Art - The Canvas

Beautiful Maps of SF and More Available Tomorrow at ARTCRANK

Tomorrow night (7pm at 111 Minna) is ARTCRANK, the yearly bike-themed poster and art show that helps raise some cash for the Bike Coalition and local artists.  And just like the past two editions of ARTCRANK, this year's show promises tons of cheap, local posters, excessive beer consumption (courtesy of Widmer), and a custom bag raffle from Chrome.  Plus, you can score yourself a print of Meghan Newell's dazzling map of San Francisco—the first map I've seen to acknowledge Noe Valley's growing population of Victorian-era strollers and to identify Fisherman's Wharf as “Los Touristas.”

And just in case you're not sure of the official details, here's the event poster:

Lil Tuffy Debutes the Outside Lands 2011 Poster

Everyone's favorite Mission poster maker and Pop's bacon and Budweiser-monger, Lil Tuffy, is now showing off this year's official Outside Lands poster.  And what a poster it is, highlighting the things that make San Francisco so great: Sutro Tower, baseball, food, booze, music, sea lions, Ray-Bans, and genital crabs.

No word how much it costs, but he'll be slangin' his wares on the Polo Fields during the festival.

[Link]

Market Street to be Decorated With Cycling Posters

Starting in August, Market Street's Muni shelthers will be home to Ian Huebert's series The Golden Spoke.  According to some press release put out by the SF Arts Commission, which has sponsored similar poster projects in the past, “Ian Huebert’s posters capture the essence of what it feels like to experience this beautiful city from atop a bicycle, from the elements like the fog and rain to the physical challenges such as the hills and navigating through rush hour traffic.”

While I cannot relate to having to haul an 8-foot-tall artichoke around the city on a cargo bike, the 1950's vibe of the posters is choice.

Moving to New York Will Bring Wealth, Fame, and That Glamorous Metropolitan Life You've Always Dreamt Of

SFMOMA's Open Space blog recently posted up one of the better “grass-is-always-greener” looks at the NYC vs. SF debate from an artist's perspective:

So anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, how New York is so much better than San Francisco. I mean, that’s what I kept hearing when I was drinking beer at the Uptown on 17th Street or at Specs in
North Beach. Or when I was having my morning coffee at café Trieste. All I’d hear was New York this, New York that. It’s where all the REAL artists go. If you listen to what a lot of people say you might
just believe all you need to do to get rich and famous is just pack your bags and move out here.

After all, that’s what Wayne Thiebaud did in 1961. After having no luck showing in San Francisco while he was teaching at UC Davis, he decided to drive across the country with his friend Mel Ramos. They had all their canvases rolled up in the back seat and just took them from dealer to dealer until Alan Stone gave him a solo show. Simple. Thiebaud shot to fame as a pop artist and now his paintings are worth millions. So if he could do it, why not you? Then there’s Kehinde Wiley and Aaron Young – both of whom went to the San Francisco Art Institute just a few years ago, got graduate degrees at Yale and then moved to New York and got rich and famous. So why not you?

Yes, why not me? It all sounded so compelling when I was living a block from the Transamerica Pyramid building in Chinatown. The success stories were told over and over like a mantra but the reality is that artists moving to New York are like wannabe actors moving to Hollywood – their are only so many roles and far too many actors. And out of the actors who actually have a shot – there are very, very few really gifted ones. It’s the same with art. In Hollywood there are thousands of “actors” working as waiters and in New York there are thousands of “artists” working as art handlers or dishwashers. Seriously.

Read on.

San Francisco Landmarks Recreated with Soup Cans

CANstruction is the event; a yearly fundraiser for the SF Food Bank in which various SF landmarks are recreated out of donated cans of food.  The Transamerica Pyramid, Alcatraz, Sutro, MOMA, and Brian Wilson's beard all received the Campbell's treatment, while, surprisingly, San Francisco uber-landmarks the Golden Gate Bridge and New Mission Theater were left out.

Sadly, this year's exhibition has passed with very little press or fanfare, but pictures of these creations are starting to make their way online for anyone wishing to gawk at what they missed.

[These photos and more via The Instructables Blog] (Thanks Jenny!)

What Happens When the Burning Man Crowd Goes to a Lake For the Weekend?

I know we all love to hate Burning Man, but between the sun, water, DIY waterslides, shark boats, romantic dinners on the lake, swing sets, and epic sunsets, it looks like Camp Tipsy is the place to be next summer.

[Check out all the photos by Chicken John]

Living in SF Means You Have a Crush on the Girl at Tartine and Want to Move to The Sunset

Two of our favorite internet people, Broke-Ass Stuart and Wendy MacNaughton, have teamed up over at The Bold Italic to bring us a bang up piece on what Living in SF Means:

Living in San Francisco means continually dealing with impermanence.

It means having places you love close up forever. It means having friends get married and move to Oakland. Friends who leave to join the Peace Corps. Friends who go to rehab. Friends who lose their minds. Friends who move back to wherever the fuck they’re from. Friends who OD and never move again. It means dreading the inevitable earthquake that will ultimately wash this city into the sea.

Read the whole thing to find out about our professional lives, experience with noisy neighbors, getting sunburns on our collective cankles, and why we love reading essays like this.

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