Yesterday I heard a tip about a fun little web-based photo tool thingy called Average that automatically merges a series of images to create a single blended composite.
I then instructed the Average robot to select five recent images from Flickr that use the “bernal” tag, and the photo above was the result. Not bad! I’d hang something like this on my wall.
Thank you, Average robot.
In case you missed it, this short film was one of my favorites at the Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema screening in Precita Park on Sunday night:
The Artist & The Angel (9 mins) by Paul Anthony Mazzio
An aging artist gets a surprise visit from a dark and mysterious stranger. Starring renowned San Francisco artist Richard L. Perri.
Bernal Neighbor Rich Radford is having an opening party tonight, Aug. 9, from 5 pm to 8 pm at Succulence on Cortland to celebrate “Botanica,” a new show of his (rather intense) nature photographs:
Rich Radford, born and raised in South Africa has called Bernal Heights home for the past fifteen years. His early years exploring both the diverse fauna and flora of his native country, combined with his later professional training as a Landscape Architect, have allowed him to capture elements through the lens of his camera with a unique eye for texture, pattern, and structure. For Rich, the process of capturing an image is built upon time spent moving patiently through diverse landscapes. His photographs portray brief moments in nature that are held within the greater mystery of our planet. Through his work, Rich hopes to connect people more intimately with the intricacies of the natural world.
PHOTOS: Rich Radford
In addition to claiming several famous rockstars as residents and providing a glamorous background for indie music videos, Bernal Heights is also home to meta-rockstar Jordan Kurland of Zeitgeist Artist Management and San Francisco’s much-loved NoisePop music festival.
This week, 7×7 Magazine published an article about Neighbor Jordan’s music-themed art collection:
Growing up in Chicago in the ’70s and ’80s, Jordan Kurland’s bedroom walls were plastered with posters of Michael Jordan and The Who. While this teenage practice of Scotch-taped decor is fairly common, less expected is the transformation of that dedication to visual pop-culture stimuli into a full-fledged art collection. In Kurland’s case, such an impressive assembly of witty street art and classic rock-and-roll photography is a natural extension of his successful music career.
“I started with works from up-and-coming artists who were designing concert posters for Noise Pop,” says the Bernal Heights resident, who cofounded the San Francisco indie-music festival in 1993. “I was just trying to get stuff up on my walls.” In his quest to fill blank spaces, Kurland—who also helms Zeitgeist Artist Management, an agency that represents such celebrated acts as Death Cab for Cutie and the New Pornographers—acquired early graffiti-inspired pieces by the likes of Noise Pop contributors Thomas Campbell, William Swanson, and Shepard Fairey, all now firmly established in the art world.
PHOTO: Jen Siska/7×7
Speaking of Bernal celebrities… Neighbor Joseph Blum is a professional photographer who lives on the north side of Folsom Street. He was a boilermaker and welder for 25 years before he took up the camera, but his roots shine through in his photos, which capture the technical craftsmanship required to build large-scale, industrial infrastructure.
Fortuitously, then, Neighbor Joe has worked with Caltrans for more than a decade to document the construction of the new Eastern Span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. His photographs of the project are stunning, yet they are also intimate and iconic in a way that will be treasured by historians and infrastructure geeks for many decades to come.
That’s why we beamed with neighborly pride when Neighbor Joe sent us a note to invite all Citizens of Bernalwood to come see his Bay Bridge photos:
I have two exhibits now which honor and document the workers who have built the new East Span of the Bay Bridge.
I have lived on Bernal since 1975 and I have been photographing the construction of the new bridge since 1998. I have spent a lot of time out on the bridge, and it is always great to look out from top of the new tower at our beautiful Bernal Hill, where I often walk to renew and relax and view the rising of the moon.
(SIDE NOTE: Bernal does look rather glamorous from that angle, doesn’t it?)
Anyhow, you can see some of Neighbor Joe’s Bay Bridge work online, and here the details on the exhibits where you can see his mind-blowing photos in person.
He has a show up right now in City Hall (!!!), with an artist reception happening tomorrow, July 11:
The Bridge Builders by Joseph A. Blum
Exhibition Dates: June 24 through September 27, 2013
Artist Reception: Thursday, July 11 5:30-7:30 pmSan Francisco City Hall, ground floor
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
Free and open to the public.
