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8 May : Florida St. Community Celebration

A Florida St. Community Celebration

Spend a day creating community through art, bicycles, and gardening!

Sat., May 8
noon to 6pm

Esperanza Gardens
685 Florida St. @ 19th
San Francisco, CA

(if there is rain, the music and mural painting will be in the CELLspace Gallery noon to 3pm)

Activities for the Day:

– Help paint the Bike Kitchen mural with artist Henry Kitchen
– Work with the Esperanza Gardens volunteers
– Listen to live music from community performers
– Ask questions about CELLspace’s Florida St. Mural Project
– Work on your bike at the Bike Kitchen ($5)
– Grill out and eat some food (some food provided while supplies last)

Florida St. has gone through many changes recently, with a square block of new neighbors, a new Bike Kitchen, a revived garden, and an in-progress mural project. On Saturday, May 8, all of these neighbors, artists, and volunteers will get a chance to meet one another, learn about the projects, and participate in some community activities. No experience is necessary, and all are invited to drop in on the fun! Paints will be available to help paint the Bike Kitchen mural, and you might want to wear work clothes if you wish to help in the garden.

Florida Street ha pasado por muchos cambios recientemente, con un bloque cuadrado de los nuevos vecinos, un nuevo Bike Kitchen, un jardín renovado, y con una proyecto mural. El Sábado, 08 de mayo 2010, todos estos vecinos, artistas y voluntarios tendrá la oportunidad de conocerse entre ellos, aprender acerca de los proyectos, y participar en algunas actividades de la comunidad. No se necesita experiencia y todos están invitados a divertirse! Las pinturas estarán disponibles para ayudar a pintar The Bike Kitchen Mural. Por favor, use ropa de trabajo si quieres ayudar en el jardín.

Hope to see you there!

www.cellspace.org
www.bikekitchen.org

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Fascism in SF

(thanks to Laura for this pic from Dachau, Germany)

A month or so ago, I photographed a new stencil in Clarion Alley, the funky painted street by Community Thrift on Valencia St. I wasn’t sure at first if I was going to post the image to Stencil Archive, because for the first time in San Francisco, I had captured a White Supremest logo as negative space. Huh? The “New Right”? Why the hell are they tagging a right wing stencil in Clarion Alley? [I posted the stencil, because people need to know what their icons are and deface them whenever they can.]

Before the Clarion Alley block party, a friend buffed the stencils. I don’t blame him, especially since Clarion Alley is a lefty, Anarcho-Radical zone, with murals that make hate-free political statements as well as critique capitalist society. Before the Block Party, I got word that the SFPD were going to crack down on open alcohol containers during the event. I stopped by the alley early to look for stencils and double check that rumor. Sure enough, a volunteer was making a sign telling people to behave that day. (The SFPD harassed participants by riding motorcycles through the party and did issue open container citations.)

Continue reading “Fascism in SF”

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6 Nov: Mission Muralismo Party at the de Young

Cultural Encounters: Friday Nights at the de Young presents Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo, in partnership with Precita Eyes Muralists

5:30 PM – 8:45 PM
November 6, 2009

The HEART of the Mission, a Celebration of Art and Community, including many of the artists, photographers, and writers featured in Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo; live music by Dr. Loco’s Rockin’ Jalapeno Band; poetry and performances by Lorna Dee Cervantes, Stephen Cervantes, Francisco X, Lori B (Bloustein) and Andrew Voight; talks by the book’s editor, Annice Jacoby, artist and writer Jaime Cortez; projections of thousands of archival and current Mission murals, including a ten-year span of the deAppropriation wall; art activities for people of all ages and MORE! Free for All.

The de Young Museum hosts a year-long series celebrating the just released Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo (Abrams, 2009), edited by Annice Jacoby, with a foreword by Carlos Santana, as part of the museum’s weekly program Cultural Encounters: Friday Nights at the de Young.
Continue reading “6 Nov: Mission Muralismo Party at the de Young”

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Dia del Toro Mural at CELLspace

I am proud to announce a new mural on the Bryant St. facade of CELLspace. Dia del Toro graces the entrance to the ACT prop shop at 2060 Bryant St. and was painted by Dia and Toro.

