Well, better late than never. Caught Jake Watling's mural on the side of the Killowatt as they were taking it down (check Jay Howell's). And when we say "they", we're referring to Juice Design that curates the wall under their offices.

Not sure what's up now, but sure there's something nice to have a look-see at. We'll get a photo or someone will email us a photo to post in the future.

Jake stopped through FFDG last week and showed us his...

Mike Giant tattoo he got many years ago.

Speaking of Giant, if you wanna catch his show @FFDG, be sure to come in today or Friday (1-6pm), because these are the last 2 days to view it before it comes down. We'll be closed this Saturday, August 11th.

RIPO emailed over a few images as preview for his show "Signs, Fines and Cheap Wines" that opens Thursday, August 9th (7-11pm) at White Walls here in San Francisco.

"Lost in Nevada" is the result of a six-day, no agenda, "On the Road" slash "Easy Rider" style adventure across Nevada's vast desert and back. The series speaks to the notions of freedom, hitting the open road, exploring new ground, meeting new people and making decisions on the fly. The Nevada Desert has an almost post-apocalyptic feel to it, with some areas resembling scenes right out of "Mad Max." I find this setting quite soothing and a much welcome change to the densely populated urban environment in which I dwell.

Good friend and fellow photographer Brad Evans was my travel companion on this trip. Collectively, we released a photo journal entitled "Nevada Bound," which can be previewed and/or purchased in the Photo Books section of my site. -Travis Jensen

Ryan Travis Christian wraps up his show SOMETHING, SOMETHING, BLACK SOMETHING today at HALSEY MCKAY GALLERY located at East Hampton, New York. The show looks great.

Ryan's shown here in SF at Guerrero Gallery (pics) and has curated a couple shows @FFDG with the last when we were on Fillmore St. (pics).

A little recent Beastie Boy mashup from LUDO on the streets of Paris.

Love the giant Mario Martinez (Mars-1) we spotted yesterday evening while walking by the Phoenix Hotel in the Tenderloin. How the heck did we miss this, which we suspected was created for the art fairs this past spring? Probably because we didn't make any of the fairs this past year (hectic year last year).

Great work, Mario. Our only question is, was it painted or is it some sort of billboard/ banner? Guess we'll have to email Mario to find out.

Update: Yep, Mario did paint the mural. See the bottom photo by Colin Day. Check Mars-1.com for more pics.

So, I bumped into Trippe the week before last at the FFDG and we had a short fireside chat over a pop about me contributing some snaps to the site. Not sure how I was going to kick things off, I decided to showcase a handful of my favorite iPhone street snaps, a mix of candid street scenes, street portraiture and urban landscapes, all shot on the streets of San Francisco, namely around Downtown, the Tenderloin and Mission.

Now I don't consider myself an "iPhoneographer" -- I also shoot film and with a DSLR, but tend to use the phone during the day when the light's harsh. I have kids (yes, plural), so most of my photo adventures take place during nap time and under the influence of a few pops when the sun is directly overhead. These images were all snapped using Hipstamatic's Blackeys Supergrain and John S. lens combo, which performs quite well under harsh shooting conditions. No crops, tilts or other app wizardry applied.

Some of the images in this series appear in my new photo book, "[Insert Title Here] - San Francisco Street Snaps," which is available in the photo books section of my site. Books are handmade with love right here in San Francisco, USA. -Travis Jensen

Thanks for checking me out... be back next week, I hope.

This portrait reminds of something right off the silent screen, but with a Wicca twist. There are so many possible stories in those eyes...so powerful, so direct. The only thing I know about this woman is that she came to SF from Detroit a few years ago and likes hanging in Portsmouth Square. "It's comfortable here," she said.

Scoping the scene, Mission District, San Francisco

A portrait from my "Sidelines of SF Pride 2012" series. This is Chauncey. San Francisco, Downtown

Phlegm emailed over some recent mural work he completed in Bantry, West Cork, Ireland. Really like it. Check his site for more goodness and the video below.

Phlegm doing 2 paintings in Bantry. phlegmcomicnews.blogspot.ie

Mathew Zefeldt of Vallejo and a recent grad school graduate from UC Davis emailed over some brilliant new large scale paintings. Like them mucho. They are all in the 80" x 60" range.

Eugene Plotnikov lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. We featured his last year with this mini interview. Love his new works. Check his site for much more.

eugeneplotnikov.com

The newest from Sten & Lex done in La Louviere, Belgium.

Unfortunately the lift they were using to create this one got stuck and the fire dept had to rescue them. Video.

Our buddy Henry Gunderson is a fresh SFAI graduate, and like all freshly graduated art students, he's taking a lil' time off with some friends and making his way across the great United States of America. If you're like us and stuck in doors working this summer, take this travel photo blog as a mental vacation and dream of your future ones. We know we are.

