Balmy Alley: on the Red Road

As I turn onto Balmy Alley from 24th Street the dulcet tones of Violeta Para singing "Gracias a la vida" drift from a backyard. Her voice transports me back more than thirty years to a time of great solidarity between the artists of the San Francisco Bay Area and Latin America. In those years, the Nicaraguan Cultural Center was located in a low building at this entrance to the alley (Deep blue wall on left). I stop on my way down the alley to talk with Andrés. Sculptor, painter, bicycle and car repair man extraordinaire, he is always so busy in front of his garage that I chose to paint him twice into this first picture.

Balmy Alley #1

Further along, I stop in front of the first of twenty-three murals that were painted in 1984 to protest US intervention in Latin America, and to welcome the refugees from these conflicts who were pouring into the Mission. This mural by Miranda Bergman and O'Brien Thiele illustrates the conflict in El Salvador and the the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua. It is the only one of those twenty-three murals that has survived into the present.

Balmy Alley # 3: Miranda Bergman and O'Brien Thiele restore their mural.

Miranda and Brian are restoring it. I've spent several  enjoyable afternoons painting across from them as they begin by stabilizing the old wooden surface. We lament the fact that, even though the national solidarity movement in the eighties did succeed in blunting US aggression in Central America, our foreign policy today is even worse. Indeed,  some of the same people who instituted the death squads in El Salvador were enlisted to establish "the Salvador option" in Iraq.

Miranda and O'Brien are seeking funding for this major restoration. I recommend that you go to indiegogo and make a contribution, no matter how small, to this extremely worthwhile project.

Balmy Alley # 4

Perhaps one of the reasons this mural survived all the others from that period is that it is painted on two massive sliding doors of a hundred year old stable. In the days when horses were the principal form of transportation, Balmy Alley was  lined with stables. It is said that  the alley was named after a race horse called Balmy. The alley opens out onto Garfield Park where they used to hold the races.

Further  along, on the right hand side, is a recent mural that deals directly with the current issue of gentrification. Its gritty, darkly humorous style is reminiscent of underground comics.

I find it ironic that this mural  is almost directly across from a nine unit apartment building that is evicting its approximately sixty tenants under the Ellis Act. A foreign investor has the bought the building and plans to convert it to condominiums. The tenants, many three generation families who have lived under rent  control in this building for thirty years, were given three months notice.

Balmy Alley # 2: Three months notice for around sixty tenants.

Three bright youngsters lament the fact that they will have to forgo scholarships to private schools in the city if their family has to move to the East Bay to find affordable housing. Another gentleman tells me that his wife and daughter cry each night at the thought of leaving their apartment and their jobs in the Mission.

Painting the Mission District

I was inspired to start a series of paintings of the Mission District during the memorial for Spain Rodriquez at the Brava Theater, when his wife, Susan Stern, showed her film of his work which included many cartoons set in the Mission.I don't know why it took this event to get me started. We live only 5 blocks from 24th St and, over the years, our family has participated in many cultural events in the Mission.  I exhibited  paintings created on two trips to Nicaragua at the Casa de Cultura Nicaraguense in 1986. The cultural center was on the corner of 24th and Balmy Alley. After my exhibition,  I painted several pictures of the alley, and one or two nearby, but I never explored the Mission extensively. This time,  I sketched around the Mission District for several days before I settled on 24th and Alabama as my starting point for a an major series.

Lft: La Victoria Bakery and St Peter's Church, Rt. Dominquez Bakery

Looking south down Alabama the tower of St Peter's rises against the slopes of Bernal Hill. Three of the four corners of the intersection are anchored by businesses with a long history in the Mission. I ate my first Mexican meal in San Francisco at La Victoria Bakery in 1965.  Across Alabama Street is the Dominquez Bakery.

As I write this, I've just finished a group portrait which includes a fifth generation member of the Dominquez Bakery family: four year old ' Little ConsĂ¼elo' with his parents. They live above Taqueria El Farolito  which occupies the third corner.

