Art

Yarn Bomb Detonates on Wool Street

/ Todd_Lappin / 5 Comments

Funny coincidence…

In the car yesterday, I listened to an NPR piece about Captain Hook, a guerilla street artist who knits sweaters and scarves for statues and monuments in Los Angeles. The practice is called yarn bombing, and it’s happening in Bernalwood too; Last night reader Said by Laura called our attention to a yarn bomb she spotted on — wait for it — Wool Street. A little cozy for the Wool Street street sign. How clever! How cute! Also, nice work matching the trim on the yarn bomb with the color of the house behind.

PHOTO: @saidbylaura

Boston Artist Paints Pictures of Bernal Heights Homes

/ Todd_Lappin / 8 Comments

Artist Leah Giberson lives in Boston.  She’s only visited Bernal Heights once, but she developed an instant affinity for our neighborhood — an affinity that she’s now translated into a pair of paintings about local homes.

In a note to Bernalwood, Leah writes:

I have lived the majority of my life in New England and until last summer, had only been to San Francisco once (as a teenager), but have always felt drawn to the light and color of California in general and San Francisco more specifically. When I went out this past July for my show at Rare Device, it was a pitifully short trip but I made the most of every second. I oohed and ahhed my way through the two days and three nights, feeling like I had stepped into a Diebenkorn painting – or in some cases like I had stepped into one of my own paintings!

On my second and last full day, I hiked up and down hills all day from 9 to 5 and lucked into a sunny break in the clouds just as I arrived at Bernal Heights. I fell in love immediately with the neighborhood, the architecture, the restaurants and the crazy dramatic views.

As an artist I am most intrigued by scenes that seem ordinary at first glance, but hide more complicated stories that I imagine must exist for all of us. In my paintings I try to unearth these other truths by turning down the volume on anything that feels distracting so I can pay attention to the second stories that whisper in reflections, open windows, awkward architectural angles and looming shadows.

The homes in Bernal Heights didn’t exactly look “ordinary” to my East Coast eyes, but what struck me was their relationship to the ground below. For many of us outside of San Francisco, the ground is something that we usually think of as a steady (often pretty flat) supportive surface beneath us. On these steep slopes with fault lines lurking nearby, the modestly sized homes of Bernal Heights appeared (to me) to be holding on tight to the edge of the world, grabbing on to power lines above and looking straight ahead so as not to lose their footing – determined to carry on as if this was a perfectly ordinary place for a home.

Fabulous! I say we make Leah an honorary Bernalwood resident in abstentia.

Meanwhile, if you want to own some of her limited-edition Bernal Heights artwork, it’s available at a very fair price via Etsy.

Campos Reveals Details of Plan to Save Bernal’s Coca-Cola Mural AND Historic Signs Throughout San Francisco

/ Todd_Lappin / 16 Comments

Supervisor David Campos’s office called today to share some very good news: Campos plans to introduce new legislation that will amend the City’s planning code to create a straightforward mechanism for preserving the historic-but-endangered Coca-Cola mural in Bernal Heights — as well as other historic signs throughout San Francisco. Wooot!

The legislative digest of the Campos proposal explains why this matters:

The look and style of signs have evolved over time. For that reason, a sign that has existed in a particular place for years gives continuity to the public space and becomes part of the community memory. In an era where signs are mostly uniform, a historic sign can add some individuality to the neighborhood in which it exists and also to the City as a whole. Michael J. Auer, in his article “The Preservation of Historic Signs,” notes:

Signs often become so important to a community that they are valued long after their role as commercial markers has ceased. They become landmarks, loved because they have been visible at certain street corners — or from many vantage points across the city — for a long time. Such signs are valued for their familiarity, their beauty, their humor, their size, or even their grotesqueness. In these cases, signs transcend their conventional role as vehicles of information, as identifiers of something else. When signs reach this stage, they accumulate rich layers of meaning. They no longer merely advertise, but are valued in and of themselves. They become icons.

Yes. Precisely. Just as Bernalwood and so many of our neighbors have argued all along.

In a nutshell, the new legislation would:

  • Create a clear definition of a historic sign as being one that “depict(s) in text or graphic form a particular residential, business, cultural, economic, recreational, or other valued resource which is deemed by the Planning Commission to be of historic value and contributes to the visual identity and historic character of a City neighborhood or the City as a whole.”
  • Stipulate that historic sings can be restored, framed, and regularly maintained, BUT property owners cannot change the art or copy of the original design.
  • Enable preservation of a single sign through a standard conditional-use permit issued by the City Planning Commision, without the need to go through all the hassle, expense, and hoo-ha of creating a special “Historic Sign District.”

This is great news, because it holds out the promise of a lasting solution not only for Bernalwood’s beloved Coke mural, but for historic signs throughout the city. Bravo!

Kudos to Supervisor Campos and his aides for making this happen, to the City Attorney’s office for the assist, and a round of snaps to every Bernalwoodian who raised hell to make it clear that the eradication of Bernal’s Coca-Cola mural was intolerable.

