Mark Simmons stands on a lawn at Mountain Lake Park, pen in hand, eyes fixed on a towering eucalyptus tree. Within minutes, the 55-year-old artist has captured not just the tree’s shape but its character – the way its crown spreads to claim sunlight, the texture of its bark, the shadows it casts. This is how Simmons, a Richmond District resident of 25 years, sees the world.
Larry Letofsky has been making pottery in his Outer Sunset garage for 30 years. At first, his house, where he has lived since 1974, appears to be like any other. A closer look, however, reveals an artist’s sanctuary, accompanied by a mural painted on the front porch of a pair of hands shaping a piece of clay.
Westside artist Marc Hayashi has been a storyteller all his life. He was a founding member of the Asian American Theater Company, a pioneering local theater performance company. He went on to star in the cult classic film “Chan is Missing” (1982) set in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and he had roles in various other Hollywood films including “The Karate Kid Part II” (1986).
Manga has a rich past, an impactful present and a transformative future. The Fine Arts Museums of San Franciso recognize the current zeitgeist by presenting the “Art of Manga,” the largest manga exhibition ever staged in North America.
Manga has a rich past, a phenomenal present and perhaps, a transformative future. The Fine Arts Museums of San Franciso recognize the current zeitgeist by presenting the “Art of Manga,” the largest manga exhibition ever staged in North America.
Artist Rose B. Simpson is more than a little preoccupied with vessels. She views pottery, cars, her figurative sculptures, the womb and clay – a material she most often uses in her creations – as vessels.
“I think in clay. Clay was the earth that grew our food, was the house we lived in, was the pottery we ate out of and prayed with,” Simpson told a de Young Museum audience at a very personal lecture she delivered earlier this year. “My relationship to clay is ancestral and it has a deep genetic memory. It’s like a family member for us.”
As a child growing up in the Richmond District, Walden Wong spent his days biking around the neighborhood and meeting kids at the Cabrillo Playground on 38th Avenue for baseball and football games.
If you spend time around Golden Gate Park’s Conservatory of Flowers on sunny weekends, there is a good chance you might have met Sunset resident Sage Kitamorn. If his name does not ring a bell, you might identify him as the man in a crocheted bear hat handing out his puzzle sheets and “Cozy Cubs Puzzle Club” branded pens.
Poet and visual artist Andrew Hoyem is no stranger to artistic communities in San Francisco.
Two pieces of art at the Sunset Dunes on the Upper Great Highway were vandalized early June 14, according to The Friends of Sunset Dunes.
Calling someone an “icon” is often an overused sentiment. However, when it comes to the late multi-hyphenate Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), the moniker is appropriate, especially in San Francisco, where he thrived artistically and socially since his arrival in 1951.
Last month, author Eddie Ahn appeared before a standing-room-only audience at the Richmond Branch of the San Francisco Public Library to discuss his new book, “Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice.”
Chances are high that Richmond residents have seen the fruits of Harry Nordlinger’s labor. The Outer Richmond-based artist has worked as the Balboa Theater’s sole film projectionist since 2022, and he draws many of the flyers and posters for its screenings. Recently, he produced a poster promoting the theater’s upcoming 16-millimeter film screening of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” scheduled for June 3 and 4.
The workday is over and a painting crew is dismantling scaffolding in front of a multi-unit stucco building at 43rd Avenue and Judah Street. They might not notice a collection of seven modern, miminalist sculptures sprinkled along the sidewalk across the street. The public art project by Jesse Schlesinger titled, “Pacific Transit,” includes three more pieces six blocks closer to the ocean, at the N-Judah streetcar turnaround.
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 