Category Archives: Art Institutes & Facilities

New ArtWalk in Jingletown…

On my way to the White Elephant Sale Sunday morning, I passed a place I’d been before… I recognized the corner, and yet it looked strikingly different. What before had been a bleak stretch of blank concrete, bordered by litter and feces strewn dead grass & weeds, had now become a lovely meandering ArtWalk.

Here are a handful of the artworks that span the block of Peterson Street between Ford and Chapman, just two blocks from the Oakland Museum’s White Elephant Warehouse, and equally close to the Institute of Mosaic Arts, which I wrote about when I first launched this blog in 2009 (IMA).

jingletown murals, peterson street artwalk

Ganesh Mural by Darwin Price

mosaic institute mural, oakland tree mural, hand painted tile mural

Tree Mosaic by Kim Larson & Saundra Warren

hand crafted tiles, hand painted tiles, jingletown mosaic

Handmade tiles in Saundra Warren's studio by Jingletown residents

I’m assuming the Mosaic Institute was instrumental in the production of these mosaic pieces. Wrong.  This is why we should not assume.  Duh.  Thanks to Kim and Jill for setting me straight…

This entire project was organized by the Jingletown Arts and Biz Community, JABC, namely Jill McLennan and Cynthia Elliot, and sponsored by Pro Arts and the City of Oakland. The various artworks were created by a host of artists from the community, independent of IMA.

The tree mosaic above was created by Kim Larson and Saundra Warren (of In Saundra’s Garden…) I love the hand crafted tiles incorporated.

jingletown murals, oakland murals, alameda waterfront mural

Oakland Riviera by Bill Silveira

Peterson Street Mosaics, Jingletown Oakland, Jingletown Art Walk

Virgin of Guadalupe by Kim Larson

jingletown murals, jill mclennan

Jingletown by Jill McLennan

man's best friend, oakland murals, jingle town mural, mural of dogs

A Loving Tribute to Our Best Friends and Companions by Carlos Jahen

Seeing these recent installations got me even more excited about the class I’ll be taking at the Institute next month (Mosaic 101). I plan to blog about the specifics here… please stay tuned.
Kim Larson is also responsible for the Virgin Of Guadalupe mosaic below.

vintage car mosaic, mosaic institute, jingletown murals, oakland murals

Auto Mosaic by Jen Rubenstein

Below you can see a hint of what this stretch used to look like… the photo features Lee Krasnow of Pacific Puzzle Works – I shot him in the summer of 2009 for a story in Oakland Magazine.  His workshop is located just across the street. You can see the wall was nearly completely blank, and we both had to be on guard to avoid the numerous piles of poo.

Now the adjacent strip incorporates a waving walking path through tidy mulched landscape and a gorgeous custom laser-cut iron sign requests that visitors kindly pick up after their pets.  I didn’t see one poop!Peterson Street Oakland, Lee Krasnow, Pacific Puzzle Works

ps – The White Elephant Sale was a huge success… volunteers said Saturday was their busiest day, EVER.  (Glad I went Sunday!) I bought 4 sweaters, 1 small bookcase, and a birdhouse that looks like someone’s abandoned woodshop project. I can’t wait to paint it and hang it in my yard…

pps – Friday Night’s Art Murmur was great and I’ll have more on this in the coming days…

ppss – Here’s one last mosaic that you see as you turn the corner onto Ford.  This one is much older as I shot it back in 2009 (but never posted it).

mosaic institute oakland, jingletown mosaic murals

KALX ~ “the greatest radio station in the world”

Ok, so that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s the tongue-in-cheek claim of one of their on-air pre-recorded DJ messages, and it always makes me smile.  Yes, this institution is based in Berkeley.  But their airwaves stream across Oakland and the greater Bay Area, and it’s one of the things I love most about living here.

The station was started nearly 50 years ago in 1962, broadcasting through a cigar-box mixing board (literally made out of a cigar box) hard-wired to the UC Berkeley dormitories. They played classical music for 4 hours a day .  Just classical music.

They’ve come a long way since then, broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with an incredibly diverse set of programming, not to mention their amazing roster of DJ’s. You can read The Full and Unabridged History of KALX if you want all the gorey details, including how  President Ronald Reagan inspired the station’s complete embrace of punk rock in the 80’s.  F&*k yeah!

There’s a great quote from 1986 by then General Manager Bill Davis: “What KALX stands for, more than anything else, is freedom. KALX doesn’t have a true format. KALX has no predetermined playlists. In general, KALX’s policies are designed to give programmers, reporters, producers, and sports announcers maximum flexibility, responsibility, and freedom. And that gives the listener the opportunity to hear things on the radio at 90.7 that he or she would never hear anywhere else on the dial. If that freedom is important, call 642-5259 to keep KALX independent.”

It’s still true today.  They play everything.  Ambient, disco, funk, hip-hop, punk rock, indie pop, country, bluegrass, classical, the list goes on… I can’t tell you how much amazing music I’ve discovered listening to KALX over the years.  I always keep pen & paper handy so I can jot down who I’ve heard when the DJ comes on air and announces their playlist.  Or even better, now you can go straight to the website and see the entire playlist for the last 24 hours.  Thank you KALX!

So please, support your local independent radio station.  You love freedom, don’t you? KALX is holding it’s annual Fall Fundraiser right now!  It’s one week only and we’re already mid-way there… drive ends this Sunday, October 31st.

