— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Perhaps capturing the essence of every blue-haired psychonaut descending upon Golden Gate Park this weekend wasn’t what Zoltron had in mind when he pasted these two monsters outside 18th and Mission. But, really, it’s the perfect Outside Lands portrait. Just look at those eyes:
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
I guess Ron McDonald is getting worried that recent foodrification of Valencia Street might upset the tradition Irish/Latino working class nature of the Mission District, because he's perched up on a building on 18th and Valencia, lunging molotovs at people even considering eating at Farina Pizza. And it's driving him positively fucking crazy… just look at that mug:
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
For the denizens of Dolores Park, Zoltron's ever-changing plywood wall beside Bi-Rite Creamery is nothing new. It started out as a strung-out tribute to Ronald McDonald's 48-year-long slaughter campaign, but it was quickly vandalized by hipsters criticizing hipster street art. The greater neighborhood community responded by vandalizing the vandalism and Mother Earth, not knowing how to handle the puzzling situation, spun off its axis and sent earthquakes to D.C. and summer rainstorms to California.
Zoltron explains how it all started:
For the hell of it, i was drawing a famous clown named Ronald (as a junky villain derelict,) but somewhere along the way, I saw a glint of compassion in his eyes. So the drawing ended up showing Ron suddenly caught in an existential crisis of sorts… Like he just realized that he was solely responsible for the death of hundreds of millions of cows. Maybe he suddenly understood that he was fueling massive rainforest destruction and undeniably accountable for child obesity and onset adolescent diabetes.
So i drew him, printed him out, mixed up some pigment and painted on some paper. Then I pasted him up in a foodie district in the mission. The following photographs [GIFed above] were taken over the next 2 weeks.
The chaotic mixture of paper, wheatpaste, spraypaint, finger paint, drug addiction, and disdain for thousand calorie hamburgers and hipsters has long since been replaced, but it will be back on display beginning Friday when Bi-Rite's non-profit, 18 Reasons, opens the doors to their new 18th Street space. Free tickets to the opening are still available, and if you can't make the opening, Zoltron has some additional shots and analysis on his blog.
(Thanks for the heads up, Bruce!)
— By Ed Stevenson |
As haggard and desperate as he looks, Ron still doesn't live up to his namesake. And though he may not have ordered the invasion of Grenada or armed the Contras, he's served up enough devastation to last a lifetime.
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Remember how sad we all were when some dumb marketing douches pasted over all of Zoltron's stuff on a “condoned” art wall on Valencia (between 16th and 17th)? Well:
Doesn't this look so much better than Robin Hood ads? No? Well, fuck you. Since street artists have been given the go ahead to make this wall an orgy of awesome, go forth and draw funny faces on Russell Crowe.
(pic via Neon Monster)
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Noticed a metric fuckton of Zoltron wheatpaste on a Valencia near 16th. Looks cool. Tragically, it was night, I was kinda drunk and only had an iPhone, so the shitty pics below are what you get. Sorryboutit.
(real photo (above) lifted from Zoltron's internet homepage)
