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I had just gotten of the plane and collected my luggage at SFO. It was a bright September afternoon in San Francisco. I lit up a cigarette outside the terminal in my usual spot and reflected on my last three weeks in Hong Kong. I had just taken a trip the other side of the planet, met loads of new people, had many new wonderful experiences and spent the majority of my trip putting up work throughout Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. I was experiencing a sort of rush. Unlike most people who touch down in San Francisco, my thoughts were ‘Fuck, I need to get the hell outta here…again’. I told myself that as soon as I get back to my sweet flat in SF’s classy upscale Tenderloin District, I’m going to hop online and start researching a new city in a new country to get up in. It was mid September, I was hoping to depart SFO again in December.

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In 2013 PG&E declared their utility poles on Oakland “gnome-man’s land.

There was a time we might have assumed everyone knows about gnomes, the diminutive little storybook character who over time spun its’ way into countless peoples hearts and minds through boundless storytellers. Gnomes are a West Civilization character who have been around since the 16th century typically living underground. Their name appears to be derived from a Latin term that means earth-dweller. In various European countries they have their own special names: Nisse, Nains, Tontti, Gnom, Dudje,and Mano. They typically are small folk who wear caps. The men usually sport beards.

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The Lords 86 known as the Legends of Rare Design got together in mid January and painted one entire side of Erie Alley at Folsom in San Francisco with a theme they called The Frosty Lords. Two other artists joined them in the production:Skinner and Griffin One CBS. There are 14 pieces in all that are unified with snow and penguins. At the bottom are two photos of portions of the wall to give a sense of the size and scope.

This is the most snow we will see in San Francisco. Snow is a rare like the Lords.

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42 degrees is a new arts agency based in San Francisco. It is the culmination of a continuum of conversations between Ricardo Richey (APEX) and Lani Rovzar regarding the changing cultural landscape of San Francisco. Ricardo Richey is a local artist who has become increasingly in demand by many of the new start-ups located in the SF Bay Area. His clients have often asked for his advice on the idiosyncrasies of the art world in the Bay Area, a topic many of them lack in expertise. Long-time SF arts administrator, Lani Rovzar has been concerned about the flight of many local artists due to the raising cost of living. There seemed to be a disconnection between the opportunities for San Francisco based artists and the desire to have local art. They saw a need to bridge the gap and formed 42 degrees to bring local businesses, the city, and private collectors to the same table as local artists, enabling them to more easily make investments into our arts culture and make it more readily accessible to the greater community at large.

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During 2014, Street Art SF photographed over 1600 pieces of art on the streets of San Francisco and Oakland. They ranged from small stickers and stencils to graffiti characters and large murals and pieces. Almost all of the art shown was done in 2014. With major contributions from Graff Hunter, Larry Jones and Nite Owl we were able to cover Oakland.

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Following is a selection of murals that were painted during 2014 in San Francisco and Oakland by local and visiting artists.
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In 2014 we saw reduced activity by some of the character artists from the prior year with increased activity from new ones.

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We took several hundred photos of new graffiti pieces in 2014 by local and visiting crews and crew members. This is a sample of some walls that were painted by crews who got together for a few days. Some are by duos who frequently get up together. Others are pieces that were popular when originally posted.
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Following is a sample of some graffiti stickers we found slapped this year in San Francisco and Oakland. Several artists were “new” for us but known on the street. Some of those artists: Bent, Binx, Diesto ,Euruca, Gappy, Just One, Kapala, Not Famous, Ra Da Sun, Randal Roberts, RX Skulls,Skam, Stainer,Temple,Toxi, Voxx and Who Cares. (more…)

Following is a sampling of the 104 wheat paste we posted in 2014. Some posts contained several wheat paste photos. All were pasted up in San Francisco and Oakland in 2014. They are by local and visiting artists. Wheat Paste is very ephemeral. Since it is paper few made it past the rainy season, some were pasted over and others have been removed. Only several can still be found. (more…)

During 2014 there were several large scale murals painted in Oakland and San Francisco. These were some of the ones we captured. (more…)

Viewers have contacted us wanting to know where they can purchase art and other products by some of the artists they see on the street. In response we compiled this random sampling of artists and businesses with websites. In the process, we noticed the Big Cartel is a popular shop platform for artists. You can find other artists on that site who are not on this list.

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