Then, in August, his second show will open:
A View from the Bridge:
Documenting the Construction of the Skyway and Foundations of the New East Span of the Bay Bridge 1998–2005
Black and White Photographs by Joseph A. BlumAugust 3 – October 3, 2013
Opening Reception, Harvey Milk Photo Center
Saturday, August 3, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.Harvey Milk Photo Center
50 Scott St San Francisco, CA 94117 • (415) 554–9522
Tuesday – Thursday: 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. Saturday: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
*Please call ahead for viewing. Gallery is closed on Sunday, Monday & Friday.
PHOTOS: Joseph Blum Photography
There’s been a lot happening with the Bernal Heights Library art project of late. The mural on the eastern side of the library was recently completed (check it, above), and yesterday there was a raffle to raise funds for the artwork proposed for the library’s southern, playground-facing side.
But wait…. What will they do with that raffle money? And what will the proposed artwork look like?
Neighbor Brandon is a member of the Bernal Library Art Project Task Force, and he invites all interested Bernalese to participate in a set of meetings that start this weekend to discuss the proposal for the library’s southern facade:
BERNAL LIBRARY ART PROJECT: PHASE 2 — Playground Wall
COMMUNITY MEETINGS – EVERYONE IS WELCOME!
The second and final phase of the Bernal Library Art Project is being launched this summer.
The Bernal Library Art Project Task Force invites you to:
Meet Johanna Poethig, the artist selected to design and implement the project. This is Johanna:
Engage with the artist and other Bernal residents to reflect on Bernal as a community, the library as a resource, and the working concept of the project.
The meetings will be both informative and interactive. The first meeting happens on Saturday, with the second following quickly on Tuesday:MEETING #1
Saturday, June 22
2:00 – 4:00 pmMEETING #2
Tuesday, June 25
7:00 – 9:00 pmLocation: Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center
515 Cortland AvenueQuestions? Email bernallibraryartproject @ gmail . com
PHOTOS: Courtesy of Bernal Library Art Project Task Force
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s candid discussion about the impact of gentrification in Bernal Heights, here’s an item that’s both appropriately inappropriate and inappropriately appropriate.
Songwriter Thao Nguyen is currently enjoying some much-deserved success in the indie scene. She doesn’t live in Bernal, but she has strong ties to us; she lives in San Francisco, her management company is a Bernal-owned business, and she did a glamorous photo shoot on Bernal Hill last August.
The hit from Thao’s new album is a song called “We the Common,” and it’s rather terrific. For the Citizens of Bernalwood, the best way to enjoy it is by watching the video, which interweaves hilltop scenes from Bernal Heights with screetscape scenes from Brooklyn — a place which is in some ways the Bernal Heights of New York, but even more so.
Plus, the video includes a cameo by NPR celebrity Ira Glass! (Swooooon!)
Plus plus, the video includes a cameo by Bernal celebrity Jackie Jones!
Thao’s video makes the cultural affinity between Bernal and Brooklyn look seamless and more than a little glamorous. And it does all that with an infectious hook that’s really so now right now — just like us. Listen, watch, and enjoy:
Neighbor Sydney from Moultrie Street wishes to reassure all Citizens of Bernalwood that you should not be concerned on Saturday morning if you happen to see a woman dunking her head in a bucket of water on Bernal Hill. It’s all just part of the program:
A friend and colleague of mine from Stanford (we’re both graduate students getting our PhDs – me in Art History, she in Performance studies) is going to be performing an hour-long score in Bernal Heights park this weekend. Here’s the scoop:
Don’t be alarmed on Saturday morning if you see a woman with her head in a bucket of water on the paved road in Bernal Heights Park at around 10 am. Raegan Truax, a NY-based performance artist who relocated to the Bay Area to get her PhD at Stanford, will be performing Weight, an hour-long piece that explores the effects of gravity on and around the body.
Weight is one of 6 scores in a larger durational piece called If This Gets Messy. From Tuesday Apr 23-Sunday Apr 28, Raegan is performing 1 hour-long score per day, culminating in a 28-hour long performance that cycles through these six scores in Piggott Theater on Stanford’s campus, starting at 3pm on Monday Apr 29.
All parts of If This Gets Messy are free and open to the public.
Another late-breaking event for your Bernal Heights lifestyle: Tonight, Thursday 4/4 at 7:00 pm, Inclusions Gallery on Cortland will host an artist talk with San Francisco painter April Hankins:
April Hankins’ abstract work is spontaneous, strong in color, and adventurous in mark and gesture. Her paintings evoke a distinct sense of place, tangentially referencing locale with an evolved and complex palette.
