Sun. at 11:00 am. For more information, stop by 2981 24th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110, call (415) 285-2287 or visit their website.

During 2012, Street Art SF photographed over 1300 pieces of art on the streets of San Francisco and a few in Oakland. They ranged from small stickers to large murals. The art was done during 2012 as well as in prior years.

We looked at the number of page views per item on Streetartsf.com as well as the number of likes and re-blogs on tumblr to find out which pieces were the most popular. The art is shown in no particular order. Notably all the photos of GATS pieces posted in 2012 had an extremely high number of views and the photo of his sticker on the window was the most popular of all.

The 10 Most Popular Photos of 2012

Truck by Jurne.

Mural in progress by Apex on the corner of Haight and Masonic. Photos of the finished piece are on our blog but the photo that really took off was the one we took when we ran into Apex while he was painting the wall.

CCTV on Erie and Folsom Street in San Francisco.

The wall of 1:AM SF on 6th and Howard Street in San Francisco painted for the Reckoning show by Pemex and Leon Loucheur.

Unknown artist. 10,000 Warrior Poets photographed by Dustin Boyer.

Letter by Reyes part of his Misspelled series which although not painted in 2012 was photographed and shared by us in 2012.

Flower by Bella Ciao on Telegraph and Grand Avenue in Oakland.

Utility box by Eddie Colla at Grand and Broadway in Oakland.

GATS on the window at Cell Space on Bryant and 18th Street in San Francisco.

Lock by Swampy at Telegraph and 26th Street in Oakland.

Happy New Year!

A fellow street art fan, Anno Sterling recently shared a link with us to a feature documentary titled “Working Class” that is about  street artists Mike Giant of San Francisco and Mike Maxwell of San Diego.

The movie documents their friendship that started with a tattoo and has extended over a decade. Jeffry Durkin, a former architect directed and produced the movie along with two collaborators Jeff Durkin and Jeff Katz. Using the Tale of Two Cities as inspiration, the movie is divided into two stories of their art and life and their respective cities San Francisco and San Diego.

Enjoy the trailer and check out what we have found on the walls in San Francisco for Mike Giant. Learn more about or purchase the movie on their site Working Class Film.

The (de)Appropriation wall is a wonderful juxtaposition of ownership with its seemingly illegal legal art. It is on the site of the former Mission Police Station which moved to its’ current location further down Valencia Street in 1994. Artist, Bruce Tomb lives on the property,conducts his business there and documents the wall.

The wall on Valencia Street between 23rd and 24th streets in the Mission District is cluttered with stickers, posters, announcements and street art. It is a giant bulletin board that is constantly being refreshed. If you like wheat paste, it is an excellent place to periodically check out. Like all other street art,it is here today and gone tomorrow, especially on the lower parts of the wall that are easy to reach without a ladder.

The funny thing about this wall is that I never gave it much thought until a London based artist named Yola visited San Francisco and was looking for a wall to paste up some of her art. She informed us she pasted “Orestes” on the (de)Appropriation wall. If she had said the wall on Valencia I would have known instantly which wall. It ends up that wall’s official name is (de)Appropriation and is sometimes referred to as the freedom wall on Valencia.

This wall is the site of the former Mission Police Station that moved from there in 1994 to its’ current location further down Valencia Street. The building was acquired by artist, Bruce Tomb who currently lives on the property and conducts his business there as well.

Initially the Valencia wall, was frequently tagged so Bruce Tomb took action by painting a grid on it, then watched what unfolded. He noticed that the tagging began to subside with the wall gradually morphing into a public billboard filled with protest statements, event announcements and artistic renderings. When it comes to posting on the wall Bruce Tomb is laissez faire. His only rule is no tape or staples permitted.

This wall has become a project for Bruce Tomb. Over the past 10 years he has photographed it extensively and exhibited his photos. He named his project (de)Appropriation. When taggers write on a wall they are illegally appropriating the wall. As the citizens of the Mission began posting on the wall they publicly were taking it back. However, it wasn’t really theirs to take back since it is still privately owned. So the name is a twist on the property ownership which was public property and is now private that the public has chosen for their personal expression and the owner has quietly allowed to happen.

Learn more about Bruce Tomb’s archive project

Bruce Tomb’s site where he continues to document the wall, with this being his third archive since he began the project. (de)Approppriation Project Archive. See what we have spotted lately on the wall. (de)Approppriation

Preface: We are excited to have Kseniya join us as a blogger and photographer on Street Art SF. She developed her interest in street art much in the same way we did, by walking by it daily. We look forward to sharing more of her work.

Some people collect souvenir magnets or similar tchotchkes when they travel, others bag global golf games. I collect street art. No matter where I travel, I make it a point to keep an eye out for a splash of color on a bleak wall, a sticker on a telephone pole, a stencil on a utility box. Souvenir postcards all look the same, but the variety of street art never fails to astound me.

