Yay, picture share time!

I present below, this cluster of pics from a personal favorite spot in San Francisco’s Mission District. This location is full of color, creativity, messages, diversity, brilliance, amazement. Here, appreciate fine urban and graffiti art; all open to the public on the walls of doors, fences, buildings. All, mostly done by local artists.

This is Clarion Alley. It’s all free, just find the alley and take a stroll (during the day is brighter, safer).

The work of Clarion Alley is done by various artists with full permission by the city and the adjacent property owners. This collaboration is part to the work of CAMP (Clarion Alley Mural Project). Here, is a little more from the the CAMP representative Web page, www.meganwilson.com:

“Clarion Alley Mural Project has been a grass roots project from beginning to future, organized by a handful of individuals who have volunteered thousands of hours, and with the added generosity of many, many community members who’ve committed their time and energy to CAMP over the past 20 years. Its possible that such a project could only be done by a small group of committed friends. Big institutions with paid staffs, enviable office facilities, and large materials budgets also have institutional strictures, competing curatorial agendas, levels of prestige to be maintained, ponderous decision-making processes, star power and quota considerations in the selection of artists and bottom line revenue projections to be taken into account. Could a project based on the affinities of artists, characterized by a rejection of western fine art hierarchies, with no enhancement of the market value of stored artworks, ever make its way through that gamut?

In a city that is rapidly changing to cater to the one-percent at every level, CAMP is one of the last remaining truly punk venues in San Francisco.”

I visit San Francisco often, at least twice a year over the last ten years. I come back to Clarion Alley when time allows. Some of the art stays unchanged (perhaps touched up or repaired), while other art is fresh and new painted over the old. This presentation is very refreshing, and retains hope for the ongoing troubles of San Francisco’s local art community (rising rents, gentrification, the tech industry invasion).

Below, is my collection of images over the past few years visiting Clarion Alley. Pics are from various cameras, smartphones on hand. Enjoy, appreciate, make this place a must-see for your time in San Francisco.

For more on Clarion Alley, CAMP, and the artists involved with more pictures past and present – click here, and here, and here.