Prior to receiving her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art, April Hankins took time from studio practice to initiate and direct the Boston exhibition of Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party,” now permanently housed at the Brooklyn Museum.
For her work in the Yale School of Art MFA program, Hankins was awarded the Ely Harwood Schless Memorial Prize for excellence in painting. Subsequently, she has been twice nominated for an award in painting by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Hankins work is in the museum collections of Yale and Harvard Universities, as well as the print collection of The New York Public Library. Her paintings are in the corporate collections of Pfizer, Inc., and most recently, Host Marriott.
Invited by Le Genie de la Bastille Parisian, Hankins traveled to Paris with a selection of paintings to participate in the collective’s open studios. Upon returning she used photographs taken during her three- week visit to create abstract collages capturing the uniquely beautiful light of Paris.
Through Isha yoga Hankins has learned meditation and traveled twice to South India for intensive practice. The artist observes that meditation increases her awareness of a quiet distancing from thought and perception, in striking contrast to an isolating sense of self, adding an intrinsic dimensionality to her work.
Having lived and worked in San Francisco for over a decade, Hankins’ painting reflects Northern California’s distinctive light and color. Frequent travel provides a contrast of density and mood, further informing her work. Hankins’ process of painting accommodates an altered sense of space, and her painting has become direct, unpredictable and surprising.
If you miss the talk tonight, the show runs at Inclusions until April 28.
PHOTO: April Hankins
The Bernal Heights cognoscenti know that one of the very best views in all of Bernalwood is found on the west side of the hill, looking north toward downtown, in the area the local skiers call Owl’s Nest.
The perspective from that spot offers a dramatic contrast between the feral rusticity of Bernal Hill and the angular modernity of the downtown San Francisco skyline, and it is rather magical.
Artist David Cheifetz recently completed a painting called “Path Before Sunset, Bernal Heights” that captures the cityscape from that magical location during a particularly magical time of day. The painting will debut this July at David’s solo show at the Studio Gallery in North Beach.
As an alternative, however, the view from the same spot on Bernal Hill is open for public viewing during daylight hours, 365 days a year.
IMAGE : “Path Before Sunset, Bernal Heights” by David Cheifetz
There has been a change of occupancy in the secret lair on Bocana Street that was until recently home to Bernal’s favorite Bryophyta-Homo Sapien mutant crossbreed. Neighbor Allison reports:
Thought some of your readers might be interested to know that the meter hole formerly occupied by Mossquatch appears to have been taken over by a new tenant. Fellow goes by the name of Walroctupus.
Bernalwood has learned the new guy’s pad also includes some spiffy special effects. Check it out:
PHOTOS AND VIDEO: Neighbor Allison
Ken from Succulence on Cortland extends an invitation to one and all to attend tonight’s closing show for the fabulous landscape photography exhibit by Bernal Neighbor Jean Pedigo. Ken says:
Just want to make sure you and your readers know that Succulence is having a closing party for local photographer Jean Pedigo’s terrific landscape photos. The party is at Succulence from 6-8pm and will include wine and light refreshments. It’s a neighborhood party! Come on down.
PHOTO: Jean Pedigo’s photos on display at Succulence
It’s been a long road, but the new artwork on the front of the Bernal Heights Branch Library is more or less complete, and it looks rather spiffy. Next up comes the planning for the art that will go on the back of the library, facing the playground.
The library task force has chosen Johanna Poethig to create the playground-side artwork. Johanna has a long history with community-focused public art, and she is seeking input from Bernal neighbors via a survey (linked below). The Bernal Library Art Project tells us:
Phase II of the Bernal Library Art Project has begun and we need you! Bernal is a neighborhood that embraces and nurtures many communities: families that have lived on the hill for generations and those that arrived last week; artists; children; seniors; multiple ethnicities; many races; LGBT; a range of incomes and lifestyles. But we all have this in common – we live in Bernal.
The Bernal Library Art Project Task Force (BLAP) and Phase II artist Johanna Poethig have created this survey as part of a wide community outreach effort to gather the thoughts and feelings of Bernal residents to inform the artwork that will be designed and installed on the playground wall of the Bernal Library. The survey is being distributed electronically, made available on paper in the library and at Heartfelt, and directly given to groups such as children and seniors who meet regularly in a Bernal location. Community meetings open to everyone will also be scheduled, probably in March.
The survey will be available through the end of February. Results will be communicated back electronically, posted in the library and other venues where possible, and presented at the community meetings. Thank you for participating in this project; please click on the link to start the survey.
Bernalwood 