Supervisor Campos plans to introduce the legislation during the Board of Supervisors meeting that will take place this afternoon. From there it will go to a committee (probably Land Use), yadda yadda, then (hopefully) it will secure approval during two votes of the full Board of Supes before heading off to the Mayor for his John Hancock. Or his Edwin Lee. Or whatever.

We will keep you posted on the status and progress of this proposal as it moves through the lawmaking process, but for now, this is great news for our neighborhood, and for the fate of other historic signs all over town.

Photo: Coca-Cola mural by Telstar Logistics

Shepard Fairey on Bayshore Boulevard (And Your Living Room)

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Very long story short… I’ve been following Shepard Fairey’s work ever since we were both students in Providence, Rhode Island during the 1980s. (I saw his early-career Andre the Giant/Buddy Cianci billboard hack live and in person, and it was sublime.) Since then, our paths have crossed many times,  both online and in person. And now they’ve crossed again, on Bernalwood’s back door.

On March 10, Fairey will offer screen prints of a 2003 street art installation of his Obey graphic on Bayshore Boulevard.  Step lively if you want want to get one to enjoy in the safety and comfort of your own home:

I’m illustrating some of my favorite street spots from over the years to be included in the LA MOCA “Art In The Streets” show, so I decided to make prints of some of my favorites. This one is from Bayshore Blvd. in San Francisco around 2003. Photo by Mark the Cobra Snake. The silhouette is some random lackey I hired because I don’t do street art myself.
-Shepard

18 x 24″ Screen Print, $45, Edition of 450, Limit 1 per person / household. Signed by Shepard Fairey. Release date: 3/10/2011 at a random time.

Image: Shepard Fairey

Supervisor Campos Breaks Silence, Says He “Wants to Inject Common Sense” Into Coke Mural Controversy

/ Todd_Lappin / 9 Comments

The case of Anonymous NIMBY vs. Vintage Coke Mural has been exasperating for (almost) everyone involved.

It has been exasperating for homeowner Richard Modolo, who has had to deal with the inconvenience and expense of responding to the City’s notice of violation about the old mural. It has been exasperating for the City Planning Department, which has become the object of national scorn and ridicule as a result of its decision to declare the mural illegal. And today Bernalwood learned that it has also been exasperating to Supervisor David Campos.

Indeed, the only one who probably feels empowered by the debacle is our Anonymous NIMBY. One complaint, and — boom! — an all-consuming controversy ensues. Not bad for a lone voice in a city of many tens of thousands.

This evening Supervisor Campos returned a phone call from Bernalwood. The Supervisor did not explain his long silence on this issue, but he reiterated that he has been trying to get a sense of how the neighbors in Bernal Heights feel about the vintage Coke mural.

The results of his fact-finding were clear and directional.

Campos received exactly one (1) email — perhaps from our Anonymous NIMBY? — expressing concern that the presence of the Coca-Cola mural so close to Paul Revere School might encourage childhood obesity. To gauge the depth of this sentiment, Campos says he reached out to a group of parents with children at the school. Were the parents worried the nearby mural might send their little ones careening down a path of sugar-fueled gluttony and lifelong corpulence???

Hardly. “None of the parents had an issue with the sign,” Campos reports.

Campos says he is now “moving in the direction of protecting the sign.” He also said he has been in discussion with the City Attorney’s office, and that he intends to make the details of his plan clear during the Board of Supervisors meeting that will take place tomorrow afternoon, on Tuesday, March 1.

“We need a solution for the city as a whole,” Campos says. “There is value in preserving our history, and that’s true city-wide. Creating a historic preservation district may help in this particular case, but we need a broader mechanism.”

Bernalwood couldn’t agree more. In fact, hasn’t this incident shown that the current law is more than a little ridiculous?

Campos readily agreed. “As a matter of law, I don’t think it makes much sense, given the lack of nuance,” he said. “We want to inject some common sense into this.”

Wouldn’t that be novel! Stay tuned tomorrow, when we will finally learn the details of the Campos Plan to Save Bernal’s Coke Mural.

Photo: via Supervisor Campos

Meanwhile, a Discussion About the Mural on the Bernal Heights Library

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Bernal Heights Library

Great news! If you’ve enjoyed gnashing your teeth over the fate of Bernal’s historic Coca-Cola mural, you’ll be glad to know that you can also gnash your teeth during an upcoming series of meetings to discuss the future of the murals that cover the Bernal Heights Branch of the San Francisco Public Library.

Darcy Lee (of Heartfelt) wrote to Bernalwood to summarize the process:

There is a community meeting that will be held from 2-4 this Saturday at the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center regarding the artwork that is going to replace the current mural on the Bernal library. This is after more than a year of negotiating different opinions on the future of the appearance of our beloved civic building. There are many members of our community who would love to see the mural restored, and others that would like new artwork, and others that would prefer none at all.

When the differences got heated and the Arts Commission and the Library Commission were not sure what to do, Supervisor Campos and some community members suggested that we form a group of members of the community to hash it out with the renowned facilitator Beth Roy (who happens to live in Bernal).

We reached a consensus, after hours of meetings week after week. Community Activist Mauricio Vela was an integral part of our process and we are sad to say he passed away.     We formed a task force out of the original group to deal with the next difficult part- raising money and choosing artists.   We are now holding community meetings with the artists to get the community’s voice.

