Photographs by Dick Evans
Featured Artists
Juana Alicia has been creating murals and teaching for forty years. Her sculptural and painted public works can be seen in Nicaragua, Mexico, Pennsylvania and in many parts of California, most notably in San Francisco. Her work is associated with the greatest artistic and political achievements of the Chicano movement. She has a large body of public work in San Francisco, and has also painted in Mexico, Cuba and Central America.
She works in many media, including traditional acrylic murals, true fresco, mosaic tile and ceramic relief sculptural murals. She is also an accomplished printmaker and studio painter. Among her many public commissions on streets and public institutions, are SANARTE at U.C.S.F. Medical Center, SANTUARIO at the San Francisco International Airport, LA LLORONA'S SACRED WATERS at 24th and York Streets in the Mission of San Francisco, GEMELOS at the Metropolitan Technical University in Mérida, Mexico, and a suite of new murals for Stanford University’s Centro Chicano, entitled THE SPIRAL WORD. Her current in-progress project a mural entitled SPILL/DERRAME, which addresses the dangers of oil spills, located at the corners of Emerson and Adeline, in the city of Berkeley. Juana Alicia is recognized for the power of her style and content.
Murals featured in The Mission book: p. 63-66 "Maestrapeace" and p. 84-85 "La Llorona's Sacred Waters"
Fred Alvarado is an artist working and living in the Bay Area. His work centers around community building, collaboration, and social justice. Past projects have included mural paintings, comic books, video, and installation. Alvarado’s latest project “Future Relations: A Resource for Radical Teaching” is a booklet made up oflesson plans, writings, images, and other contributions from artist working in the fields of social justice, activism, and education.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 26, p. 27 and p. 100 "This Place: A Tribute to the Mission Community"
Francisco Aquino
Murals featured in The Mission book: p. 16 "Tonantzin" (with Mel Waters), p. 48-49 "La Misión, La Cultura, La Lucha, La Gente" (with Eric Norberg) and p. 60 "Si Se Puede"
Marta Ayala was born in El Salvador and moved to San Francisco with her family in 1968. She began drawing and painting as a child, and her life and work has been greatly influenced by her uncle Camilo Minero, one of El Salvador's most famous muralists. She has studied at San Francisco City College, the Arts Institute Sucre in Venezuela and San Francisco State University, as well as apprenticing for six years with Susan Cervantes of the Precita Eyes Mural Center.
Her San Francisco mural work received community awards for Best Public Art in 1998 and 2001, and she has been featured in the books, Latin American Women Artists of the United States by Robert Henkes (McFarland and Co., Inc. 1999) and Murals: Walls That Sing by George Ancona (Marshall Cavendish, 2003) which was written for students aged 9-12.
A large part of Marta's work involves the community and young people. She has taught mural painting in numerous schools in the Bay Area and has collaborated with students of various grade and skill levels. She was commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to create a public mural with the students of Thurgood Marshall High School. Monterey Bay Aquarium selected Marta from an artist's open call to paint a large mural to used as a billboard to promote ocean environment conservation to the Latino community in California.
Marta is continually working on new material and teaching throughout the Bay Area. Currently, she is teaching a "Spanish Through Art" class for children ages 4-8 at several charter schools in San Francisco.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 2-3 "In Lak'ech" (with Catalina Gonzalez Hill and Ena Abarca)
Eclair Bandersnatch Who is Eclair Bandersnatch? Prolific graffiti writer, cultural provocateur, political activist, social satirist? She is all these, a creative force of nature, using clever wordsmithing and raw sexuality to seduce you into seeing the world through her eyes and on her terms. Forcing us to recognize the irony of the human condition, financial inequity, social injustice, sex and gender roles are just a part of the agenda sweetly whispered in your ear or brutally slapped across your face by her highly recognizable hyper-sexual vamps and vixens who unapologetically tell it like it is.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 125 "Love Thyself"
Miranda Bergman is a veteran of the community mural movement, transforming urban space by painting in the streets for over 40 years. Her murals stretch from various sites in the United States, to Mexico, Central America, and Palestine. They include “Maestrapeace”, the acclaimed mural on the San Francisco Women’s Building. She loves how murals weave together the bright strands of artistry and social activism.
A seasoned educator, she teaches visual arts and muralism to many constituencies. She taught K-8 art in Oakland Public Schools for many years, believing passionately in quality arts education for every child.
