Mission Mission

There seems to be a new street art movement sweeping the neighborhood (or perhaps just 23rd St), and you’ve still got a chance to get in on the ground floor! And you don’t even have to have a real plastic bag–even a torn tortilla wrapper will do!

Whether it’s commentary on environmentalism (Greenland’s ice sheets are melting!) or consumerism (weren’t plastic bags outlawed in SF?), or merely the work of some bored homeless dude is up to you, but you’ve at least got to admire the variety here.

Also, FYI, none of these can be recycled in your apartment’s street-side bin (only HARD plastic can be), so tell your dumb housemates to stop throwing these in with the recycling!

Here’s a great chance to get out of the Mission! Space Bi, a “pop-up, parasitic, and unauthorized contemporary art center” will be infesting and completely inhabiting the Asian Art Museum this Thursday, July 26th from 5-9pm.

It sounds pretty fun:

As a forum for alternative programming, Spacebi reimagines the museum as a collective artist studio. Be a part of Spacebi, create new artworks, and join us for the “official” celebration of a year worth of artist projects, creative collaborations, and off-the-record experiments all inspired by the Asian. COME PLAY!

Event on FB here; site link here.

If you’re into screen printing, or are looking to get into it, this workshop sounds pretty cool. Plant dyes!

To sign up email grafica@missionculturalcenter.org or get more info at www.missionculturalcenter.org on the internet or 415-821-1155 on the ol’ telephone. But I’m kind of late on posting this, so sign up now.

The mural:

The video:

Whether they’re related or not, they’re both compelling works of art. Watch the whole video here:

(Thanks to Jenny Gottstein for the tip!)

UPDATE: Got a relevant email:

thrilled you posted about me and my shark fin. kool kid is SF based (his mgr is the head booker for Yoshi’s) so i would guess he’s related to that mural somehow. not often you see rap artists taking up environmental causes.

we are a social media agency that works for the ocean (not kidding, it’s our client) and we’ve been promoting that video the last few days.

Do you know about this shark art tour that’s swinging through SF next weekend? thats what his video was promoting. http://thegreatwestcoastmigration.blogspot.com/p/migration.html

also, we put his lyrics up on rapgenius.com and asked shark scientists to put in their interpretations: http://rapgenius.com/Kool-kid-kreyola-me-and-my-shark-fin-lyrics

Rachel Dearborn
Upwell
project twitter: @upwell_us

Insult to injury! Dang. New mural off 24th.

[via Talent Is An Asset]

Uh-oh. Somebody must’ve gotten one of those Mogwai wet.

(Brave in 3D was really good btw.)

[via Street Art SF]

I’m not sure where we are in this, but the conversation intrigues me. Partly because it illustrates two different ways to create image using text.

Found on the other side of Market Street, on the wall of the former Go Getter’s Market.

I don’t know how I missed this sweet piece on the door at Bender’s. Who’s the lucky lady that gets to go on a gorilla ride to the top of Sutro? I hear he likes blondes.

[via wirednerd]

His name is John Seastrunk, and you’ll recognize his seasonally appropriate handiwork from the windows of Boogaloos, St. Francis, Napper Tandy, a bunch of taquerias, and more. The Bold Italic has just published a piece on him, so you can finally put a name and face to all of that familiar hand-painted lettering. According to the piece, John has been painting signs for over 30 years and has over 120 typefaces memorized!

Read on for more about this unsung local hero.

Dude if cubicles looked like this, I would totally work in a cubicle. (Unrelated: heading to the park now if anybody wants to join.)

[Photo by reader Nadia E., submitted via our Facebook timeline]