All three businesses reflect a taste for bright colors. The Dominquez family commissioned a lovely series of murals that cover the walls of both their bakery and El Farolito across the street.  Spain Rodriguez is credited with creating the first mural in the Mission in 1971. He sure started something!

Taqueria El Farolito

I planned to paint a couple of pictures at this intersection but I kept discovering new vantage points. To date I've finished nine paintings. Despite gentrification which is displacing many of the Latino residents, this intersection retains a strong Latin American flavor. There is a welcoming and tolerant spirit on the street, it reminds me of painting in Mexico and Nicaragua. Some of the locals have posed for small street portraits. I'll use these portraits to paint them into a large, studio painting  (around 40" X 120") of this intersection. I am giving the little portraits to my models as a 'thank you' for posing.

Mission.7Studies.Sm

I've had some  great conversations here. Perhaps the most extraordinary was a chance encounter with Richard Montoya ( "Culture Clash" , "American Night" and "The River").

Richard enjoyed my paintings so much that he included me in a scene of a movie he's making in the Mission titled "The Other Barrio". I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my 10 seconds of fame doesn't end up on the cutting-room floor!

El Chico Produce Market # 4

Gentrification: Should Money Trump Community? Neighborhoods change, in the fifties and early sixties the Mission was a largely Irish and Italian neighborhood. As these residents moved elsewhere, Mexicans replaced them. They were followed in the Seventies by refugees from America's interventionist policies in Latin America. Argentinians, Chileans, Nicaraguans and Salvadorans came in especially large numbers until the Mission became a hub of Latin American culture and activism. Centers like Galeria de la Raza, and the Mission Cultural Center blossomed. Low riders cruised Mission Street while Carnaval and Day of the Dead became two of San Francisco's most vibrant celebrations.

Beginning in the mid Nineties a new wave entered the Mission. This was not immigrants fleeing poverty and war, but affluent dot-comers lured by the neighborhood's good weather and proximity to Highway 101. Their wealth began to drive up property values and rents. Today only 37% of the Mission is Latino. Much of this remaining population purchased their homes years ago or have rent control.

Many Latinos I met on the street said they were raised here and that they return regularly to visit friends and relatives and to hang out.  "I'd like to live here, but I can't afford the high rents." was a common refrain.

Musician, and band leader Camilo Landau who works at AcciĂ³n Latina, next door to El Farolito observes," People talk about stopping gentrification, but we should have started ten years ago. It's already happened. I was raised around here but I live in Oakland, because I can't afford to live here anymore." He adds that the Merchants Association and the 24th Street Cultural Corridor Committee are organizing to protect the community that remains.

 I am posting all these paintings, as I finish them, to my Gallery under the title  'In the Mission'.

About the Ongoing Exhibition at Buon Gusto Gallery in San Francisco

"Celebrating 2013 the Year of Italian Culture - Paintings Created on Location in Italy"June 7 - June 29, Buon Gusto Gallery, 535 Green Street, San Francisco , 415.531.2911

Hours:  5 - 8 pm Thurs - Sat (closed June 15)   I will be present in the gallery during these hours, and I look forward to talking with you about these paintings and my experiences in Italy.

Naples from Castello San Elmo, 16" x 23", oil/canvas, 2012

About the Show: I produced these works on a two and one half month journey through Italy last summer. In 1967 and '68 I worked as Head of Outdoor Restoration for the Uffizi Gallery helping to clean up after the disastrous flood of '66. So this extensive trip, 45 years later, was a chance to reflect on the changes that have shaken the Italian peninsula during this period.

The Book: I kept a diary, in Italian, which I corrected with the help of my professor at City College of San Francisco, Carol Cadoppi. I have published the diary in English and Italian along with all my oils and watercolors. It is available for sale at the gallery, but may also be purchased through 'Lulu'.

Questa era bella

Other Works:

Also included in this show are a few larger works based on paintings created on earlier trips to Italy. Such as this painting of Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre:

Cinque Terre through my Window.

The Video: Enjoy a twenty minute video of our journey. It is best viewed at your leisure, full screen with a glass of wine!