Following a reported sighting of a new “monkey poster” in the pet portrait series, I happened to stumble upon 2 more broadsides heartily taped to a Polk Street pole. Sadly there are no monkeys depicted. However, we do see for the first time a bear, winged cow, and a biker mouse named Cheesy Rider. What [...]
Herbie Gaines: a one-man show on the best corner in town.
We’ve been trying to reach the artist responsible for the charmingly awful pet portraits for a couple weeks. However, after numerous unreturned calls, the artist remains an elusive and mysterious figure. Even more odd is the fact that we’ve come across two more posters affixed to telephone poles in our neighborhood. Why would he not [...]
There’s something great about Flea Markets. If you search long enough, you always find what you’re looking for (even if you didn’t know you were looking for it). Today was just such a day. After my preliminary walk through the various isles of assorted trinkets and antique picture frames, I stumbled on a vendor starting [...]
A sick cat, a guilty owner and an offer too crazy to refuse.
I found these photos from my last trip to the SF Antique & Design Mall. It’s a hand-painted iron worker’s mask. I didn’t get in close enough to snap better pictures, but it’s an awesome example of the crude embellishments that probably added a touch of wit and personality to their otherwise technical and mundane [...]
Sixty years later, this collection of found photos is too immediate to ignore.
I stumbled across a website called Interesting Ideas and in particular a page of the site dedicated to Outsider art. This site is home to a wonderful collection of exactly the kind of raw and uninhibited examples of artistic expression that fascinates us. Some of the more interesting images the author features is the rantings [...]
With the search heating up, we decided to venture to the Alemany Flea Market in an attempt to locate the man who originally sold us the Beauparlant artwork almost a year earlier. After browsing the aisles of knick-knacks, stolen laptops, and a pretty awesome gun rack, we found him and his name is Bruce. Amazingly [...]
After the discovery of Albert Beauparlant’s father and his famous “House of 2,000 Candles,” I set out to uncover as much information as I could on his life. I had hopes of locating a child or relative, who might be able to give us more of his story (or at least an anecdote or two [...]