Her artwork and essays have been published in over 30 books, and she appears in several films. In addition to her collaborative work, her studio work includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, and mixed media works.
Mural featured in The Mission book: "Culture Contains the Seed of Resistance Which Blossoms into the Flower of Liberation"
Joel Bergner (aka Joel Artista) is an artist, educator and organizer of community-based public art initiatives with youth and families around the world. He is also the co-founder and co-director of the organization Artolution. Joel works in acrylic and aerosol, creating elaborate paintings and public murals that explore social topics and reflect a wide array of artistic influences. He has facilitated community mural projects in over 20 countries, including in Syrian refugee camps in the Middle East, juvenile detention centers in the US and the shantytowns of Kenya, India and Brazil. He earned his BA in Sociology from the University of Illinois Chicago and has a background in counseling youth with various mental health issues. These experiences inform his current work addressing issues of trauma related to violent conflict, displacement and social marginalization. For each project, he partners with local residents and organizations to give a platform to people in highly challenging circumstances to explore issues that are important to them, learn valuable skills and uplift their environment through public art. These social projects have featured partnerships with dozens of local and international institutions, including UNICEF, Mercy Corps and the Open Society Initiative. Joel's work has been featured extensively in media, including Al-Jazeera English, NPR (National Public Radio), Arise TV, Reuters, AFP (Agence-France Presse), Voice of America, the New York Times, TIME magazine, and the Washington Post, among many others. His work has also been published in the books Street Art San Francisco and Mural Art Volume 3.
The Artolution is an international community-based public art organization founded in participatory and collaborative art making. Its unique approach empowers artists, youth and communities to be agents of positive social change, explore critical societal issues and create opportunities for constructive dialogue.
Artolution believes that the process of creating collaborative art is a powerful tool to bring diverse communities together in the face of conflict and social turmoil in order to address challenges that they face. Artolution projects engage youth and communities that have faced social exclusion and trauma, including refugees, street youth, the incarcerated, people with physical and mental disabilities, and young people living in areas of violent conflict or extreme poverty. These projects have been organized and facilitated in partnerships with local artists and educators, grass-roots community groups, schools, religious centers and international institutions in over 20 countries across Latin America, Africa, North America, the Middle East, Europe and South Asia.
Murals featured in The Mission book: p. 74 "Un Pasado Que Aún Vive" and p. 75 "El Inmigrante"
Mark Bode
Mark Bode was born in 1963 in Utica, New York. He is the son of the legendary cartoonist Vaughn Bode. He attended the Art School in Oakland, was a fine arts major at School of Visual Arts in New York and studied animation and etching at San Francisco State University.
His first professional job as a cartoonist was when he was asked to color his late fathers’ black and white strip, “Zooks, the First Lizard in Orbit” when Mark was fifteen. Since then he has gone on to work as a tattooist, graphic designer and toy designer. He also worked with Marc Ecko and PUMA designing clothing and sneakers.
Mark has been an invited guest at mural events worldwide. In addition to the work that you can see in the Bay Area, he has created murals in Ireland, Paris, London, Sao Paulo, Berlin, Barcelona, Melbourne, Australia, Hawaii and Art Basel Miami. His biggest piece was a collaboration with the renowned mural artists, Osgemeos, at the back of the Warfield Theater in San Francisco.
Murals featured in The Mission book: p. 20 (both) and p. 21R "Tribute to Kase", p. 21L "The Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist" and p. 146 "Moebius"
Anabelle Bolaños was born and raised in Masaya, Nicaragua. Masaya is known as Nicaragua’s cuna del folklore, due to the region’s rich indigenous and mestizo cultures. Anabelle’s second home is the Mission District, in San Francisco where she enjoys a community-active life, with her two dogs Xochi and Tubby. The richness of both the Nicaraguan and Mission cultures have shaped and influenced her love and appreciation for art. She has joined the fight against the hyper-gentrification of the area, and believes in resistance through the preservation and nurturing of the mural movement and the neighborhood’s Latino roots.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 139 "Narratives of Displacement and Resistence" (Directed by Carla Wojczuk)
Margo Bors: For over three decades I have been pursuing a love of art and nature in San Francisco. My experience has been widespread, ranging from murals and painting to photography. I am probably best known, however, as a printmaker and have worked in several printmaking mediums, specializing in linocuts. The entire printmaking process from original drawings and designs to creating the printing plates and pulling the prints is done by me alone.