On a recent trip to Vienna, I dutifully visited palaces, churches and the sort of art that lives in picture frames, indoors. These tourist-filled areas of the city seemed little conducive to street art – I only spotted one in 3 days, a somewhat faded but still amazing wheat paste of a bright bear-windmill-creature.

But, by chance, an evening stroll led me to the Donaucanal, or Danube Canal – the area along it is being redeveloped into hip bars and clubs, but the walkway along the water below leads to walls filled with murals and graffiti. I caught a free hour one rainy morning to take a closer look and capture some of it.

The canal is spanned by several bridges, and every square inch seems to be covered by graffiti. The lettering looked particularly bright in the gray drizzle.

The ramps sloping down to the water were also covered in art, like these stylized faces.

An ominous grin below a bridge.

An elaborate fever-dream of a mural by REM – a group started by street artist Nychos.

Someone very, very large left their heart in Vienna.

My favorite piece was this beautiful Klimt-inspired face, a fitting homage to the city’s most famous artist.

If you or your friends are into art and want a memorable stay in San Francisco, view the painted rooms, make a reservation and experience luxury as written in the New York Times in 2005.

“The luxury is in having a gallery of underground art at your doorstep, on your door, and, in some rooms, dangling over your head.”

Where the building is the art. A few months ago, someone mentioned that I must see the log cabin that is affixed to the side of a building on Bush Street. It is no longer there. At the time, I couldn’t imagine who would suspend a wooden cabin on a downtown urban building a block from the financial district.  I was surprised and delighted to find the cabin on the side of a building occupied by a hotel completely painted by street artists – Hotel des Arts. There was even a flyer about the cabin conveniently placed at the hotel door.

Hotel des Arts is a narrow five story building on Bush at Grant Avenue; a block commonly known as the French Quarter in San Francisco. When I stepped inside I discovered this is no ordinary boutique hotel. The hotel name is reflective of its’ niche. It is an art hotel where the art just doesn’t hang on the walls. The walls are the art. I was greeted at the reception desk in a bright airy room and introduced to the hotel manager, who enthusiastically informed me about the hotel and showed me several rooms.

Back in 2004 the general manager wanted to create a hotel where the art did not match the decor and blend into the background. He wanted to showcase it and have revolving art shows in the public areas of the hotel. He approached a local art entrepreneur who took the idea one step further and proposed that every room be painted by a different emerging artist. The first artist lined up was local graffiti artist Sandro Tchikovani (MSK) who painted the elevator. His work was an immediate success. From there the project took off with 36 of the rooms being painted by a different artist during the first year. Each artist gave their selected room their own aesthetics, resulting in the guest having a unique experience in each room.

Now almost every room in the hotel is painted by a different artist. Some rooms are painted by local artists such as APEX, Jeremy Fish, Sam Flores and Jet Martinez while others are painted by Shepard Fairey, Dave Kensly and Sugarlux to name a few. No two rooms are alike in style or in amenities. Standard rooms have a sink in the room and shared bathroom, while other rooms have a full bath. Guest can view photos of each room online and if making a reservation directly with the hotel can request up to 3 choices.

Not only are the rooms a piece of art, but so are the corridors and other common space. The air well is painted by Chor Boogie and can be viewed by all the rooms on several floors with windows overlooking that space. Art lines all the corridors. Some belongs to the hotel’s private collection while other art is curated by the Method Makers. That art is by several local artists in mixed mediums and is rotated every couple of months. The art may be purchased and is open to the general public. Thanks to Hotel Des Arts for providing some of the images for this article.

About Hotel des Arts

Hotel Des Arts is a boutique hotel that has murals painted in every room. It is located in the heart of San Fransisco and is a great alternative for those who are looking for something a bit different.
Location: 447 Bush Street San Francisco, CA 94108
Telephone: (415) 956-3232
Website: http://www.sfhoteldesarts.com/

Self guided walking tour through lower Polk Gulch.

The lower Polk Tenderloin neighborhood is a transitional area with mom and pop businesses, coffee houses, night clubs, restaurants and a vibrant art scene. Those who walk these streets will be rewarded with street murals by artists not found elsewhere in the City and several excellent art galleries with constantly changing installations of works by emerging and established local and international artists.

The edge of the area is anchored by The iconic Phoenix Hotel on Eddy Street, which attracted David Bowie, Linda Ronstadt and other nationally known entertainers shortly after Chip Conley, owner and founder of Joie de Vivre Hotels first opened it doors. It is the site of ArtPadSF, an art event that attracted more than 9,000 attendees in it’s first show and will be featuring over 40 national and international art galleries in 2013.

