An Islands Fold Mural in SF

In conjunction with Upper Playground and Fifty 24SF Gallery, Luke Ramsey (from Pender Island, Canada), Zosen (from Barcelona, Spain) and Doodles (local) were all asked to create a mural for a whole foods grocery store on Haight Street and Fillmore in San Francicso. The project was about international collaboration and making a mural about healthy fruit and vegetables. For those unfamiliar to the area, this location is one of the busiest and most lively street corners in the city. A wonderful neighborhood to engage with art and people. The night before starting, the three artists with help from Ryan Thompson of Anteism, prepared the walls by painting them white. Right away they were approached with questioning and hostility from a couple neighbors, and received a friendly visit from the local police. Fortunately the artists had a letter of approval from the business owners. Some local graffiti writers came by expressing that there needed to be permission from the artists of the existing mural, which is silly because the mural was six years old and the artists were asked by the store owners to paint a new mural. The challenges began. After receiving initial public doubts about the project, because the walls were painted a boring white, the artists began to paint and were encouraged and supported by people passing by. There was a steady flow of compliments to the new work and people and local businesses were happy to see something new. The artists were giving themselves two full days to complete the mural. After the first solid day of about 12 hours of work, the project seemed to be going well. All the contributing artists were really excited about the public feedback. The next morning there was a request from a local, for the artists to paint a Palestinian flag in the mural, because the original mural had the flag and ties to the Palestinian community. The artists proposed this request to one of the store owners and it was up in the air. Within a few hours, a worker at the whole foods store informed the artists that they had to stop painting. They were told that the owners of the store contacted the landlord about the Palestinian flag, and were then told by the landlord that they didn't get his approval for a new mural. So everything was put on hold for a few hours as negotiations were being made. It turned out the the landlord had a sentimental value to the existing mural, that was now long gone and painted over. The three artists currently working were obviously shocked, but due to time limits, decided to push ahead and continue with the mural as the "damage" was already done.

The mural was almost complete and was up for only two days, when late one night the entire neighborhood was assaulted with graffiti and bad tags. The mural had been hit with two burners. The following day, the landlord was asked for permission to fix the mural, so it wouldn't look like an eye sore for the neighborhood. He agreed and with a smirk on his face said that he was going to paint over the new mural and get the original mural artists to re-do the existing mural, but they wouldn't be able to start until a month away. The current mural artists could have been discouraged by the landlord's hostility for the new mural and the tagging, but decided to repair the damage done and give the mural life for at least another month. The mural was fixed, finished and bursting with life and color. The neighborhood and owners of the store were exited about the finished piece. There was even a petition to save the new mural, singed by the majority of the local businesses. The landlord was still unhappy, regardless of the neighborhood's support for it. Then things got even crazier. While Doodles and Zosen were fixing the mural, a graffiti kid came by and said that his crew was going to bomb over the mural that night. He asked what Zosen and Doodles'"wrote" (a graffiti term for tagging), questioned their credibility, and said that there was no point to fix the mural, as they were going to bomb over it every time it was fixed it. This prompted the artists to purchase anti-graffiti clear coat to put over the mural. After the first coat was put on later that night, the next day the mural was hit again. The landlord was now threatening to sue the whole foods store for $15,000!

As Doodles was examining the new damage, a lady passing by stopped and expressed sadness and outrage with regard to the new damage. She works for the neighborhood council and told Doodles that the neighborhood and city are fighting to keep the new mural afloat. She was even thinking about contacting the local paper about the story of the mural and all the drama revolving around it. As Doodles was talking to her, his friend walked up and told him that she and her boyfriend walked past the mural the night before as it was being defaced with the second tag. Her boyfriend confronted the vandal and told him to stop and apparently things got really heated and the two almost got into a fist fight. Meanwhile, lurking in the darkness behind all of the commotion was the landlord. He started calling Doodles' friend a "whore" and a "bitch" and continued with a tirade of insults. The landlord told the vandal to keep on painting. Distressed, Isabella called the police. The police arrived and confirmed that the man in the background was in fact the landlord and that the young man defacing it was his boyfriend. Doodles' friend then pointed out that both the landlord and boyfriend were clearly on drugs, but the cops didn't care and left. The landlord and boyfriend continued to insult Doodles' friends until they left. The mural has now lost the battle, and will be only a memory. Luke, Zosen and Doodles have no regrets about the whole experience. They feel gratitude to Upper Playground and the store owners for the opportunity to share their work in a busy neighborhood. The artists are also humbled by the public support and positive feedback about the art they made. It's a shame that some graffiti kids and the landlord disrupted the experience, but overall, the artists were delighted to enjoy the creation and bond with each other, with art and with the public. The artists all learned some valuable lessons about public art and felt that the experience gave them allot more than any exposure the art would have.