Mission Mission

An interesting comment was left on Kevin’s 23rd/Capp graffiti post from a few months back.  Commenter “The Property Owner” writes:

To hear that we as the Owner let the graffiti sit there is absolutely ridiculous. We paint that wall at least once a month, and it is tagged before it even dries!

This is a letter sent to the tenants of the property:

December 9, 2009

ALL TENANTS
3241-3247 23rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

RE: Mural Project

Dear Tenants,

As you are well aware, for many years we have been dealing with a graffiti problem at the property. In the past we have always covered up the graffiti, but in some instances the paint is not dry, before it is ‘tagged’ again.

In an effort to stop this nuisance and contribute to the neighborhood, we have begun working with the San Francisco Arts Commission in hopes of having a mural on the property rather than ugly graffiti. We have taken all the preliminary steps in this process, but would now like your input as well. Being that it is your home we have included a package of three artists who are the current candidates for a mural project. Please review the package and give us any feedback as to your preference of artist, we are also open to suggestions as to the theme of the mural.

We appreciate any feedback and patience as we work on this project. We are the first such property and owner/management group working with the San Francisco Arts Commission, so there is not a step by step guide for us to follow!

Should there be any questions, please feel free to contact our office at the below-mentioned information.
Sincerely,

Nicholas Scarabosio
Jackson Group Property Management

A mural!  Three artists to choose from! Wouldn’t that be totally bitchcakes if the three artists to choose from were BNE, ORFN, and Dick Chicken?

Either way, I hope this helps the situation.  I was just reading over on Curbed that San Francisco spends $3.7 million a year(!) painting over graffiti.  Sheesh.  We should send all these vandal kids to live with their aunties and uncles in Bel Air.

Photo: Joshua Bright for The New York Times

I’m sure everyone’s seen a BNE sticker slapped on a parking meter at one point or another.  Gav even offered a $2,500 reward on the stickerer’s scalp back in 2k6.

Today, the Chronicle pointed us to a New York Times interview with the unidentified artist who tags and stickers the letters “BNE” all over the world, from San Francisco and New York to Prague and Kuala Lumpur.  BNE takes his art very seriously, comparing his brand to that of Tommy Hilfiger, Starbucks, and Pepsi.

My favorite part of the article:

“You kind of isolate yourself, living this life,” he said. “You meet a girl and she asks, ‘What do you do?’ and right way, you have to lie.”

Zomg, BNE has a soft side!  Sucks he has to hide his true self behind a pair of thick-rimmed glasses.  The words “I slap stickers on shit, babe,” would be devastating for any girl to hear.

I kid, I kid!  BNE may sound sort of like a post-modern hippie, but he’s alright.  Not as cool as Dick Chicken, though.

Alexander sent us this image of a newly-buffed Clarion Alley a few days ago.  Reminds me of sunnier times, before the great blizzard hit San Francisco.  I miss my fingertips.

I was strolling down an alleyway that’s familiar to many but new to me and thought this lo-fi mural was pretty special.

Not sure I get this part but then again, I don’t get a lot of things:

I felt like kicking it old school this morning by putting something in the mail.  Turns out there was some easter egg sticker art in there paying homage to my favorite sticker artist.

On Capp St., where else?

Found in Berkeley but too awesome to ignore.

Check this: reader Mission Mistaken was just in Paris and stumbled across this museum featuring an installation of graffiti as pop art.  Nothing really shocking here, but it is another check in the column of legitimizing graffiti as an art form.

I was just in Paris and the Cartier Foundation Museum (yes, as in tank watches & diamonds) featured a comprehensive show on the history of graffiti as pop art.  But being French they couldn’t just settle for a tame treatment.  Rather, everything was game for a coating of spray paint.  The building exterior, even the basement corridors and the bathrooms.

Outside the MacD’s on 24th and Mission.

ORFN!  From jerhodes:

21st and valencia ish. that old 'new college' building.

My friend Daniella loved ORFN more than anyone.  Then she moved to New York, and now all she gets is Dick Chicken:

Ugh.

Bummer.  Don’t move to New York, people, unless you want to see a CHICKEN with a DICK for a HEAD on all your trash receptacles.  Oh, and Dick Chicken’s slutty gf, Pussy Ham.  She’s a slab of HAM with a PUSSY.  Together, they make a really trashy reverse Chicken Cordon Bleu.

New York.  So gritty.