Gunderson's travel companions: Quinn Arneson, Juan Bocca, and Billy Roper.

pissin in the wind photo: Billy Roper

Photo: Quinn Arneson

Our driver Banana mon all the way from jamaica good source of potassium Photo henry Gunderson

Wyoming double truck grinder Photo : Quinn Arneson

Friends Photo: Jayme Lemperle

I'm Satterugly street artist based in Guadadalajara Jalisco Mexico and these are some pictures of my latest murals MEXICO AND CALIFORNIA.

In Mexico I paint in the streets of some cities like Guadalajara, Puebla, Cholula, and Durango, in California a couple stops in Los Angeles, one in the study of art prints of Richard Duardo's MODERN MULTIPLES, and another mural in the street at Olympic Blvd in LA.

Inside Silent Music, an exhibition straight from the storage boxes of "accidental rock ephemera collector" Lee Reymore

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Silent Music opens tomorrow, July 14th, and runs until August 14th. Opening reception at 8pm, live music by The Fresh & Onlys - at Vacation - 651 Larkin Street in the Tenderloin - ON FACEBOOK
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Lee Reymore was once called San Francisco's doppelganger of Jarvis Cocker, and he's got a tantamount of wit, edge and thick-rimmed glasses to match. Omnipresent in a lineage of R&R since the late 70‘s, Lee has traversed through multiple city scenes, from witnessing only one of two Throbbing Gristle North American shows before their break up in 1982, drug interactions in the green room with Bobby Gilespie on the 1991 Screamadelica tour, to living in Edinburgh and modeling colonial outfits with Shirley Manson way before Garbage, and catching plenty of live debuts from buzzed San Francisco garage rock in the late 2000's.

Silent Music, curated by Reymore and installed by partner Randy Walker, is a manifestation of the musical ephemera Reymore has accumulated through his time spent backstage, in the pit, and in the record store. Some are scored secondhand through his connections as a rare book dealer, or just by having an innate eye for scouting his taste.

"I was a thirteen year old stamp collector nerd as a kid. I had this sort of collector mentality early on. I started collecting Samuel Beckett first editions when I began working in the book industry. But I didn't set out to collect art or music ephemera. I just ended up accumulating all of this stuff and not getting rid of anything."

Reymore remembers his first acquired gem of ephemera, caught at 1979 Clash show in his hometown of San Diego on the bands first American tour. It was ripped directly off the back of Joe Strummer himself, in the heat of an intense pit moment. Twenty years later Lee saw Strummer during an in-store at Amoeba, and gave him a handmade sign to pose with that reads "I want my patch back!" Both the original patch as well as the photograph of Strummer with the sign are placed side by side in the show.

The show, on view at Tenderloin vintage boutique and gallery Vacation, is focused on multiple trajectories in Rock N' Roll throughout the years: an eclectic mix of Late 70‘s UK industrial, 60‘s San Francisco psychedelic, mid 80‘s SoCal punk, New York new wave, and present day San Francisco garage rock.There is a variety of mediums in the show: LPs, cassette tapes, handbills, posters, paintings and prints. And through running his own rare and arcane book business Modlit Books he has included in the exhibit selected music biographies and poetry anthologies from the likes of Patti Smith, Nick Cave, and Jim Morrison.

Each item of ephemera in the show comes with a unique backstory behind how he got it. "I had all these great original punk rock fliers from San Diego and Los Angeles from my period living there, and using, like many people do, their parents garage as storage space. My mother threw it all away. I was really pissed. So I have sought out original [1980‘s] San Francisco punk fliers and posters from the people that distribute them back then, for that fact that all my original ones are gone."

Some of the work is made by the musicians themselves, such as paintings or writings that necessarily the focus of their career. Did you know Ian Curtis may or may not have cut the sandpaper used to write the liner notes for a Durutti Column album? Or that Frank Sinatra could sketch a drawing inside of a book he signed?

Silent Music is dedicated to the late renowned San Francisco ephemera collector, writer and curator Steven Leiber. Reymore was invited to visit Leiber's garage, a Mecca of ephemera from artists familiar and obscure. Leiber would keep files on every artist from whom he collected, their paintings, prints, even gallery invitations. "He was interested in the full depth of the artist," says Reymore. In collecting related work beyond just the physical LPs or cassettes, Reymore shares this interest in depth and variety as well.

Their visits exploring this basement-sized treasure chest of art continued until Leiber passed away earlier this year. "We would just talk for hours and hours and I would learn so much about this artist or that artist, some I had never heard of. He had worlds of knowledge, and a genuine passion for what he did."

Leiber's collection generally was not music minded, and most of the music related pieces he did carry were purchased by Reymore, such as the original punk fliers. But for Reymore, Silent Music emulates the experience he had of viewing and learning about Leiber's collection of ephemera, yet curated with his own aesthetic and tailored to his own taste.

"None of us have the same taste, but having said that I don't think I could ever move in with someone and not be controlling the artwork on the walls. That would have to be me."

