The assignment was simple – create a cultural map of a neighborhood in San Francisco. When we were presented with our options a couple of weeks ago, I quickly claimed Valencia Street. After exploring the city for a while, I knew that I needed to produce something that celebrated the rich culture of the Mission.
Valencia Street is beautiful too. Every alley, either towards Mission or Guerrero, is covered from sidewalk to sky in paint, posters and chalk. The murals on each wall tell stories of ethnicity and creativity. The strip is also packed with restaurants, book stores, vintage shops and galleries. It is a proud neighborhood, but one that is slowly dying.
There are stretches within every block of defunct storefronts and empty lots. Bulldozers and dump trucks now litter the streets, sitting in metered spots and aiding the hustling construction workers in bright orange vests. The gentrification process has a firm grip on these newly acquired estates and the tension is mounting.
These observations helped a great deal in deciding what story to tell. I needed to bring Valencia Street to life in an authentic and engaging way, but still maintain the functionality of a map. I also wanted to create a piece that I would be proud to hang on my wall. So I got started…
It took some time, and lots of revisions, but I’m happy with the final product. Here are some of the rounds I went through:
I found the wood panel while going through and old pile of wood in a back alley off of Valencia. Once I had the actual size of my canvas I could then look for different material to fill it out. I bought a spanish-english dictionary from a thrift store and used matte medium to secure it to the wood panel. I wanted pages from a book to demonstrate the strong presence of literature in the area, specifically thanks to 826 Valencia, but I also thought the translations offered a nice take on the mixture of cultures that inhabit the blocks where my map focuses.
Once everything dried, I threw down a bunch of the photos I took to see if I had a natural fit. Nothing worked, so I scrapped the idea and decided to focus on the stores that made up each block. I wanted to offer a nice linear look, very map-like, but slightly jagged since I often found myself bouncing back and forth across the street to look around (the red artist tape indicates each block, 16-22). First I wrote each store name in pencil to gauge the spacing. I used pen after that to give the map some depth. I used sharpie for the last layer so each store name would be big a bold.
I stole the cut-out on the bottom right from a poster I saw hanging in a deli. I loved the colors and thought it would be a nice addition. Originally I thought it worked well to symbolize the poster art stuck to the doors of each business, but the more I thought about it, the more the woman became this iconic figure of gentrification (blinded by her broom and disinfectant, on a mission to clean up the streets).
The back features a quote I saw taped to the ground on 17th street. There were several to choose from, but something about “reputable degenerate” stuck in my head.
The rest of the piece is pretty straight-forward. Hopefully it paints not only a picture of Valencia Street and the Mission District, but also my street art influences and taste for the gritty.
