This May, the family of Ruth Asawa is celebrating the artist’s 100th birthday with the opening of a new gallery at the Minnesota Street Project in SF’s Dogpatch, dedicated to Asawa’s work and the legacy of her arts education, with the inaugural show curated by Asawa’s daughters.

The gallery will open its doors May 9 at the Minnesota Street Project, marking what would have been Ruth Asawa's 100th birthday, as the Chronicle reports. The 1,714-square-foot space will serve as the first permanent venue for public access to her art, with rotating exhibitions spanning her wire sculptures, works on paper, and community-based projects, according to KQED.

The gallery's first exhibition, Ruth Asawa: Untitled, curated by her daughters, Aiko Cuneo and Addie Lanier, will also open May 9. The show will feature her looped- and tied-wire sculptures, along with cast pieces, paperfolds, watercolors, and works on paper and copper foil, with the title referencing Asawa’s practice of leaving her work unnamed, favoring process over labels.

“I hope the intimate exhibitions at our new Minnesota Street Project space give visitors a sense of who she was as an artist, mother and grandmother and arts advocate,” said Henry Weverka, Asawa’s grandson and president of Ruth Asawa Lanier Inc., speaking to the Chronicle.

In addition to showcasing Asawa’s work, the space will reportedly feature exhibitions of Asawa’s colleagues, including Imogen Cunningham, Ray Johnson, and Black Mountain College teachers Josef and Anni Albers. Plans also include an annual show highlighting students and faculty from the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, which she co-founded and was renamed in her honor in 2010.

The family pointed to the Minnesota Street Project’s broader arts campus as a natural fit, citing its focus on community and education. The Chronicle notes that the arts complex also houses the San Francisco Arts Education Project, a nonprofit that was spawned by the Alvarado School Arts Workshop, which Asawa co-founded in 1968. In addition to helping establish the city’s public arts high school, she also helped establish SCRAP, the city's longtime "Good Will" for art supplies, scrap materials, and fabric.

“Ruth's mission in life was to support the local arts community,” said Deborah Rappaport, co-founder of the Minnesota Street Project, per the Chronicle. “She didn't publicize her own work nearly as much as she did the importance of the arts in San Francisco.”

The Chronicle reports that Asawa’s recognition has surged nationally and internationally over the past decade. The US Postal Service issued stamps featuring her work in 2020, and she posthumously received the National Medal of the Arts in 2024. Her work has been the subject of major exhibitions abroad, including Ruth Asawa: Retrospective, which opened at SFMOMA in 2025 and is now on view at the Guggenheim Bilbao.

As her profile has grown internationally, her family emphasized the need to keep her work accessible in the Bay Area. Several of her public pieces remain fixtures in San Francisco, including Andrea’s Fountain at Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco Fountain near Union Square, and a permanent installation at the de Young Museum. Her work is also held in the collections of SFMOMA, the Oakland Museum, and Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center.

“When asked in 2002 why she never pursued a career in a major art market like New York, she replied, ‘It’s better for me to invest in San Francisco,’” said Weverka, per KQED.

Previously: Ruth Asawa's Arts Education Advocacy, 'San Francisco Fountain', Honored This Week

Image: RAL, Inc.

Activists from a group called Contra-ICE stealthily handed out over 15,000 towels at Levi’s Stadium Sunday, which featured the message “ICE Out” and a bunny illustration by acclaimed artist Lalo Alcaraz to coincide with Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance.

As the Chronicle reports, a group of artists and organizers from the collective Contra-ICE launched a creative act of resistance ahead of the Super Bowl game Sunday inspired by halftime performer Bad Bunny. Per Newsweek, volunteers located at multiple entrances at Levi’s Stadium surreptitiously passed out around 15,000 towels featuring the message “ICE Out” on one side and a bunny illustration by the award-winning, Los Angeles-based cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz on the other.

Per the Chronicle, the bunny is depicted wearing Bad Bunny’s signature Puerto Rican jibaro hat and holding a grenade, which is reportedly a reference to Green Day, along with the band's album American Idiot, while kicking a block of ice with a football inside. Per Newsweek, the illustration also includes a QR code that directed participants to wave the towels during the game when penalty flags were raised.

As the Los Angeles Times reports, about 50 volunteers helped with the effort, which was inspired by Bad Bunny’s outspoken support for the immigrant and Latin American communities, as he vocalized last week at the Grammys. “We're not savage, we're not animals, we're not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans,” proclaimed the singer.

Additionally, as KRON4 reports, about 300 protestors gathered outside the stadium Sunday, marching and holding "ICE Out" signs throughout the game.