My work generally reflects natural themes, particularly plants. I have a strong interest in botanical accuracy and have had several one-person shows at the Helen Crocker Russell Botanical Library in Golden Gate Park. I have also been awarded a Certificate of Excellence in botanical art from The California Native Plant Society. One of my favorite projects is a series of linocut prints of native San Francisco wildflowers. A print from my recent linocut edition, Poppies V, has been accessioned by the Library of Congress. Over 600 of my plant photos are in the UC Berkeley Digital Library and both my art and photos have been used by local and national conservation organizations from the California Native Plant Society and the San Francisco Parks Alliance to the Sierra Club.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 57 "Si Se Puede" (with Susan Cervantes)
Laura Campos
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 149 (bottom) "Alien Love"
Chris Carlsson is a writer, San Francisco historian, “professor,” bicyclist, tour guide, blogger, photographer, book and magazine designer. He’s lived in San Francisco since 1978 and has been self-employed in various capacities since the early 1980s. He has written two books (After the Deluge, Nowtopia) edited six books, (Reclaiming San Francisco, The Political Edge, Bad Attitude, Critical Mass: Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration, Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco, 1968-78 and Shift Happens! Critical Mass at 20), and co-authored the expanded second edition of Vanished Waters: The History of San Francisco’s Mission Bay. He helped co-found Critical Mass in September, 1992, and has ridden with Critical Mass rides in a dozen cities on three continents since then. His book Nowtopia, along with his role in Critical Mass, has propelled him into extended world travels since 2002, and he has had three of his books translated and published in Italy and one in Brazil. His frequent public appearances are well-represented online at Youtube and in various radio and audio archives. He has directed Shaping San Francisco since its inception in the mid-1990s, and continues to be co-director of the archive of San Francisco history at FoundSF.org. He also conducts award-winning bicycle history tours and walking tours a dozen times a year, and hosts an ongoing Public Talks series in San Francisco. Since 2011 he has been a "road scholar" in his capacity as an adjunct professor at the San Francisco Art Institute, the California Institute of Integral Studies, and most recently, the University of San Francisco.
Carolyn Castaño is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work in painting, drawing, video, and mixed-media installations has been exhibited both nationally and internationally.
Ms. Castaño's artwork will be featured in the 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival and is currently on view at the newly renovated Southwest Terminal1 Baggage Claim at the Los Angeles International Airport. Her work has recently been exhibited in the 2015 the 56th International La Bienniale di Venezia in We Must Risk Delight-Twenty Artists from Los Angeles at the Magazzino Di Sale, curated by BARDO-LA, LACMA’s Fútbol: The Beautiful Game and the critically acclaimed exhibition, Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement, which traveled to the Museo Del Barrio, New York City and the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico City. Other exhibitions include LA Now: Emerging Artists, Galerie Dominique Fiat, Paris, Liquid Los Angeles: Contemporary Watercolor Painting in Los Angeles at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, Semi-Precious, The Public Art Fund, New York and International Paper, an exhibition of drawings at the Hammer Museum.
Ms. Castaño has had solo exhibitions at Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, Kontainer Gallery, Los Angeles and Lombard- Freid Fine Art, New York. She has a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the San Francisco Art Institute and a Masters in Fine Art from the UCLA School of Art and Architecture.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 52-53 "Epoca De Oro Del Cine Mejicano" (with Ray Patlan)
Susan Kelk Cervantes, a 45-year veteran of the SF community mural art movement, is the founding director of the Precita Eyes Muralists in the Mission District of San Francisco. Established in 1977, Precita Eyes is one of only a handful of community mural arts centers in the United States. Cervantes is responsible for more than 200 collaborative community murals considered some of the finest in the Bay Area such as Cesar Chavez Elementary School, Mission Playground Pool, Precita Valley Community Center, the S.F. Women’s Building, and many others. She is dedicated to social change by transforming the environment through the creation of murals while involving and educating the public through the community mural art process.
Murals featured in The Mission book: p. 57 "Si Se Puede", p. 69 "Be the Change You Want To See In the World", p. 104-105 and p. 118-119 "Mission Celebrations", and p. 142-143 "Family Life and Spirit of Mankind"
David Cho
Murals featured in The Mission book: cover and p. 58 "Santana" (with Mel Waters), and p. 68 "Jaguar Goddess"
Elaine Chu is a native San Franciscan. She graduated from School of the Arts High School and went on to study painting and art history at the Maryland Institute College of Arts. After graduating she spent many years traveling and moving to Philadelphia, New Orleans and Missouri. During her experiences she met many artists and friends that have influenced and inspired her work today. Preferring to paint large scale she has worked with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and currently paints with Precita Eyes Muralists in San Francisco and co- founded Twin Walls Mural Company with her best friend and colleague Marina Perez-Wong based in San Francisco and Brooklyn. Working mainly large scale and with different communities, she finds it challenging but rewarding to be able to bring a group of people to agree on one unified vision in a monumental scale. It is a gift to learn from others and listen to their stories, dreams and hopes to create something that everyone can enjoy.
