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found art

San Francisco is full of museums and galleries and concert halls and theaters. But if you look around you’ll find even more art on street corners and in back alleys. If you enjoy treasure hunts, you just might like what you find on the street more than what you’ll find inside. Check out these bits and pieces of my favorite discoveries in SF.

mural by Max Ehrman, photo courtesy oduwaerts/sfmuralarts.com

mural by Max Ehrman, photo courtesy oduwaerts/sfmuralarts.com

Clarion Alley, Mission District

Clarion Alley has provided a local canvas for the last 20 years. Art is ever changing in a neighborhood filled with shops and awesome restaurants. Make an afternoon of it…and thank the people of CAMP for their good works in the local art scene.

The Presidio

British Artist Andy Goldsworthy, in conjunction with The Presidio Trust and For-site Foundation, creates art in place and he has graced the Presidio with three of his unique installations over the course of the last several years.

photo courtesy tiledsteps.org

photo courtesy tiledsteps.org

16th Avenue steps

Several years ago the Golden Gate Heights Neighborhood Association and their fiscal sponsor, The San Francisco Parks Trust, worked with locals to create this beautiful mosaic stairway. Visit it at Moraga and 16th Avenue.

photo courtesy 7x7.com

photo courtesy 7×7.com

Hotel Zetta public stairwell

The Hotel Zetta opened early 2013 on 5th Street next to the Westfield Shopping Center. It’s young and hip and has a very cool stairwell by a prominent (now) local artist, Jonathan Matas.

photo courtesy 7x7.com

photo courtesy 7×7.com

Golden Fire Hydrant

When the great fire of 1906 followed the earthquake, much of the city burned as fire hydrants ran dry. This little hydrant at the corner of Church and 20th saved the Mission District. As reward it is repainted gold once a year at 5:12 am on April 6th, the time that the earthquake hit.

photo courtesy yelp.com/Molly T.

photo courtesy yelp.com/Molly T.

Fort Mason Community Garden

The Fort Mason Community Garden is made up of 125 plots most of which are 20′ x 5′. There is a 7-8 year waiting list for a plot. No pesticides are allowed and each gardener must plant at least two seasons per year. These are some serious gardeners growing both flowers and edibles. And yes, gardens, in my opinion, are art.

photo courtesy exploratorium.edu

photo courtesy exploratorium.edu

The Wave Organ

Created by Peter Richards and George Gonzales in conjunction with The Exploratorium, this 1986 musical sculpture is worth a little walk out onto the Marina jetty. Just check the tides first because they create the music.

Enjoy my little tryst through San Francisco. Let me know if you discover other little gems you’d like to share. Have a great week! And don’t forget about Dining Out for Life tomorrow.
Leslie

food palettes…a starting place

With every design project the designer must choose a starting point. For a restaurant project it might be the food. Here is my flight of fancy using food palettes as conceptual beginnings. All photos courtesy foodarts.com.  Click on  photos to get to recipes.

Cured Salmon with Oyster Panna Cotta, Crab, Avruga Caviar & Avocado/Crème Fraîche

food2

Chocolate/Almond Tortellini with Blood Oranges & Pine Nuts

 Oyster with Carolina Rice Grits & Ramp Capers

food3

 Burnt Heather Partridge with Celeriac, Watercress & Chanterelles

food4

Is this all making you hungry?  Or maybe it’s time to get out the paints. Either way, it was fun for me! What inspires you at the beginning of a project? I’d love to hear your thoughts

Keep in touch,
Leslie

painting in bars

images courtesy paintnite.com

images courtesy paintnite.com

paint nite2

If facebook is any indication, then everyone is painting in bars these days. Have you noticed? So many renditions of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Hawaiian sunsets and flowers a la Georgia O’Keefe posted on my wall in the last few weeks. Even the AP has noticed. I’m starting to feel a bit left out and think maybe I need to get on this. Wonder if the new bar in my ‘hood would be agreeable?

Based on my extensive research, if you do this with Paint Nite, the largest organization I’ve found, it’s about $45 plus the cost of whatever reduces your inhibitions. Check their website and choose by date, location or the piece of art you want to (try to) recreate. They provide all supplies and an artist to teach. You can also contact Social Artworking to purchase supplies and organize your own event, which means you need to teach the painting techniques from written instructions.  Eek.

Sounds like fun….anyone want to try it with me?