“Today is a celebration of American sports, and there are opportunities to really be heard here,”  Shasti Conrad, one of Contra-ICE’s leaders and a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, told the Times. “It’s about drawing attention to show that there is massive support to challenge Trump and the Department of Homeland Security. Any opportunity to push back is important.”

Image: People for Bernie/Threads

This week: Protecting newt migrations, returning the Tule elk to their land, and remembering Humphrey the Humpback whale. Also, Joan Baez in Alameda, mentors for trans youth, 20 years of MoAD, calendar and puzzle fundraiser by East Bay creatives, and a 1912 tugboat for sale.

Big top music

Joan Baez has joined The Soiled Dove at Alameda Point, lending her voice to a circus set in 1890s San Francisco along the Barbary Coast. The show blends live music with acrobatics and dinner-theater, creating a lively mix of spectacle and story.

Originally set to close last weekend, its run has been extended through November 15 due to popular demand. — NBC Bay Area

Hearts in conversation

A new series, Love You for You, follows trans and nonbinary kids as they talk with the people who support them. In one conversation, an 8-year-old navigates school, family, and teasing; in another, a 16-year-old shares his coming-out story with a close family friend.

The episodes highlight small but meaningful ways mentors and relatives affirm identity — from correcting pronouns to celebrating creativity. Across generations, the series captures how guidance and care shape these young lives. Three episodes feature six conversations, all focused on thriving with love and understanding. — KQED

Woven galaxies

Museum of the African Diaspora’s Continuum marks 20 years of showcasing Black art and culture, bringing together two decades of exhibitions, programs, and artists into a living archive that celebrates creativity, resilience, and community. Among the works, Ramekon O’Arwisters’ sculpture Bitten 8 channels imagination and reckoning, using shards — discarded, jagged, and marginalized—to confront anxiety, anger, and the permanence of White-body supremacy. Continuum runs through March 1, 2026.

Additionally, O’Arwisters is hosting one of his regular CrochetJam events at MoAD on Saturday, November 6, where community members stitch together connection with the same care and energy he brings to his work. — 7 x 7

East Bay talent

East Bay creatives have turned their lens and craft toward community care with Oakland Leaves No Crumbs, a 2026 calendar and puzzle that highlight local businesses while raising funds for Centro Legal de la Raza. The project brought together photographers, stylists, and artisans who donated time, food, and props to capture everything from Lunar New Year and Day of the Dead imagery to neighborhood roasters and bakeries.

Pre-orders are open through November 11 with a launch event on December 13 showcasing food from the featured businesses as well as limited calendars and puzzles for sale. — Oaklandside

Migration under moonlight

Each winter, the California newts of Tilden Park make their perilous pilgrimage across South Park Drive, drawn toward the creeks where they breed. To spare them the wheels of passing cars, the East Bay Regional Park District closes the road from November through March — a tradition more than 25 years old.

Cyclists and hikers still pass through, moving slowly while dogs are kept at a distance; the newts’ skin carries a potent toxin. Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Wildcat Canyon Road serve as detours through migration season. — Berkeleyside

Seasoning the earth

The chaos-gardening enthusiasts at SFinBloom are inspiring the public to scatter native wildflower seeds with the casual flair of seasoning a meal — letting color and pollination make their way into nearby alleys, on medians, and other forgotten corners.

Armed with custom parmesan-style shakers filled with seeds, “Mr. Bloom” encourages people to fight “plant inequity” and climate gloom through small acts of restoration. His key advice: don’t wait for spring — plant now, and let the wild things take the lead. — SFinBloom

Returning the hills

After decades away, Tule elk have stepped onto the Sierra foothills once more, roaming lands recently restored to the Tule River Tribe. The 17,000-acre Yowlumne Hills connect tribal territory to forested corridors, opening space not only for elk but for beavers, waterways, and wildfire-resilient ecosystems.

Tribal members and supporters gathered to release the elk last week, part of broader stewardship that blends cultural knowledge, prescribed burns, and habitat restoration. The land is envisioned as a place to gather, heal, and witness the deep ties between people, wildlife, and the ancestral landscape. — SFGate

Tidelines and time machines

A 1912 wooden tugboat that once hauled cargo in Alaska has, for more than 40 years, served as the floating home of Stewart Brand — founder of The Whole Earth Catalog and co-founder of the Long Now Foundation — and it’s now for sale in Sausalito for $1.4 million.