Murals featured in The Mission book: p. 71 "La Flor de la Vida"
Colette Crutcher A San Franciscan for 30+ years, Colette has worked in multiple media: painting, collage, sculpture, assemblage, and more. Since the late 90’s, she has focused on public art, mostly mosaics and handmade ceramic tile, while continuing to create and exhibit more intimate pieces. Her best-known works are the mixed media mural Tonantsin Renace, two massive tiled staircases in the Sunset District created with Aileen Barr, and the tiled Quetzalcoatl serpent in the playground at the Mission’s 24th St. Minipark, a collaboration with her husband Mark Roller. Other examples of her tile work can be seen at the Chinatown Recreation Center, Ping Yuen Housing Project, the Balboa Streetscape project (Balboa Ave at 34th and 39th Ave), and at the western end of Taraval Ave.
A formative influence in her career was a Recology artist residency (called Norcal at the time) in 1995. This program provides studio space and a stipend for artists interested in using recycled materials in innovative ways. Never having created mosaics before, she rescued various materials from the landfill and launched herself into a major sculptural project using wood, glass, tile and sheet metal. This piece (Arch: Mother and Child) is still on display at the Joseph Johnson Memorial Sculpture garden.
Her gallery works include paintings and drawings on paper and wood, assemblage sculptures and wall pieces, paper mache and and ceramic sculptures. She is inspired by the popular and fine art of many cultures, which she and Mark investigate on their travels, the endangered natural world, and by her childhood self, who is allowed to come out and play in the studio.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 18-19 "Tonantsin Renace"
Caledonia Dance Curry (Swoon) is a mixed media artist who specializes in life-size wheatpaste prints and paper cutouts of human figures. She regularly pastes works depicting people, often her friends and family, on the streets around the world. She usually pastes her pieces on uninhabited locations such as abandoned buildings, bridges, fire escapes, water towers and street signs. Swoon's work is inspired by both art historical and folk sources, ranging from German Expressionist wood block prints to Indonesian shadow puppets. Source: Wikipedia
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 148 "Thalassa"
Cory Calandra Devereaux (Cory) graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (BFA) from Syracuse University (Syracuse, New York), and received her Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA) from the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. Throughout her multifaceted career, Cory applied her expertise to the arts, retail and non-profit management, and consulting. Her professional experience includes The Exploratorium, Museum of Science and Human Perception (San Francisco, California), Marilyn Burns Education Associates, Inc. (Sausalito, California), and the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG) previously in San Francisco, California.
As a community activist, Cory was a member of the San Francisco Zoological Society Board of Directors (1994–2004), chairing the Joint Zoo Committee, and active on several other Zoo committees. From 1999 to June 2016, Cory served on the San Francisco based Precita Eyes Muralists Association, Inc. (PEM) Board of Directors. During her PEM tenure, Cory held several leadership roles including Board Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice President. Cory also worked as a PEM staff member beginning in 2004 until 2016, culminating with her position as Business Director. In addition to her regular duties, Cory directed instant murals with toddlers, school children, youth and adults, and numerous community mural projects.
Currently Cory lives in San Bruno, California with her husband, Ed, and pursues her lifelong ambition of being an independent artist/muralist. She recently launched Painters Pants, a sole-proprietor enterprise featuring art and painted sculpture, murals, and consulting services specializing in non-profit organizations. Cory’s paintings and sculptures are in private collections nationwide.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 104-105 and p. 118-119 "Mission Celebrations" (with Susan Cervantes)
Daniel Doherty
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 98 "St. Francis Past, Present, and Future"
Emory Douglas (born May 24, 1943) worked as the Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party from 1967 until the Party disbanded in the 1980s. His graphic art was featured in most issues of the newspaper The Black Panther. As the art director, designer, and main illustrator for The Black Panther newspaper, Douglas created images that became icons, representing black American struggles during the 1960s and 1970s. Featured in The Mission book is a mural based on one of his iconic images. "We Want Respect. Freedom. Land. Housing. Bread. Justice. Peace." was painted by Emory Douglas in collaboration with CUBA (Clarence Robbs) and David Petrelli.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 92L "We Want Respect. Freedom. Land. Housing. Bread. Justice. Peace."