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Silent Music opens tomorrow, July 14th, and runs until August 14th. Opening reception at 8pm, live music by The Fresh & Onlys - at Vacation - 651 Larkin Street in the Tenderloin - ON FACEBOOK
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Vacation, opened this past June, is a vintage boutique curated by Kristin Klein, who previously manned a former Vacation storefront in Atlanta. Klein, a tour manager in the indie and garage circuit for several years, chose to intersect her passions for art and music in Vacation. The space will host an ongoing series of gallery shows and carry releases by local bands in addition to fashion.

Confessions of an Old Dirty Skateboarder
Mike Giant, solo show
July 20 - August 12, 2012
Opening reception: Friday, June 20th, 7–10 pm
@FFDG, 2277 Mission St., SF, CA

preview inquires, email: info(at)ffdg.net

San Francisco, CA -- FFDG is pleased to present San Francisco based artist Mike Giant in his first solo show with the gallery entitled "Confessions of an Old Dirty Skateboarder" featuring a wide assemblage of recent drawings and also a rare opportunity to view Giant's personal collection of skateboards he illustrated the graphics for, including boards from his early career. There will be an opening reception for the show on Friday, July 20th (7-10pm). The artist will be present. Beer and wine will be available.

"I'm a product of my generation. I grew up through the 80s and was drawn to the punk rock and hip-hop cultures simultaneously", Giant said in a recent interview. "I threw myself in headfirst. A lot of those things were about personal expression, and also an anti-establishment attitude like, "We don't need you, we have our own thing." That's the backbone of who I am to this day".

San Francisco based Mike Giant has achieved fame as a graffiti artist, illustrator and tattooist. Black ink is Giant's specialty and whether his medium is concrete, paper or skin, his signature style - inspired by Mexican folk art and Japanese illustration - is unmistakable. Mike Giant has worked in media covering, graffiti, design, fine art, photography and tattooing, making him one of the most celebrated and versatile artists of his generation. He has shown in galleries around the world.

And speaking of Tucker Nichols, check his current show running through August 4th at Gallery 16... We love the work.

Last night we swung through Ffity24SF in the Lower Haight for a preview of Jeremy Fish's show "Where Hearts Get Left" which opens this Saturday, July 14th (5-9pm) here in San Francisco, Ca.

The show is Fish's ode to all that that makes San Francisco... San Francisco. He illustrates his favorite lores and legends like how the Native Americans believed that the Earth and subsquently San Francisco was created by a silver-fox and coyote as they danced in the Bay Area's constant dense fog... or how a pair of giant grumpy battling turtles under the Earth's crust cause our earthquakes.

Approx 50 14" x 17" drawings take you on a tour of the special San Francisco-centric things that make the city so special to Fish. From the Mission's best burrito spots to SF's first notable quirky self proclaimed Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, Fish illustrates not the obvious tourist highlights, but those little things that take a decade of discovery to find and appreciate.

My favorites include the collage of the best under the radar, not your fancy burger jams including my all time favorite, Hamburger Haven on Clement. Let's not forget the group of Native American activists who occupied Alcatraz for 19 months in the late 60s... or that like the city itself is always in a constant state of change (sometimes for the worse), but that, like the Vapor Room R.I.P. (for now), even good things come to an end and out of the ashes, the phoenix will rise.

Jeremy Fish in his own heart.

Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I sculpted from south east Asia wood.

This handmade limited to 100 copies book featuring the drawings in the show will soon be on sale complete with a cover made out of wood.

Check the full preview complete with some video interviews with Fish.

In September of last year I had the honor to go with Yong-Ki Chang, Jef Hartsel and Bob Lake down to LA to document their skating and participate in the installation of the Solitary Arts portion of the Product of Design show curated by GlueKit.

These photos were taken over a five day period in which we skated the streets of Venice, rolled on the round wall of the legendary Gonzales pool, sessioned with Jay Adams at Arto Saari's backyard pool, hung art, met extraordinarily talented people, and slept where the munchkins rested their heads. In my short life it was one of the most truly epic adventures I participated in. Thank you Yong-Ki, Jef and Bob.

Jay Adams

Jef Hartsel

Geoff McFetridge

Alex Ziv lives and works here in SF and is a recent graduate from SFAI. He participated in our group show Cigarettes, Phone Cards & Hip Hop Clothing and has updated his site with new great works.

"The Final Whisper", 18"x24", Pen and Ink on Paper

"You and I", 18"x24", Ink on Paper

"Outlaw Cut Fight" 12"x16" Pen and Ink on Paper

"Who's Winning?", 18"x24", Pen and Ink on Paper

A couple photos of Nick Flatt's show currently running at Project One through July 7th here in San Francisco. And, ya, the car and motorcycle are made out of cardboard. The drawings are graphite... Fun fact: Nick's on the Fecal Face softball team, and the dude goes for it.