The Mirene was converted into a one-bedroom retreat with a gourmet kitchen and library, reflecting Brand’s lifelong ethos of reuse and reinvention. Its deck faces the San Francisco skyline, a fitting view for a vessel built to endure and adapt. The 64-foot boat also includes its own tender for short trips across the Bay. — Bay Area News Group, Dwell

Riverbound whale

Forty years ago, a humpback named Humphrey took a wrong turn into the Sacramento River and turned a small Delta town into the center of the world. Rio Vista’s residents watched the 40-ton visitor thread through sloughs and levees, stuck at times, stubborn at others, as scientists, volunteers, and onlookers scrambled to guide him safely back to the river.

Kids in local classrooms today still follow his story through whale-themed reading charts and plush mascots, a reminder that his journey was both spectacle and shared memory. On November 4, 1985, Humphrey finally returned to the Pacific, leaving behind a trail of stories, flare-lit celebrations, and a town that keeps him alive in song and spirit. — KALW

Top Image: Matt Knoth/Flickr

Previously: Field Notes: Capybara Pups, Falcons, Supermarket Dance Parties, and Living on a Shellmound

In this week’s Field Notes: a live pipe organ at Legion of Honor, stone legacy in Mill Valley, Recology’s Artist in Residence exhibit, and an Aquatic Park doc. Also: Amy Tan with Christian Cooper, teen film 'The Jar', and Sacramento’s music archive.

Rodin, chandeliers, and a hundred-year-old organ

Every Saturday at 4 p.m., the Legion of Honor fills its Rodin Gallery with the sound of a 100-year-old pipe organ.

Jonathan Dimmick playing the Spreckels Organ at the Legion of Honor, 2002. Photograph by Gary Sexton

Built into the museum itself, its 4,500+ pipes are tucked behind chandeliers and sculptures, designed to resonate through the marble rotunda. The concerts are free with admission, turning a quiet weekend visit into something grander. — Secret San Francisco

Sculpting history in Mill Valley

Mill Valley’s O’Hanlon Center for the Arts pays tribute to its founder, the late sculptor Richard O’Hanlon, with Dialogue with Stone, a display of his monumental stone sculptures, sketches, and archival photos.

Fabrice Florin/Flickr

Alongside it, the Dreams and Visions exhibit explores O’Hanlon’s life, techniques, and inspirations — including geology and astronomy, providing context to his body of work as well as his hillside studio and its surrounding landscape, which O’Hanlon and his wife Ann converted from an old dairy farm in 1942.

The grounds feature outdoor works, some now home to lichens, inviting visitors to wander through both art and history. Runs through August 31, with guided tours available. — Bay Area News Group

From trash to treasure: 35 years of Recology AIR

San Francisco’s Recology Artist-in-Residence program turns the city’s garbage into gallery-ready art. For 35 years, artists have transformed discarded materials — from meat grinders to hair clippings — into striking, unexpected works.

The anniversary show at 1275 Minnesota Street highlights 35 years of creativity, with over 250 artists’ pieces on display. Free to visit through August 30, it’s a uniquely SF experience that makes you look twice at what we throw away. — Recology Artists in Residence

Ship-shaped SF landmark gets its due

The iconic Maritime Museum, formerly known as the Aquatic Park Bathhouse — a 1939 WPA-built bayfront building — has a new spotlight in KQED’s documentary A Balcony on the World.

Premiering August 22, the film traces the bathhouse from public gathering space to WWII Army post to museum, highlighting its murals, glazed-tile sculpture, and restoration projects. Catch it on KQED August 22 at 8 p.m., with re-airings August 23 at 2 a.m. and August 30 at 6 p.m. — SF Examiner

10 peaks, one unforgettable walk

Peak2Peak returns Saturday, September 13, for its 21st year, sending participants on a 10-mile urban adventure through San Francisco’s hidden stairways, quiet streets, and secret viewpoints. Guided groups enjoy coffee, lunch, and snacks along the way, plus a commemorative keepsake at the finish.

Even locals will spot corners of the city they didn’t know existed — just be ready for plenty of hills, stairs, and some serious sightseeing. Tickets are limited and must be purchased in advance. — WalkSF

Amy Tan and Christian Cooper to host delightful nature journaling conference in Palo Alto

Amy Tan, Bay Area born and raised, took NatGeo host Christian Cooper on a birding tour of the region — from Bolinas cliffs to Point Reyes marshes, and of course her own backyard. Along the way, they commiserated over dog owners who ignore leash laws and trample birds’ nesting grounds. Cooper — host of Extraordinary Birder and author of Better Living Through Birding and Urban Owls — knows his birds and the rules they deserve.