Keep in touch,
Leslie

unexpected art: what I’m doing when I should be doing something else

my neighborhood reflected in my grandmother's piano

(my neighborhood reflected in) my grandmother’s piano

This is what I do when I should be doing something else. I spend time trolling for creativity, usually through music. Sometimes this happens at my grandmother’s piano.  Sometimes it happens when I’m searching for something else on the internet. The ideas are all out there waiting to be found.

Jarbas Angelli saw this photo of birds on wires and he saw a song.

In San Francisco, the year 2014 will be the year of the piano, thanks to Sunset Piano.  Pianos will be set in unlikely places all over the City by the Bay. And to get the party started Brian Goggin and Dorka Keehn unveiled a massive sculptural installation of glass and steel pianos that are lit in sync with the music of Enrico Caruso. Music as light.

Where do you find your inspiration?  Please share!
Leslie

remember paper? check pencil!

photo courtesy fiftythree.com/pencil

photo courtesy fiftythree.com/pencil

Remember way back in early 2012 I told you about Paper, that remarkably cool app that made me consider buying an iPad? Yes, well that’s now ancient history…Steve got me an iPad for my birthday that year.  Not only did I immediately get the Paper app (and watch every single episode of Breaking Bad), but a couple of months ago the good people at Fifty Three came out with Pencil, a stylus designed especially for Paper.  I cannot begin to tell you how amazing this tool is.

So now I have the app and I have the tool, and in case you were wondering if I actually drew anything, here you go. Something I drew.  And if you scroll down, you can see some really gorgeous drawings that other people have drawn. Check out ‘made with paper for more amazing drawings.  And no, there’s no pay for play here.  I just REALLY LOVE these toys!  I mean tools.  (I do use them as tools as well, in case you were wondering…this is a great way to begin to conceptualize space and NOT have to throw away all that sketch paper).

Have a great weekend….get out and draw!
Leslie

ps….I’m considering a drawing a day so that maybe one day I can draw a bubble.  Are you with me?

this one by yours truly

this one by yours truly

paper and pencil

image courtesy allisonats.tumblr.com

paper and pencil2

image courtesy http://briangasmena.tumblr.com/

paper and pencil3

image courtesy eichan68.tumblr.com

friday nights at the deYoung

okeefe

all photos courtesy deyoung.famsf.org

Friday nights get more interesting beginning March 28 with the opening of the tenth season of the deYoung Museum’s ‘Friday Nights’ series. Art, music, food and special events beginning about 5 (see the website for specific times each week) and ending about 8:45.

Here’s the line up for the first Friday (3/28)

  • Create a mixed-media landscape inspired by Georgia O’Keefe’s summertime work from her visits to Lake George in upstate New York
  • Get to know Georgia O’Keefe a little better at a talk by Dr. Cody Hartley (the Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Georgia O’Keefe Museum)
  • Learn to swing dance and listen to the sounds of big band
  • Hear from four cut paper artists about their inspiration and process
  • Have a photo taken with the good people from Smilebooth

You’ll find me in the lobby making art. Come over and introduce yourself (but no judging my work…)!  Or let me know ahead of time and we can go together.

Keep in touch,
Leslie

okeefe3

words as design element

photo courtesy of radisson blu

photo courtesy of radisson blu

The newest addition to the Radisson Blu group in the US, the Radisson Blue Warwick Hotel, just opened in Philadelphia.  They utilized one of my favorite design elements to engage their guests:  words.  The project, created by Scotland based Graven Images, uses words on the lobby carpet to express the historical role that Philadelphia  played in the birth and growth of the United States.  The walls of the lobby express the viewpoints of brothers born at the same time in the ‘city of brotherly love’.  It’s a beautiful use of language to express a theme and create a mood.

photo courtesy 1amsf.com

photo courtesy 1amsf.com

When the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit opened a couple of years ago at the de Young Museum in SF, 1 AM SF, a group of graffiti artists gone mainstream (and I mean that in a really good way), provided the visual component.

papas room

2 years ago, when my dad became too ill to care for himself, he lived with my family.  So for the last 30 days of his life his home became the room that we had always called the sun room.  Now it’s Papa’s Room.

When I’m working on a project my first stop is the dictionary.  Words are always the beginning, so it’s fitting when they are part of the ending too.

MLK in words

photo courtesy Philly Word Art facebook page

If you want some really cool words for yourself, check out Dan Duffy, aka Philly Word Art.  You can have a photo of MLK drawn in own words, your favorite Philly sports hero using his stats, or a picture of your pet rat using the words from Michael Jackson’s ‘Ben’ (that would be a custom order).