Within the confines of the neighborhood are murals by local artists Dray, D Young V, Mars-1, Stanley Keeton Cunningham to name a few and the likes of Cryptic (Los Angeles), Blek le Rat (France), Herakut (Germany), Meggs and Rone (Australia). Sometimes one great piece on the wall is painted over by another piece when an artist is in town for their installation in one of the galleries.

The art galleries change their exhibits frequently and range from art hung on the walls and pieces displayed on the floor to elaborate multi media installations. Most of the galleries have opening receptions, open free to the public with the featured artist there milling about the room discussing their works.

The art galleries tend to have short hours that vary by gallery. Typically they are open from noon up to 7pm Tuesday through Saturday. We encourage you to explore the area during those times to make the most of your time and experience.

Every first Thursday of the month from 6-10pm there is a art walk coordinated by The Lower Polk Art Walk. They update information about the walk every month on their site. Most of the art galleries participate plus other organizations in the neighborhood.

For anyone interested in old cars and motorcycles, the Academy of Art has an auto collection of 135 cars, which Richard A. Stephens, the former president of Academy amassed over the years. Some of the classics include Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Cadillac, Rolls Royce, Indian Motorcycle. There is a small admission to the collection which supports charity. Tours are offered only a few days a week and can be scheduled on their site Auto Museum

Links to some of the galleries
941 Geary
AllianceFrancaise
Book & Job Gallery
Shooting Gallery SF
Spoke Art
White Walls

Where to find the art

Click on Polk Gulch for a sneak preview of what might be there. Most of the art is along Polk from Bush to Turk and in some of the alleys between Polk and Larkin streets.

Authored and submitted by Marilyn Roxie.

“The Grace Alley Mural Project at the Center for Sex and Culture will be a highlight of San Francisco’s sexual history and culture– paying homage to our past sexual renegades, founders, activists and healers featuring some of our very own notorious and not so notorious mural artists. The Mural location is in an area of SF that is a mix of nightlife, non-profits, neighborhood residential, and mixed commerce– but it’s also an area in need of beautification to our public spaces. It will enhance the good work we are doing here and let the surrounding community know we are an organization that plans to stay and grow in this neighborhood.”

Participating artists are: Eddie Colla · Amanda Lynn · Finley Coyl · Jeremy Novy · E Clair Acuda Bandersnatch

More photos are available at Grace Alley Mural Project and CSC is doing a fundraiser to complete the mural at Grace Alley Fund Raising Site
The Center for Sex and Culture is located on Mission at Grace Alley by 9th Street in San Francisco, Ca. The mural is on the side of the building on Grace Alley.

As I think about what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for all of you. I started this blog a few years ago but I could not have grown it to what it is all by myself. Thank you to all of the artists who bring constant delight and surprise into our days as we move about San Francisco. Thank you to our community of readers, galleries and contributors who help us figure out who created different pieces around San Francisco and who inspire us to continue sharing and creating this blog for all to enjoy. HUGE Thanks to Jane and Naveed who work very hard keeping this blog going. It’s all the small moments like finding this elephant in the dark on my walk home that keep me amused and inspired and thankful.

Lot’s of love and gratitude,

Chloë

Last year we wrote about Frenchman’s JR project “Inside Out”. He created a global art project to show personal identity through art and also reflect the faces of who we really are around the globe. A year later there are still faces popping up around the city. Right now you can see the posters on the wall on Market Street at Golden Gate Avenue in downtown San Francisco, Ca.

It’s fascinating that this movement has lived on for a year. JR has a second Ted talk explaining what has happened since he launched his project to turn the world inside out. Join or help the movement here.

A year later, a different question.
“Can art change the world? Maybe … we should change the question: Can art change people’s lives?”

Bottom picture by Max Erhman, Insect by Jet Martinez. Surfboard by Ian Ross.

We recently attended the opening for Chroma, An Exploration into SF Street Art Culture that is on display at Gensler.

Gensler is a global firm of architects, designers and planners who work on small projects like designing wine bottle labels to massive projects like the 2016 Rio Olympics where they led a consortium of architects and planners on developing a master plan. They have been sponsoring art exhibits for 25 years in their offices around the world. In San Francisco they do them quarterly.

Michelle Heinemann of Gensler who curates their shows is a fan of street art and a friend of Max Erhman (EON75).  This quarter she organized an exhibit to showcase the art of six local emerging artists whose work can be be enjoyed on the street and in offices around the Bay Area. The exhibit is at  Gensler’s hip SoMa office space. The work of each artist is displayed separately in several rooms, lobby space and corridors, much like it would be enjoyed in a normal living or office environment.

Their quarterly shows are open to the public.  Chrome is on exhibit until December 14th. You can visit their office at 2 Harrison on The Embarcadero in downtown San Francisco.

About Gensler

Gensler is a global firm of architects, designers and planners who work on small projects like designing wine bottle labels to massive projects like the 2016 Rio Olympics where they led a consortium of architects and planners on developing a master plan.