On September 14, the pair will share the mic at the 7th Annual Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference at the Foster Museum in Palo Alto, live and online. — Amy Tan

Teens turn summer into a city-wide film set

Seventy-one Bay Area teens spent four weeks making THE JAR, a feature-length chase through Golden Gate Park, Chinatown, and the city’s steep streets. Guided by Joe Talbot (The Last Black Man in San Francisco), they rotated through writing, directing, and cinematography, learning pro-level gear and techniques.

The premiere at the Great Star Theater earlier this month drew a line up Jackson Street, and the Q&A revealed the city’s usual hazards: traffic, curious bystanders, and one very unhelpful passerby. Beyond the polished shots, campers walked away with friendships and creative collaborators that might last a lifetime. — Mission Local

A shed full of music history

In a suburban shed outside Sacramento, Shayne Stacy sits among towers of VHS, cassettes, and reel-to-reels — nearly 20,000 recordings of Bay Area punk, thrash, indie, and metal shows. He started filming local gigs in the ’80s, trading tapes through the mail, and now digitizes rare early footage of Nirvana, Green Day, as well as long-lost basement bands.

Musicians, fans, and former roadies drop off forgotten boxes, and he cleans them up, uploads them online for free, and quietly preserves decades of Northern California music history, one tape at a time. — KQED Arts

North Beach movie mash-up

Every third Wednesday of the month, Films with Friends takes over three venues at the same time in North Beach for a unique and festive night of co-occurring film screenings. This month, live male strippers will be on hand to accompany Savoy Tivoli’s screening of Magic Mike. Alternatively, take a deep dive into Mazatec psychedelic plants at Live Worm’s screening of Salvia Divinorum.

Families should definitely head to Piazza Pellegrini for the 1971 classic, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. — Renegade Cinema

Walnut Creek cafe in the national spotlight

Recently recognized as one of the top new women-owned cafes in the country, Prologue Coffee & Tea quietly thrives inside Walnut Creek’s public library. Vietnamese coffee gets a twist with banana milk, and banh mi sandwiches are crafted from house-made spreads and family recipes.

Owner Thuy Nguyen left banking to open the shop just over a year ago, and locals — plus visitors from across the Bay — are quickly discovering this unexpected gem. — KGO

Top image: Tariq Stone, A Little Bit of This, 2024. Photo by Tariq Stone; Model: Isabel Li; Production Design: Emily Hernandez; Makeup: Niku Radan; Production Assistant: Theo Garvey

Previously: Field Notes: Prelinger Library’s Treasures, SF to Guerneville by Clipper, Historic Lanterns Relit

We may be losing the McRoskey Mattress store at Market and Gough streets, but we’d be getting about 100 affordable housing units for artists in a slick new building, thanks to a cool $100 million from an anonymous benefactor.

It’s a sign of the times that the fancy, market-rate, condo-type housing in SF is being stalled because the projects are drowning in red ink, while it’s full-speed ahead on affordable housing projects sponsored by nonprofits. But none of those nonprofits has been lucky enough for some wealthy anonymous donor to just come forward and say “Here’s $100 million, go ahead and build this thing.”

Yet that exceedingly unlikely scenario actually just happened, and in the beleaguered mid-Market area to boot. The Chronicle broke the news Friday morning that two nonprofits were just awarded $100 million from an anonymous benefactor to build roughly 100 units of affordable housing, all set aside for artists. The nonprofits are Mercy Housing of California and a newer organization called Artists Hub on Market, the property in question is 1687 Market Street (at Gough Street), currently the home of the McRoskey Mattress store.

The McRoskey Mattress store would be torn down. But the Chronicle has a rendering of what would become some 100 housing units, a 99-seat theater, studios, rehearsal spaces, a community center, and a street-level cafe.

It may all sound pie-in-the-sky, but the project is being helmed by an arts figure who’s done similar large-scale projects before. SFJazz founder Randall Kline started that institution as a two-day music festival, and it grew into a $64 million year-round brick-and-mortar facility.

“SFJazz was built to serve the local artist community,” Kline said. “Over the past 40 years, as I saw more and more artists leaving the city, I talked with potential funders about this idea to see if we could provide affordable housing. One donor stepped forward.”

Yeah, yeah, any discussion of affordable housing will inevitably bring out some cynics who ask “Affordable for who?” In this case, it’s people making 80% or less of the SF Area Median Income (AMI). As of 2024, that’s $83,900 or less for one person, $95,900 for a couple, and $107,900 for a household of three to qualify.