Max Ehrman
website
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 147 "Here Kitty Kitty"
Hector Escarraman
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 124 "Icons of Mexican Art: The Artists and Their Muses"
Yukako Ezoe: A sense of play--more street-smart than sentimental; international, but also attuned to a universal understanding of nature--is central to Yukako Ezoe’s art. Ezoe’s vividly colorful paintings and collages are informed by her experiences as a student and a teacher, and often directly connected with everyday necessities and pleasures.' (Huston, Johnny Ray / "Lucky Charms Safe Journeys" / Guardian / 2010)
A Japanese-American artist, muralist, and teacher, Ezoe investigates political outcries and mythology through stylistic references in her fictional landscapes and invented personalities. Japanese pop artist Yokoo Tadanori’s work of the 1960s and 70s is an evident influence on Ezoe’s high-contrast color choices and her compositional style, which includes popular Japanese cultural motifs. She suggests the sacred ritual objects of Afghan mural trucks covered in lucky charm symbolism for their travels or her personal talismans to give balance to the issue depicted. Her key ideas are unite, play and resist. Through extensive use of personal symbolism, she represents aspects of historical and popular culture with which she identifies.
Ezoe received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2006. Her professional involvements in the San Francisco community include as a teaching muralist and Education Director with Precita Eyes Mural Arts Association, where she has participated in the creation of dozens of community mural projects with schools since 2006.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 104-105 and p. 118-119 "Mission Celebrations"
Anthony G. Born and raised in Los Angeles, "Anthony G." made San Francisco his home between 2008 - 2013. While in San Francisco, he naturally gravitated to the lively graffiti scene. Painting murals in several parts of the city, he developed relationships with local artists and collaborated on several murals. Inspired by San Francisco's rich military history, he wanted to pay tribute to fallen soldiers. This salute includes veterans and civilians lives who are swept by injustice, on their homeland. "YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN." - "Anthony G." 2016
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 92R "POW*MIA"
Carlos "Kookie" Gonzalez
I've been drawing and painting since childhood. Most of my art reflects the phases of life I've experienced growing up in San Francisco's Barrio, The Mission District. I feel blessed to have experienced the movements and activism in politics, art and music from the 60's through today.
I'm a kid from the streets and mostly self taught. As a result of delinquency I was relegated to community service to assist muralists on community murals and took like a fish to to water. Somehow I made it to college. While at SF State, I continued to receive on the job training by apprenticing with renown veteran Muralists such as Chuy Campesano, Ray Patlan and Mike Rios.
After acquiring my Ethnic Studies degree, I eventually found myself working as a Probation Officer in the the place I dreaded as a teenager. During that time I was able to give back to my community by working mural projects with troubled youth in my old neighborhood. I ended a 23 year career in May of 2015. Now, I'm happily retired and living the dream as an artist.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 42 "La Rumba no Parra: The Chata Gutierrez Mural"
Lucia Ippolito Mission District native, Lucia is a Mexican-American artist, teacher, and activist. As a painter she focuses on cultural/political themes in oil paint. As a muralist she created the Mission Makeover Mural in San Francisco’s Balmy Alley (the largest and most controversial mural in the alley), as well as a 5′ x 5′ tile mural for a youth organization in the Dheisheh Refugee camp in Palestine. Lucia has also assisted several Bay Area artists with their murals including Juana Alicia’s La Llorona, Daniel Galvez’s Carnaval, and Jos Sances’ Castro Valley Library Mural. She has a collection of political posters in the Library of Congress and has exhibited in various group art shows in galleries such as the Diego Rivera Gallery, Alley Cat Bookstore, and Tower Records. After studying at schools such as Oxbow, Chicago Art Institute, and graduating from City College of San Francisco and San Francisco Art Institute, she hopes to further her art and teaching career by counseling youth through the use of political and expressive art.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 96 "Mission Makeover"
Andre Karpov is artist, builder, and songwriter. Born in Mendocino, California he lived in San Francisco from 1998-2015, with brief stints in Italy and New York City. He moved to the countryside in California with his artist and songwriter wife Rebecca, and now their daughter Evelyn. There they purchased a fixer upper, which he enjoys spending his free time renovating and beautifying, while making a living as a builder and carpenter. Andre has self-published two children’s books of watercolors and original poetry about environment awareness titled: Ballad of a Bottom Feeder, and the Extraordinary Friendship of Otter and Gull.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 23-25 "Compassion Lives Here"
Max Marttila is an artist and muralist born and raised in San Francisco. His work as a community artist/educator with Precita Eyes Muralists allows him to bring youth’s voices to the walls of the Mission District and beyond. This coincides with the paintings and drawings made in his studio that reflect influences from growing up amongst the fast paced subcultures and dark underbellies of San Francisco. These works range from portraiture to abstract landscapes as well as minimalist representations. Emphasis is placed on creating work that trusts in the viewer and incites emotion through color and raw style rather than creating art that seeks merit through academic polish.
