Swoon's giant wheatpaste memorializing hundreds of murdered Mexican women from Juárez on the corner of 24th and Hampshire has been a favorite of ours for the last three and a half years, and after surviving years of bipolar San Francisco weather, smeared feces, and the yellow 2 a.m. byproduct of $1 beers at Pop's, someone said “fuck it” and painted over the damn thing.

Here's what Mission Local had to say about the work way back in 2008:

The piece is unsigned, but [Precita Eye's Patricia Rose] determined from Internet research that it was probably the work of a 30-year-old Brooklyn street artist who goes by the alias Swoon.  The artist showed an almost identical piece last spring at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Though the Hampshire Street version is untitled, the museum work was called “Portrait of Silvia Elena,” and was a memorial to a teenage victim killed in a wave of unsolved murders of women in Juarez, the Mexican border town.  The exhibit’s materials explained that the young woman, Silvia Elena Rivera Morales, is portrayed in her quinceañera dress and crown.  Still another version of the installation was on display at the Honey Space gallery in Manhattan last summer.
[…]
“She told me she wanted it to be there for long,” [Kassa, convenience store owner at the corner of 24th and Hampshire] said.  He said the artist and her friend told him they were going to apply a final coating to protect it but never returned again.

Troubled by the thought that impending rainy season could destroy the piece, Kassa is considering taking action.

Precita Eyes sells a gallon of Sheercoat for $68 that can be applied in four coats to protect murals.  He is game to buy it if he can find someone to help him shoulder the cost.

Here it is, one last time:

[Second photo by Scott Cox]

Over the last week some ambitious, albeit confusing, bottle cap art popped up on a garage door on Bryant St between 24th and 25th.  It's definitely a Civil War era portrait, but as to who it is and why, I'm not so sure.  The consensus amongst local HIstory Channel nerdz is that it's an image of Confederate General 'Stonewall' Jackson.  My brain is apparently incapable of understanding why anyone in San Francisco, and the Mission for that matter, would want to tout a giant image of the man who lead the Confederacy to victory in the Battle of Bull Run (parts 1 and 2).  

Maybe they used beer bottle caps as some sort of commentary on him as a raging alcoholic? After drudging up some quotes from Stonewall himself, it seems like the guy definitely had some problems with the bottle in his life:

I like liquor — its taste and its effects — and that is just the reason why I never drink it.

…

I am more afraid of King Alcohol than of all the bullets of the enemy.

Whatever. It's street art, it's there to be rad until someone inevitably defaces it. Maybe they'll throw up an Abe Lincoln next.

UPDATE: Uptown reader 'Steve', who is ten million times smarter than all Uptown authors and their so called 'history buff' friends combined, has correctly identified this image as Emperor Norton, aka the man who built the Bay Bridge, aka 19th century proto-Frank Chu.

Ritual took PARK(ing) Day to the next level for 2011, waking up at 3am to erect a new barn exterior and bring in a sheep petting zoo.  Sadly, the hay and straw parklet that makes the entire block of Valencia smell like a pumpkin patch and Ritual's rad new exterior is going to be ripped down in a few hours, so bust over there and get your fill before it's gone.

The Tender has the scoop on Goofy's downfall.