But obviously, the prices on these units are not yet listed, as the plans have not been approved by City Hall. According to the Chronicle, these plans are being submitted today (Friday).

Though yes, this would be the end of the McRoskey Mattress storefront and its charmingly vintage facade. But the mattresses are no longer made there anyway, and they’re still available at its showrooms in Palo Alto and San Rafael, as well as at Williams-Sonoma stores.  

Related: Long-Stalled Plan to Build Affordable Housing on Top of Chinatown’s New Asia Restaurant Back in the Works [SFist]

Image: Google Street View

A San Francisco conceptual artist wanted to comment on the vast amount of empty real estate sitting unused in the city right now — while lots of people, including artists and the homeless, could be using it. So, she made a replica of a Spirit Halloween Store banner and used it on Monday to cover up Google's SF office sign on the Embarcadero.

Artist Danielle Baskin, who's becoming known for satirizing tech culture with her "viral art," says the idea for the Spirit Halloween piece came about after she got evicted from a studio space she had on Market Street.

As she tells SFGate, "I've spent a lot of time thinking about unused real estate in San Francisco. So many people wish they had a wood shop, or space to make things. And there's just so many empty weird lobbies with chairs that no one sits in, and offices where the employees don't even come to work because they're welcome to work from home anytime."

From an earlier sign-making business, Baskin has a large-format printer which she used to make the same sort of flimsy banner that Spirit stores usually use when they temporarily occupy vacant retail space for the pre-Halloween season. And the piece included some performance art involving a group of friends all pretending to be Spirit store staffers, waiting for the public to try to come shop for costumes.

She noted how the performance aspect, with her fake Spirit Halloween staffers, didn't really play out so well given what a ghost town the whole downtown area is these days. "Which is actually where Spirit Halloween comes in," Baskin says. "It's like the grim reaper of dying industries." And that's ironic given that the logo is an actual grim reaper.

"It’s going to be a great Halloween shopping season and I’m glad we’re putting this empty office to a better use," Baskin cheekily tweeted.

Earlier this year, Baskin lampooned Twitter culture with another piece, Blue Check Homes. She created a fake website and tweeted an advertisement for a service that installs a "verified" blue checkmark crest on the front of your Bay Area home to let passersby know that you're "an authentic public figure."

Baskin appears right at home in the Bay Area tech world, though, even as she satirizes it. In August, she hid some floppy disks around the city advertising a mock, dial-up-era game called Cofounder Quest, which appears to be her unique way of recruiting an engineer to help her "make tools for easy-to-build voice-chat apps" — based on the success of the app she already made, Dialup, which randomly connects people for phone conversations around the world.

Maybe this is just another elaborate prank, but she actually does seem to want to create a company out of this concept — and she says with the game she's looking "cast a wide net" and find the ideal collaborator to build this new company.

Unfortunately, the Spirit Halloween sign came down almost as soon as it went up. Google still has some security staff at work, and they removed and confiscated the sign. Baskin says she'd still love to repurpose it, so she tells any Googlers who are listening, "If you see a 10' sign with a grim reaper in a closet at 345 Spear St., please return it. Thanks!"

Top image courtesy of Danielle Baskin

A group of eight artists are facing eviction from a live-work warehouse in Bernal Heights, and last week they brought their case to the SF Rent Board, which will now have to decide whether or not the landlord knowingly allowed people to reside there. The case of 968 Peralta Avenue, a converted warehouse that by most accounts has been better kept inside than the Ghost Ship space in Oakland that claimed the lives of 36 people in a December 2 fire, was among the first to make headlines in the weeks after that fire as building inspectors and city officials on both sides of the Bay began to intensely scrutinize these sorts of illegal dwellings. As the Examiner reports, the eight tenants have stayed put since receiving their eviction notice in December — the same day as they received a notice from the city of an upcoming inspection — and they had a hearing at the Rent Board on Thursday that lasted six hours.

At issue for the Rent Board is deciding whether the tenants can receive protection under the 1979 rent control ordinance, or whether the landlord merely had a commercial lease agreement with them, which under state law can be terminated with 30 days notice. The landlord has claimed that he was not aware that people were living in the space, and complicating matters further, the landlord has submitted plans for a 49-unit residential building on the property, meaning that he's trying to find the easiest path to evict the tenants so that demolition can take place soon.

One of the tenants, 42-year-old ballet dancer Nathan Cottam, brought the case to the Chronicle's attention almost immediately after the eviction notice was served, telling them the warehouse was the only thing he could afford when he moved there in 2014. "If I have to leave, I won’t look in the city for a place to live," he told the paper at the time. "There’s no way I can afford it."