Website
Murals featured in The Mission book: p. 93M "Uplift Da City (with Precita Eyes Muralists Youth Arts Program) and p. 100 "This Place: A Tribute to the Mission Community"
Eric Norberg
Murals featured in The Mission book: p. 17R and p. 87 "Building Bridges of SOLIDARITY, Breaking Down Barriers" and p. 48-49 "La Misión, La Cultura, La Lucha, La Gente"
Sirron Norris, born in Cleveland, Ohio graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, he then settled down in San Francisco in 1997. Since then his career has spanned many different sectors of the art world. He has received the prestigious Artist in Residence from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the De-young museum and also has shown in many quality galleries throughout San Francisco. Sirron has also made a name for himself in the areas of Public art. His most notable mural, “Victorion: El Defensor de la Mission” located in the historic “Balmy Alley” has been featured in several magazines, books and advertisements. His largest and most complex is the Calumet Mural which is 600 sq feet and located in the Mission district among most of his three other public works.
Commercially, Sirron has had success in the areas of multimedia, advertising and entertainment. Sirron was the lead artist in the animated show “BOB”S BURGERS” where he created the backgrounds and character designs. Previous clients include: MTV, Comedy Central, Ricoh Theta, Mitsubishi, Bravo, Engadget, among others.
Mural featured in The Mission Book: p. 102 "Victorion"
Ray Patlan
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 52-53 "Epoca De Oro Del Cine Mejicano"
Manuel Paul Cota was born in 1976 and grew up in Hawaiian Gardens, California. He spent his teenage years in East Lakewood, CA and graduated from Artesia High School. Cota graduated from the California Design School where he studied fashion and graphic design. In 2014 he co-founded the Maricón Collective, “a Queer Chicano/Latino DJ and artist collective,” along with Rudy Blue, Carlos Morales, and Michael Rodriquez.
As art director of the Maricón Collective, his work was influenced by his experiences growing up in a Chicana/o family in the 1980’s and 90’s. His style is a tongue-in-cheek aesthetic he calls “swap-meet art” taken from bootleg t-shirts with Latina/o/x appropriations of popular icons such as Mickey Mouse and The Simpsons. He has also re-visualized the iconic hyper-masculine image of the Chicano with “the mustache and slicked back hair” to create his own homoerotic vision of a modern sexualized Chicano man. The aesthetic of the Maricón Collective can be traced to the blog called Scab, which Manuel Paul co-founded with his Partner Michael Rodriguez, also of the Maricón Collective. Scab is comprised of erotic images and music mixes that would become a central ingredient of the artistic styles seen in his work for the Maricón Collective.
For the collective Cota utilized various mediums and genres that intersect digital, pinto (pencil and ink sketch), and pop art to express a queer and at times irreverent perspective that subverts mainstream notions of gay and Chicano art.
In 2015 the Maricón Collective was commissioned by the Galería De La Raza in San Francisco to produce a digital mural for their outdoor gallery wall. The mural titled “Por Vida” would gain national attention after repeatedly being defaced with threats of violence to the LGBTQ community members in The Mission District of San Francisco. This violence was met with strong community actions and rallies to protest the homophobic attack on the neighborhood.
Cota currently resides in Whittier, CA.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 130 "Por Vida"
David Petrelli is a political street artist, muralist, deejay, and writer living in "The Mission District" of San Francisco, California. My first stencil cut in 2002 was "WAR IS CHILD ABUSE". Since then I have cut hundreds of stencils, most notably stencils of freedom fighters Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.
Petrelli is an active member of Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP).
