Today we were approved for our entertainment permit at CW, with utterly tolerable conditions! And there was much rejoicing. The next hurdles are the construction permit and liquor license, not necessarily in that order.
So I had this crazy idea.
Our new building has these enormous blank walls on it. I want to put murals on them.
Now, pretty soon there are going to be housing developments that completely obscure those walls, but you know how construction projects go: that's probably going to take years. The gas station side hasn't even broken ground yet. So if we did this, it would give us N years of Big Art instead of Beige Wall, where N > 0. That sounds worthwhile to me.
I haven't done any research into this sort of thing, or even discussed it with our new landlord, who is the actual owner of those walls, but.... what is involved in that kind of thing, anyway? Do you need a permit? If it was a sign or a billboard, I think the answer is yes, but for art? Also, assuming the artist doesn't work for free, how do I get someone else to pay for it? This seems like the sort of thing for which grants would exist. I know nothing about such things. And finally, what local artists do you like who work at this scale?
14 Responses:
I know an artist, Camer1. He's a good egg. He recently won a reality television show called "Street Art Throwdown," a graffiti artist contest, which included a task of "paint a giant ass mural within 12 hours" or so. He's a great guy, super-talented, local (e.g., lives at 6th and Mission), and likely economical.
I can put you in touch, if you like.
I was just going to mention that maybe a way to get it done for free/cheap would be to get Street Art Throwdown to do a second season. What an entertaining show that was. Though I really liked that elephant.
I liked this, and I also got the ABC letter in the mail today. I think it would have been better to include an introductory letter to neighbors instead of discounts, but that's my .02
My friend Dan Fontes is a wonderful muralist. he did work all over the bay area, but you may have seen his murals at the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda, and certainly the iconic freeway giraffes off 580 at Harrison.
I am reminded of an article about the large defunct grain silo mural out in the Bayview that went up last year…(?) SFGate article has names of some involved in making it happen.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/place/article/Big-bold-mural-adds-zip-to-Bayview-waterfront-5267594.php
Good luck. Would be awesome to see this happen.
If you do the opposite end of the gas station, I would much appreciate the new view, as would my wife :)
So is that the hotel rooms with their windows facing each other three feet apart?
The First Amendment Gallery might be able to help if you want some graffiti-like mural.
I bet the folks at Precita Eyes know what's involved.
http://www.precitaeyes.org
The StreetsmARTS program here is pretty great (according to artist friends of mine who are into mural/street art culture in town). Hopefully someone over there should be able to answer most, if not all, of your questions.
In a perfect world, Paul Komoda will create a giant-ass, eldritch-as-fuck, non-pornographic. triptych for you guys. Just putting that out there. Plantin' dat SoMa turd seed.
For some reason I envision three games of Tetris painted up there.
Maybe just They Live!-style slogans?
"No club here"
"Is that a cricket over there?"
"I fancy pizza right now"
(Of course DUH DNA/CWgoers/eaters would be wearing the cool glasses that filter the subliminal messages out. I 100% thought of that before posting)
3 walls of vertical green Matrix code.
https://youtu.be/8ZdpA3p9ZMY?t=100