These kinds of dwellings, regardless of their sometimes slipshod interior construction, remain some of the most affordable options for many artists, and their existence has been no secret either to landlords or building inspectors, though most have turned a blind eye rather than enforce mass evictions.

Cottam told the Rent Board Thursday, "San Francisco is an important city of culture. The arts must be subsidized in some way or they will disappear. There are many different types of subsidies. This is just one of them."

The landlord has taken his case to San Francisco Superior Court, where he's suing the tenants for unlawful detainer for remaining in the warehouse, and a decision in favor of the tenants by the Rent Board — which may take a number of months to arrive — would help their case.

Meanwhile, in Oakland, the police department was given new orders two weeks ago to report any and all unpermitted parties they observe on beat patrols — a directive that some see as a euphemistically worded crackdown on live-work dwellings. That order came just as new police chief Anne Kirkpatrick was sworn in.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf has struggled so far to toe the line between enforcing building codes and avoiding another disaster, and encouraging landlords to summarily evict hundreds — or thousands — of people from inexpensive housing.

Related: As New Oakland Police Chief Is Sworn In, Officers Are Ordered To Report All Unpermitted Parties

Amos Goldbaum, the popular local line-drawer and muralist whose designs grace walls and T-shirts all the town over, can usually be seen out and about in his converted city vehicle.

"It's a funny little three-wheeled ex-metermaid car," he explains to SFist. "I use it to get around and sell my shirts and art out of... It's blue, white, and yellow and has my name and a drawing on the side."

It's also been stolen by a total you-know-what, Goldbaum announced to his followers on social media. What's more, the vehicle has been seen on city roads: "A few people said they saw it being driven around Bernal and the Dogpatch yesterday so I'm hoping it will show up."

A photo posted by Amos Goldbaum (@amosgoldbaum) on Nov 19, 2015 at 5:30pm PST

Goldbaum says the interceptor was stolen near his Bernal Heights home. Any leads are appreciated, he writes — It ought to be relatively easy to spot this thing: It does have his name on it, after all.

Related: Hayes Valley Shepard Fairey Mural Already Tagged With Graffiti

by Renée Padgham

You can’t miss him. He stands a foot above everyone, with sandy blonde hair, paint speckled jeans, and a calmness to his demeanor only acquired through years of intense focus. He has piercing eyes, blue with specks of green and brown, that can see through to the heart of anything they’re directed at. For those lucky enough to be in San Francisco, that’s us. Shawn Bullen is taking the insides of our city and putting them up on the walls  — and he's a living, breathing force of opposition to the idea that art ever died here.

You’ve met him. On 24th street. At the Boom Boom Room. The Chicago native has become ours for now  —  re-awakening our communities as Creative Director of Imprint.City and bridging the divide between art and technology with his newest series. Not to be taken for granted, he’s had to leave pieces of himself all across the continent to get here. From almost joining the marines, to being arrested for vandalism, to even being homeless  —his unrelenting passion has sheltered him along the roller-coaster ride that brought him to us.

When Shawn was a child, his father was getting his PhD at the University of Chicago and would bring home large stacks of discarded paper for him and his sister to draw on. The mindset that paper was a canvas perpetuated throughout his life, no matter what those in charge intended it to be for. Homework became illustrations, journal entries were works of art  — all filling up the binder he carried as the hallmark of his identity.

In high school he met a graffiti artist named Chris Gary, with whom he developed IDC Art House, and kicked off the chain of events that shaped him into the talented muralist we have today.

One early piece, on the roof of a produce market, brought him both jail time and his first real gig. After being caught on camera, he convinced the judge to let him clean his work himself instead of paying for it to be cleaned. The owner joked that he could’ve at least done something nice with the delivery truck  — this became one of his first commissions, and he worked on it all summer.

On probation from his recent arrest, Shawn realized he needed to re-align his focus. He decided to take photography classes at Columbia College Chicago, but he slipped into a drawing class last minute. That teacher inspired him, and he again became focused on drawing.

He went to Halifax, Canada to study at NSCAD and spent his days grueling to perfect his craft. While there, he approached a local elementary school to teach a volunteer class, eventually enacting a mural that would cover a 60 ft wall. He also worked with the Halifax Government Mural Program and began doing professional mural work.

That summer Shawn headed back to Chicago, with no way to know the winds of change headed his way. He had worked hard to land a huge mural job in the city which, to him, was a ticket to being taken seriously in the space. Work was scheduled to begin on August 6th with a crew of 12 other artists, including his best friend Chris.