For years, fading graffiti filled this panel as a a ficus tree grew huge and blocked the street view of this part of the facade. While I facilitated the half panel piece that Dia did for CELLspace earlier this year, I shot the idea to him about taking that panel too. He initially had the idea of painting a sailing ship getting pulled down into a stormy sea, but he used that concept for a gallery piece. Once Dia found time to work with CELL’s miniscule budget and paint the panel for free, he had met Toro and decided to paint a defeated bull as it took its last breaths.

In the first phase of making the panel, Dia and Toro worked on the overall layout. Toro then painted “DIA TORO” in graff letters for placement. Dia then sprayed a white outline of the bull and then painted the details with brushes and black paint. He sprayed a few other details. Finally, Toro came back and did the final graff lettering and details. Blood on the sword punctures and in the mouth of the bull were the final details added to the animal image.

Dia del Toro was the final panel on the Bryant St. facade, following Stencilada and the halved panel by 2048 Bryant. Now that this is done, energy will be focused on the Florida St. Mural project. Currently with no funds to budget the artwork, things move slowly back there. I’m currently working on the RIDE TOO! benefit for next Friday, of which some profits will go towards the Florida St. murals. The Bike Kitchen is still moving forward with their panel back there and will be at the benefit.

Enjoy the photos of the Dia del Toro mural that I took over the course of its completion.

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Precita Eyes Benefit: 19 Sep

SOMArts (South of Market Cultural Center)
934 Brannan Street (near 8th Street)
San Francisco, CA. 94103
6:30-9:30 pm
Admission:  general $35, VIP $50

For more information please visit our website

I’ll have my autograph pen there this Saturday, along with a pile of artists, authors, and photographers in the Mission Muralismo book. Not cheap, but the money goes to a great cause: MURALS!

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On Contemplating Art and Public Space

I spend a lot of time walking/biking around urban landscapes, looking at space and photographing art. If you’ve followed my travels, you’ve notice that this is something that goes beyond hobby. This search isn’t a job either, but I have been paid for my efforts. For me, walking through a living system where humans work, play, eat, sleep, etc. brings rewards beyond a systematic point of reference. It is hard to label it as work, hobby, etc., when the urge to wander and look for art is a deep way of living for me.

This Saturday, I went for a walk, thinking a bit more about space. I reflected on the potential that space has to present art. The way people relay their feelings in more creative ways. And the lost histories that surrounds us in the neighborhoods we live in.

The following photo essay are the images that made me stop, stare, ponder, and snap. We all live in a world full of many colorful possibilities. We also live in a culture that doesn’t tolerate certain opinions, while letting others flourish. These photos touch on all the ideas I carry with a passion, and might help add context to why I constantly “stencil hunt” in the urban wilds of the USA and beyond.

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woah… empty blog…

Hey there. Did anybody miss me? Has the webos-cloud of attention moved away from the humble digs of HappyFeet Travels? I can only guess that you all have been sucked into the micro-webos clouds of Twitter and FaceBook. Huh? Have you? So easy to blog in 100-ish characters or less, isn’t it? Simple to throw some links to vids, articles, and pics over on those sites, yes? Beyond bands, has anyone wandered to the MySpace-webos cloud lately? They’ve made it less blinky last I checked, which was a while ago!

I’ve been laying low for several reasons. Getting off of a year of touring and promoting and producing has been part of the reason. Resting, regrouping, and reconnecting has been another. Not feeling like I have much to say that isn’t too personal (I don’t post too personal here) is yet another reason for the blank cal on this site. And just plain coming to grips with life in the microcosm of the reality-cloud we call a crappy economy has been another.

Things here at HappyFt HQ are feeling caught up. The Fall is looking great for potential creative endeavors. Some of them might actually help me pay the rent! On the book front, Stencil Nation is currently “out of stock” while Manic D tries to figure out the future in what is now a glutted street art book category (we were there before the wave crested…. I beat the crowd once again!). I still have some banged up return copies that I’m trying to sell on my site. A few have gone out.

Continue reading “woah… empty blog…”