They’ve got all kinds of schwag for your hard-earned cash:  bumper stickers, t-shirts, sticky notes, etc.  But they’ve got great packages too where they’re giving away limited edition cd packages, concert tickets, and more.  And one of my favorite donation options is to buy an hour of guest DJ time.  I did this two years ago… for 100 bucks (I was feeling flush then!) I purchased the right to join Alisa, Queen of the Cowbell, in KALX’s underground lair for an hour of spinning tracks of my own choosing, and even speaking on air.  It was awesome!

So please… take the next few days to tune into KALX… 90.7 on your FM dial.  Or you can find them on the internet (info here), and through iTunes (go to Radio->College/University->KALX). And call them up with your donations…

Support Freedom on the airwaves!

note: image above found on Facebook, no info on artist.  sorry.

Get your Craft on at the Creative Reuse Depot!

Ok kids… only six days to Halloween!!

How are the festivities coming along?  Are  you putting the finishing touches on your costume?  Or just scrambling to figure out what the heck you’re going to be?  Whichever, you may want to take a little trip down to the East Bay Depot for Creative Use for some inspiration…

east bay creative reuse, cheap art supplies oakland, cheap art supplies temescal

Now located in Temescal (previously in Berkeley), the mission of this wonderful organization, started more than 30 years ago by two Oakland teachers, is three-fold:

  1. divert waste from the waste stream through creative recycling and reuse
  2. provide low cost materials and supplies for local art, education, and social services
  3. increase awareness of the green benefits of reusing materials

How can you not love that? I’ve been a frequent visitor of this venue for years, at both their current and previous locations.  I donated boxes of old CDs and CD cases and bags and bags of old National Geographic and Photo District News magazines. I was thrilled to take these items somewhere where I knew they’d be put to good use… perhaps even transformed into masterful works of art.  Who knows?

recycled goods at East Bay Depot, turning waste into art

recycled materials, diverting waste from waste stream

On the other side, I’ve purchased everything from goods for my Burningman art project, to rolls of industrial margarine foil to use as goofy wrapping paper. It’s kind of what’s so cool about this place… you never know what you are going to find. And there is definitely some weird stuff to be found.

Where else can you find bins of old doll heads? Or boxes of scientific beakers? Of course there’s the more mainstream stuff too… teachers’ educational materials, fabrics and sewing supplies, arts and craft materials, and much much more, all at prices that can’t be beat.

knitting supplies, sewing supplies, fabric supplies

teacher resource center, teacher resource zone, green educators

They also keep busy doing good works in the community. In addition to diverting approximately 400 tons of waste from our landfills each year, they also provide community aid locally, nationally, and even internationally.  For example, right now they are sponsoring a collection drive called “Parkas for Pakistan” to support the 20 million flood victims in Pakistan who are now homeless.

Items most urgently need are winter coats, blankets & comforters, sleeping bags, tents, tarps, etc.  I know I’ve got a few old coats I can get rid of.  How about you? Drive runs through Friday, November 19th. Check link above for drop-off directions.

Whether you’re looking for creative supplies for your kids, your students, or yourself, or just wondering what to do with that pile of junk that’s been sitting in your garage for 3 years or more, the East Bay Depot for Creative Use is a great place to go.

East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. daily, 4695 Telegraph Ave., (510) 547-6470

stopwaste.org, stop waste, reduce waste stream

Random Ramblings…

I’ve been thinking about this awhile now… I’m looking for some guest bloggers. Anyone out there got a passion for Oakland, a camera, and some ideas to share?

I’m not exactly sure how it will work, but I’m open to suggestions… Could be once a week, once a month, or maybe a whole week at some point to give me a little break. The blog is simply a personal project right now and doesn’t have any advertising on it to generate revenue, which sadly means I can’t pay you. It would strictly be a volunteer effort… a labor of love.

Anyone? Please send in comments if interested…

In other news, and I’ll admit this is completely un-art-related, it’s Pickle & Pepper’s birthday! Here’s a shot of them resting up now, so they can party like crazy later. Just thought I’d share…

And last, but certainly not least, here are some mostly-art-related events coming up that you’ll definitely want to check out…

  • 4/23 Friday – Oakland Underground Film Festival kicks off (98 Broadway, Jack London Square)
    This festival will be running through August so do check their site for schedule details.  This Friday features Local Talent Short Films and I’m particularly interested in A Day Late in Oakland by Zachary Stauffer about the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey and the history of the Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland.
  • 4/24 Saturday – Oakland Organic Plant Sale at California Hotel (35th St. @ Chestnut, West Oakland)
    This event is sponsored by People’s Grocery and related organization Ferment Change. Plants from local West Oakland organic farms (People’s Grocery and City Slickers) will be sold to raise money to hire low-income residents from the hotel to work in the newly established garden and greenhouse at the hotel.  Live music too.
  • 5/1-2 Saturday/Sunday – Oakland Museum Re-opening Weekend Celebration (Oak @ 10th St., downtown) Well it’s been a long wait, but next weekend proves to be an exciting celebration of the newly renovated Oakland Museum.  The museum will be open for 31 hours straight and admission is FREE for the entire weekend.  Check out their site for all the groovy events planned… it’s gonna be a great party!