On the night of the 6th, the crew began work on the mural. Chris never showed up, but without his phone and knowing his friend’s tendency to lose track of time, Shawn didn’t think much of it. The next morning, still without phone, he went to see his girlfriend and found her sobbing over the reality of what had happened  — Chris was gone. He had passed the night before in a tragic boating accident.

The world slowed. He was more than a friend. Chris was an inspiration, the source of his beginning, and the soul Shawn had dreamed about his career with. He recalled a recent time they’d spent on the train tracks  — Chris had told him how proud he was of him, and that he wanted him to be a leader in the crew.

While the crew grieved in different ways, Shawn knew the only way he could make sense of everything was to stick to the mission : art.

He returned to Halifax, but ended up dropping out by the end of his sophomore year.

That summer Shawn began a long, winding journey that would take him up and down both coasts and test his ability to survive — all while leaving a trail of art in his wake. It started in New York, where the IDC crew met up to create a memorial mural for Chris. From there he crashed in a myriad of cities as he made his way to Art Basel in Miami, using his art to generate enough money to get him from place to place.

While there he stumbled into several opportunities to get publicity in the scene, but time was running out and his mural wasn’t done. Unable to leave the incomplete work, and with Art Basel over, he struggled to find the equipment he needed to finish and get out of Miami. His crash pad was gone, he was out of money, and he was starving. At the time, the Occupy movement was taking place, and he joined the camp just to have a place to sleep.

In San Francisco, Shawn’s work has always focused on bringing hope and life into the areas he touches. He’s to credit for the work adorning Mother Brown’s, and he worked with APRI to teach kids to paint portraits.

Now he’s taking it to the next level with Imprint.City, co-founded with Tyra Fennell and Andrew Casteel.

The mission? Curate an urban arts festival, bringing together local and international artists to re-awaken the walls of San Francisco.

For Shawn, it’s about more than just getting art up on the walls - all the artists that come will teach. That’s what it really boils down to - kids. The idea that a kid can walk down the streets of their neighborhood and be surrounded by art. That they have the opportunity to become the next great artist, starting by being surrounded by the greats. That they understand that creativity has value. That they have the chance to contribute to something huge — to shake the feeling of being an invisible identity floating around in a large city.

An imposition to the beauty of the world, a failed consideration of how we as humans interact in our city — to Shawn, his work solves the problem of poor architecture. Looking at art, if only a second, can bring happiness into the most hopeless of situations, and he’s multiplying that effect all over the city.

Recently though, his artistic interest has been captured by the ideal of the problem solvers proliferating the valley. With his newest series, he wants to focus his energy on a subject he’s passionate about — the goals, processes, and dreams of innovative, dedicated, and creative entrepreneurs.

With work at both Google and Boost.vc, Shawn is seamlessly merging the two cultures of the city currently portrayed as being at odd’s with each other.

Art’s not dead. It’s a catalyst for reconciliation and resurrection.

A different version of this piece previously appeared on Medium.

While we await charges (and a possible arrest) in the case of 21-year-old self-proclaimed graffiti artist Casey Nocket, who was named last week as the "major suspect" by federal authorities in the vandalism of eight national parks, a Utah news station visits one of her crime scenes, Zion National Park, to discuss the cleanup effort there.

Zion National Park spokesperson Aly Baltrus speaks to Salt Lake City's Fox 13 and says, "Graffiti in a park is vandalism, it’s not art. Whether somebody scratches in or draws on [the rock], the removing itself actually does damage to the resources."

It remains to be seen what charges Nocket may face, as the investigation into her alleged crimes continues. She has kept a low profile thus far, having deleted her Instagram account, where all her vandalism was documented, shortly after the story first broke.

Parks Service spokesperson has already told the press that this is the most widespread case of vandalism in the parks system by a single suspect that she knows of.

Previously: Woman Who Allegedly Vandalized Eight National Parks Publicly Named As Prime Suspect

Fact: It used to be much cheaper to live in San Francisco. The eras of our city's greatest cultural output (say the 1940s to the 70s) were also eras when rent was relatively cheap, and the more expensive rents get, the fewer artists who are going to be able to make a go of it here. A new project is launching called San Francisco Art Houses that hopes to address that dilemma, creating live-work spaces around the city that could be leased to artists for nominal rents.

The project is the brainchild of local writer and one-time Caffe Proust owner P Segal, and as she writes, "Cities need artists. This city lost a fortune of creative energy [in recent years]. Returning artists to San Francisco is like replanting native plants and reintroducing indigenous fauna, restoring a balance in the human biosphere." She points to the long-ago demolition of the Montgomery Block (pictured above), a building that survived the '06 earthquake and served as a refuge for artists including Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Sterling, Jack London, Diego Rivera, and Frida Kahlo. What stands in its place now is the TransAmerica Pyramid.