Murals featured in The Mission book: p. 92L "We Want Respect. Freedom. Land. Housing. Bread. Justice. Peace." (with Emory Douglas); p. 93 "New Afrikan Legend: Lovelle Mixon"; p. 93 "A Tribute to M.L.K." Rest In Power Malcolm Shabazz; and p. 132 "The Future Is Ours"
Mike Reger was born and raised in San Francisco. He is an artist, cartoonist, and harm-reduction advocate. He organizes for Clarion Alley Mural Project (C.A.M.P.) and for Mission Minicomix (Missionmincomix.com), and collaborates with many other groups.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 97 "Clarion Alley Mural Project: Wall of Shame and Solutions"
Patricia Rose has been a proud Precita Eyes Muralist since 1980.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 17L "La Virgencita"
Christopher Statton is an American arts administrator, artist, community organizer, and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Supporting organizations and large scale public projects, Statton has focuses on public messaging as a means towards social and economic justice as well as creating platforms for disenfranchised communities to have a greater voice. By working in different mediums and capacities, Statton aims to strengthen community by addressing and calling out the systemic root forces that create division.
Born with hemophilia, Statton was one of the 6,000 – 10,000 hemophiliacs in the U.S. alone to be infected with both HIV and hepatitis C from contaminated hemophilia blood products in the early eighties by the pharmaceutical companies that were producing concentrate factor VIII. Living with these diseases for all or most of his life has led Statton to be a fierce activist for justice. Statton’s ambition is to be able to address the specialized needs within local, regional, and global communities, taking into account the intricate cultural and geographical relationships, histories and the underlying agendas of those who have the ability to control resources.
Statton is best known for his role in establishing San Francisco’s oldest continuously running theater, the Roxie Theater as a non-profit during his four-year tenure as Executive Director, 2010 – 2013. In 2013 he was awarded the Marlon Riggs Award by the San Francisco Film Critics Circle for “his significant contribution to San Francisco’s film community through the Roxie Theater over the past four years.” In 2013, San Francisco District 9 Supervisor David Campos awarded Statton with a Certificate of Honor for his “important and tireless work with the Roxie.” Currently, Statton serves as the board treasure, an artist, and one of the core organizers of the Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP).
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 97 "Clarion Alley Mural Project: Wall of Shame and Solutions"
Henry Sultan is a native San Franciscan, born here in 1938. I have a BA, 1966, and an MA, 1968, in Art from San Francisco State University. I have been exhibiting professionally since 1966. I painted my first mural in 1976 and founded the Sunset Mural Workshop in 1979. In 2014, my visual autobiography “The Art of the Mandala” was published by The Last Gasp Press of San Francisco.
In 1986 my family and I moved to our residence/studio at 30th and Sanchez Streets and I joined the Precita Eyes Board of Directors. I served as Board President from 2008 to 2012. I continue to be active on the Board and also have been an active mural tour guidefor Precita Eyes since 2003. Examples of my paintings, the images of mandalas, figures and landscapes can be seen on my website.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 104-105 and p. 118-119 "Mission Celebrations" (with Susan Cervantes)
Melandres C. Waters was born in San Francisco, CA in 1982 to his Filipino-American mother and African-American father. Growing up, he was greatly influenced by his Bay Area surroundings, by music and by art. A close-knit group of family and friends, hip-hop culture, graffiti and sports filled his world in high school. Later, Mel attended college on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but eventually his love for Bay Area culture pulled him back home. Upon his return, he started finding his way onto the street art scene by constantly pushing out his work, backed with knowledge from the seasoned graffiti artists, established fine artists, and tattoo artists he looked up to. In 2014, he was commissioned to paint a mural on 19th and Mission- his love for music, culture and community led him to paint his "Carlos Santana" mural. Today this is, perhaps, his most famous and most photographed piece of public work.
Mel currently lives in Pacifica California with his Fiancé Corey and his infant son Ryder. Mel is in the progress of opening his own tattoo parlor in SF and is a sought after artist and muralist.