Library Mural

The meetings will be held at the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center on Saturday Feb. 28 from 2 to 4 pm and Tuesday, March 1 from 6 to 8 pm. More information and backstory at the Bernal Library Art Project website.

Photos by Telstar Logistics

Nameless NIMBY Gets Bullheaded Bureaucrats to Outlaw Historic Coca-Cola Sign

/ Todd_Lappin / 111 Comments

This is an unfortunate story about a neighborhood landmark, the NIMBY menace, City bureaucracy, and a call to action for Bernal Heights history geeks. More or less in that order. Follow along…

Decades ago, the building at 601 Tompkins Avenue, at the corner of Banks in Bernal Heights, may have once been a corner store. It’s now a private home, but a vintage Coca-Cola advertising sign from the earlier days has remained on the building regardless. Bernalwood’s irate tipster explains the situation:

Is this perhaps a little bureaucracy run amok in Bernal; the inevitable fallout from our Supervisors trying to outlaw sugary drinks?

The antique Coca-Cola ad has been part of the corner of Banks and Tomkins probably since the 1940’s at least.  In my 30 years in Bernal, the homeowners have lovingly preserved this little bit of old Bernal—probably the last remnant of a grocery on that corner.

Now the City is apparently citing them for an unauthorized billboard.  Note that the Planning Department documents say the homeowners must pay $3400 just to appeal the decision.

This is madness. A way-cool vintage Coke sign, preserved by neighborhood old-timers, is targeted for citation and removal by clueless City sign inspectors? Really? Why? And why does the San Francisco Planning Department hate America so much?

Bernalwood attempted to contact the property owner, but so far our efforts have been unsuccessful. We also called the City Planning Department, to ask WTF. This proved fruitful.

The City action against the vintage Coke sign came as the result of a complaint about the sign that was submitted by a nameless NIMBY whiner on January 14, 2011. With impressive alacrity, the Planning Department investigated the matter, and on January 25, 2011 a City notice was posted to indicate that the old sign must be either permitted or removed.

Bernalwood spoke to Mr. Dan Sider from the Planning Department’s General Advertising Sign Program . Mr. Sider had photos of the sign at 601 Tompkins at his disposal during our talk, and he was quite friendly. Yet when told that the Coke sign has been there since the 1940s, he seemed skeptical. It looks new, he said, and in fairness, he’s right — it does look new. “That’s because it’s been lovingly repainted and maintained by the neighbors,” Bernalwood explained sweetly.

Mr. Sider seemed surprised. “As a San Franciscan, I think that’s very neat,” he said. “But it is very clearly an illegal sign, and we don’t have much discretion.”

“But… but… surely there must be some way to save this historic piece of commercial art!” Bernalwood pleaded.

Indeed, Mr. Sider explained, there is. If some evidence can be produced that the sign was in place prior to 1965 (when the City’s operative sign ordinances went into effect), the matter may be resolved pleasantly. “But the clock is ticking,” he said. Said evidence must be received by February 24, 2011 — within 30 days of the issuance of the initial citation — or else fines may begin to kick in.

UPDATE 23 February, 2011: Evidence of the vintage mural’s provenance has now been obtained, confirming that it is genuinely way old — probably a relic from the 1940s. But the struggle with the San Francisco Planning Department continues. Read all about it.

So, concerned Bernalwood citizen, there are two things you can now do:

2) Help track down evidence — preferably a photograph or other document — that demonstrates the old Coke sign on the side of 601 Tompkins has indeed been there since the Kennedy Administration, if not before. Activate your geektastic history researcher kung-fu powers, and keep your fingers crossed. If you find anything, Bernalwood will gladly pass it along to our friends at the Planning Department. But remember, the DEADLINE IS FEBRUARY 24.

2) Call our Supervisor, Mr. David Campos to advise him of your interest in this matter. Admittedly, the preservation of vintage commercial art is hardly a core plank in his Progressive agenda. Yet this is also the kind of stuff that gives a neighborhood a tangible connection to its own history — and that matters a lot.  Besides, if they do nothing else, our Supervisors exist precisely to represent us when dealing with City Hall silliness. Perhaps Supervisor Campos could put in a call to Mr. Sider? Perhaps you’d like to call Supervisor Campos to suggest that idea? Supervisor Campos can be reached at (415) 554-5144.

Photos: Anonymous Tipster

Excellent Art and Seasonal Cheer at Secession Friday Night

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Secession Art & Design
I’ve become a big big fan of Secession Art and Design on Mission Street — so much so that I’ve spent a small pile of money there during the last few years. Others have taken notice too: The commie pinkos at the San Francisco Bay Guardian even named Secession “Best Art Gallery” in their 2010 Best of the Bay lineup.

So we’ve got that going for us. Which is nice.

This Friday night, Secession is having a Holiday Party from 6:30 to 9:30 pm to celebrate featured artists Hilary Williams and Bug House. Pair that with some dinner at nearby Ichi Sushi, and you’ll have yourself a downright civilized Bernalwood evening.

Image: Artwork by Bug House. Photo by Telstar Logistics