She also makes the important observation that art that makes money tends to come only after many years of practice and struggle, unlike other ways of money-making. "The struggle to produce something marketable may take decades, while an artist matures and develops ideas," Segal says. "San Francisco has no place left for the unfolding of creative genius, except for the genius of brilliant commercial commodities that make fortunes."

Segal's concept is to raise money through private and/or corporate donors, and ultimately perhaps to find property owners willing to donate property for the cause of artist housing. (Sidenote: One of the last remaining similar types of buildings affordable to artists in the city, 1049 Market, has been embroiled in an eviction battle for the past year.)

She hopes to build enough support for the project that multiple, semi-communal live-work complexes can be established around the city, each one housing a community of professional artists. "I am tending towards the Westbeth model of rent," she tells SFist as her concept takes shape. "If you have a great year, you pay more rent the following year, but if you have a terrible year, you pay less. Someone who does very well would probably rather buy their own place elsewhere and create a vacancy." Otherwise, there would be no limit to how long an artist could reside in one of these buildings, but organized community participation would be required.

There would of course be an application process to get in, with peer review by other artists in one's medium.

She tells SFist, "This project is for people for whom art is a professional priority and not a hobby. Having a full time job doesn't make a second career in art secondary, by any means; it just means they have to work all the time."

A crowd-funding site may be in the works soon, but in the meantime Segal asks that any interested parties or potential donors to contact her via email.

Update: Here's the crowdfunding campaign, just launched, to raise a modest $2,500 in seed money.

[San Francisco Art Houses]

Alan Forbes—a famous poster artist who's created designs for Queens of the Stone Age, AFI, Graveyard, Jello Biafra, just to name a few—was attacked in the Lower Haight on October 21. He suffered two horrific skull fractures and damage to his right eye. Sadly, like many artists in the City, as well as those who cannot afford $4,000 for a 1BR above Walgreen's, he doesn't have health insurance. And he needs your help. Which is why two benefits will be held in his honor, featuring a sundry of his associated artists and friends.

Benefit shows are as follows:

Date: Saturday, December 7th, 2013
Venue: The Make Out Room

Bands:
Jello Biafra (DJ)
Harderships (members of Earthless, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, Zen Guerrilla)
Hot Lunch (Tee Pee Records)
The Freeks (from OC)
Ethan Miller (of Howlin Rain / Comets on Fire)
plus special guests

AND...

Date: Saturday, January 4th, 2014
Venue: Bottom of the Hill

Bands:
Black Cobra (Southern Lord Records)
Lecherous Gaze (Tee Pee Records)
Kicker (Tank Crime Records)
Pins of Light (Alternative Tentacles Records)
plus special guests

No word yet as to who or why Forbes was attacked. We'll update as soon as we know more.

[Haighteration]

In addition to a kicky new look, noted crooner Prince has also taken a shine to social media. Delightful. The typically technophobic singer made his Twitter debut Tuesday, tweeting from his band's account, 3rd Eye Girl. Here are just a few of our favorite Prince moments thus far:

Who's a big boy now?

Oh, that's fun.

Hello right back at you, sir.

Mmm, arugula. And to answer your question, Mr. Prince, yes. Your salad is over-seasoned.

Prince is dead and now in poltergeist vapor form.

Everyone knows conservatives hate art. They especially hate contemporary art that was funded by any source other than one's parents' old money, especially if that source is the NEA. Well, a couple of Oakland-based artist-architects, Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello are catching heat from conservative windbags across the land because they just created an environmental installation at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden using 1,368 glass tubes that were salvaged from the former Solyndra plant, and conservatives also will every chance they can get before November to remind everyone about the Solyndra mess. The artwork, called SOL Grotto, is being dubbed by Fox News "the world’s most expensive work of art."

What they're referring to is of course not the actual, market value of the glass tubes, but the fact that the Obama Administration giving a $527 million loan to Solyndra in 2009 which will never get paid back because the Fremont-based company was woefully mismanaged and went out of business last year.

Anyway, SOL Grotto looks lovely, and you should all go see it. In the video above, artist Rael talks about the work and gives a swell tour. And in true Berkeley fashion, Botanical Garden director Paul Licht hopes the controversy will bring more people to look at the plants. Because he says the garden has "the leading collection in the country."

[Berkeleyside]
[Fox News]