Murals featured in The Mission book: book cover and p. 58 "Santana"
Megan Wilson is a visual artist, writer, and activist based in San Francisco. Known for her large-scale installations, public projects, and street art, she incorporates a broad range of pop culture methodologies and aesthetics to address conceptual interests that include home, homelessness, social and economic justice, anti-capitalism, impermanence and generosity. Wilson is currently the Board president of the Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP) and has been a core organizer of the project since 1998. In 2003 she curated, co-organized, and raised the funds for the international exchange and residency Sama-sama/Together, a collaboration between community arts organizations and artists from San Francisco (USA) and Yogyakarta (Indonesia) designed to foster understanding among Muslim and non-Muslim cultures following 9/11. She received her BFA from the University of Oregon and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Wilson’s work has been exhibited at the Oakland Museum, Museum of Craft and Folk Art (S.F.), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Montalvo Art Center, San Francisco Arts Commission, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, thirtyninehotel (Honolulu), Green Papaya (Manila), Lazarides Gallery (London), and LIP (Yogyakarta). She has created public projects in the San Francisco Bay Area, Tokyo, Japan; Yogyakarta & Bali, Indonesia; Jaipur, India, and Manila Philippines.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 97 "Clarion Alley Mural Project: Wall of Shame and Solutions"
Tanya Wischerath An artist with an eye to the zeitgeist and a hand to the classical, Tanya Wischerath seeks to explain what is timeless about that which surrounds her. This is by no means an obvious aim- not one which will be captured at first glance- rather, the aesthetic appeal of figurative realism is only an entry point into a much deeper contemplation on that which makes us human. Which stories shape that identification that is the most personal? What do we adapt from a collective consciousness but name our own for the sake of survival and flourish? What histories resonate and inform our actions, becoming extensions of our present lives? Tanya Wischerath's work explains that which is inexplicable; satisfying the task of a visual artist on fronts both immediate and resonant.
Influenced by the early 20th century avant garde lesbian circle of Romaine Brooks, as well as the styles of Bouguereau and Waterhouse, Wischerath’s work is highly autobiographical, depicting an intimate and surreal landscape of gender fluidity and contemporary queer expression. Wischerath attended Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia and the California College of Art. She is currently enrolled at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. The Danish-American painter is the three time recipient of San Francisco Bay Guardian's Best of the Bay "Best Tattoo Artist" Award (2013, 2014 and 2015). Wischertath’s Compton's Cafeteria Riot, 1966 mural commemorates the riots of 1966, and is a tribute to activism for equal rights for the LGBT community. In 2014 her portrait of her partner, titled 31 Years, was chosen for the National Portrait Gallery, London, Annual BP Portrait Contest.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 70 and p. 131 "Tribute to Trans Activists of San Francisco"
Ben Wood is a San Francisco based visual artist. I use site-specific art to communicate meaningful stories about people and place. I am especially devoted to using contemporary media to animate public spaces with images of their forgotten histories and how they may be reintroduced to the physical landscape of the present.
My enduring interest with Mission Dolores began in 2003 when I worked with curator Guire Cleary and archaeologist Eric Blind on a voluntary project at Mission Dolores. I labored for weeks in the tiny crawl-space above the altar of the church to document photographically and later compile digitally a mural from the late 18th Century. This photography of the 1791 painted reredos, revealed previously forgotten imagery from behind the altar. The result, the mural seen for the first time in centuries, was projected to hundreds in the church itself. Aside from my artistic endeavors to make the mural available, as projection art and in 2011 as a street mural, I have always had a goal of scholarship. My resurgent interest in the mural, in 2014, wasn't exclusively a result of looking at historic records, but by engaging with present-day descendants with family genealogy tied to Dolores. A vital supporter of this new research is, Jonathan Cordero, PhD, a descendant of the original people of the San Francisco Peninsula傍he Ramaytush Ohlone.
As of 2016 the street mural presented in Dick Evan's book has sadly been destroyed, lending further credibility to the priority of preserving the original mural hidden behind the altar of Mission Dolores.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 1 "Mission Dolores Mural"
Zio Ziegler Painting is my attempt at self-understanding. I create an experience for the viewer that parallels my own search in creation. This process, my examination, is a constant balance between reason and intuition. I make in order to understand, rather to explain what has been made.
Whether I am painting on a public wall or in my studio, my craft is a vehicle that shows me how to turn every crisis into an opportunity. The naiveté and freedom I see and admire in the physical world directly influence the most primitive aspects of my work. My materials are the tools I use to try to understand my human condition. The paint, surface, and subject matter parallel my subconscious call to action and often manifest themselves in the same forms; however each form displays varying levels of emphasis, color, line and pattern. I paint how I feel, not how I see. Rather than finding a concept and executing it in a linear fashion, I react to my questions, life and awareness. My work is not about a final product, rather the process that helps me solve a problem.
Mural featured in The Mission book: p. 149 Untitled mural