Category Archives: paint

E-ville Wheaties ~ part I

This is another abandoned building that gets frequently used by local artists… I’ve also featured this location before, but spotted this piece last weekend as I whizzed by and knew I needed to come back to feature it. I love it.

media blitz, fox news, emeryville wheatpastes

The building is located on San Pablo Avenue, just across the Emeryville border. I drove this stretch of San Pablo probably a thousand times over the years and it never ceased to amaze me how dramatically things shifted across that city line. Hell, even the street lamps were prettier! To me, this long-standing boarded up building looks more Oakland than antiseptic Emeryville. Regardless, I love to check on it from time to time to see what folks have thrown up…

What I love about this piece is its depth, not to mention its message. I actually tried to watch Glenn Beck last week just to see what all the hullabaloo is about… all I can say is, the man is f&*#ing crazy! I had to turn it off after just 5 minutes, and find it hard to believe (and sad really) that millions of Americans have simply shut off their brains to consume this man’s rants as gospel. Thank god we have artists like this who are willing to question the status quo.

It’s a wheatpaste on top of a wheatpaste and has some killer stencil work (I think) in the tiny bomber plane…

Fox news media blitz, fox news tank wheatpaste, east bay wheatpastes

The backdrop consists of 6 large “Fox News” posters mounted to plywood and then stenciled with the plane and the repeated words “media blitz media blitz…” But on top of all that is mounted another wheatpaste… a monster war machine of a tank with the words “Fox News” emblazoned across the top. The whole thing seems to be covered in some type of plastic or acrylic material to protect it.

military tank wheatpaste, war machine wheatpaste

See below right for fragments of all the older wheatpastes on the sidewalk below… There were a couple others up nearby; I’ll feature them in my next post or two, which should be on the shorter side, as last week’s were kinda time consuming. Please check back.

San Pablo wheatpastes, Emeryville wheatpastes

Laurel Mural Walk

Here’s just one of the murals that are going to be featured in tomorrow’s First Annual Mural Art Walk in the Laurel District of Oakland…

Sophie Leininger, Jen Martin, laurel mural walk

This mural, featured on the side of the small independent Laurel Book Store, was designed and produced by Sophie Leininger and Jen Martin with assistance from Lucille Dawson, Maria Beddia, and Brenda Bertran.

The mural interestingly incorporates mixed media including photographs, newspaper clippings, and other printed materials into a colorful painted mosaic-like quilt. Here’s a small snippet…

laurel district murals, laurel mural art walk

Sponsored by the Laurel District Association, the walk begins at 11am with a chance to meet the artists involved in the creation of several new murals adorning the Laurel District of MacArthur Blvd (between 35th Ave and High St). Meet on MacArthur near Maybelle (the location of the tiny Farmer’s Market on Saturdays 10am – 2pm).

At 12pm, the group will take a guided tour of the neighborhood to check out each of the murals, and then around 1pm back to the Maybelle location where a BBQ party kicks off with live music (Mucho Axe), live painting, yummy food, and kids activities to boot. Should be a great wholesome event!

More info:
http://oaklandlocal.com/article/oaklands-laurel-district-unveils-murals-art-walk

Words by Roads ~ part IV

This is the last one, located in my new hood at the Fruitvale Ave. exit of 580…

words by roads, Seyed Alavi, word murals oakland

They say a picture can tell a thousand words, but sometimes one word can convey something that no picture can.

I think it’s interesting how powerfully these murals communicate complex ideas in such simple visual fashion. They are classic examples of conceptual art, in which the idea takes precedence over the aesthetics.

Their beauty is found in their playfulness with language… adding the (N) in this instance completely changes the meaning of an everyday word, and forces us to think about our roles and responsibilities within this society… our democracy is only as strong as citizenry is well-informed.

The others are similarly clever and thought provoking. This is the nature of much of Seyed Alavi’s artwork, which is “engaged with the poetics of language and space and their power to shape reality.”

When these pieces  were first installed in 1992 they were intended to be temporary works.  I, for one, am glad they remain all these years later.

Please see previous two posts for more in depth discussion of Alavi, the creation of these pieces, and others.

Words By Roads ~ part III

“Art is inseparable from life.” ~ Seyed Alavi

words by roads, word murals oakland, Seyed Alavi murals

Seyed Alavi, words by roads, giant word murals, east oakland murals

This is a continuation from yesterday’s post eRACISM…

KQED did a wonderful feature on Seyed Alavi in a recent edition of Spark. Not only does Alavi discuss the creation of these murals (one of his first public art projects), explaining of this one, “You need to put your ‘I’ in [this world] to make a difference,” but he also discusses several others including his Emeryville project Signs of the Times, also a collaborative effort with local students.

Anyone who’s been to Emeryville has undoubtedly seen the striking yellow and black utility boxes featuring manipulated stick figures in unusual, comical, or paradoxical positions… one figure has a jigsaw puzzle piece for a head, one juggles three bowling ball heads, one kneels in front of a giant question mark, etc. I have always loved this project but never knew who was responsible for these clever and thought-provoking images until watching this episode…

If you have the time to watch the full episode, a recent project done for the Exploratorium in San Francisco is featured at the end, and it’s simply fascinating. The piece explores the concept of liminality – “a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective, conscious state of being on the ‘threshold’ of or between two different existential planes.” (Wikipedia) Talk about deep.