4 miles in the Tenderloin and Mission

You may not know this but a lot of artists live and work in San Francisco. Every year, they hold open galleries across town over a series of four weekends in October.  For more info on this event, check out the website: http://www.artspan.org/. There are hundreds of galleries to tour so it's impossible to see everything but it is totally worth walking through a few in an afternoon.  There are clusters of galleries in particular neighborhoods and then there are a few that stand alone in neighborhoods you would never suspect were artsy. 

My brother and I decided to drive into the Candlestick Point area to tour a warehouse that was converted into studios.  Very cool and unlikely considering the neighborhood.  My favorite artist in this studio was Carolyn Wang.  She made SUPER amazing glass art with ink transfers and pine cones and stuff.  Loved it.  http://www.casalinaglass.com/ 

We couldn't take pictures of the art in the galleries but we did of this gem that was hanging in the hallway.

We then took BART up to the Civic Center (Tenderloin) area to check out a cluster of galleries which then led us up to Nob Hill where we explored the inside of Grace Cathedral.  My favorite artists from this group were: Michael Szabo's fountains and metal work (http://www.szaboworks.com/), Andrzej Karwacki's screenprinting (http://www.1217studios.com/), and Georgia Storti's paintings (http://www.pacificaopenstudios.com/).

On the way up Powell Street, I found another Barbary Cost Trail marker.  I still haven't researched how these things work.  I suppose one day I could just walk the trail and look at all of the markers in one walk.  It's kind of fun spotting them randomly around town though.

On our trek to the Grace Cathedral, we passed the Mark Hopkins and Fairmont and roamed around inside each for a few minutes.  This is a fun door in the lobby of the Mark Hopkins.

And that's not even an Oreo...it's a Hydrox.  :(

We decided to take Taylor from California all the way to Market.  It went from classy to scary within three blocks.  This gem of a hostel was tucked into an alley off Taylor.

The neighborhood is pretty dicy but its redeeming value is that the Warfield is in it.  We saw a band unloading as we walked by but didn't know which one they were.  Brush with fame and don't even know who they are...

On the way home on BART, my brother (who recently moved to the area) wanted to know what the Mission looked like so we decided to hop out at the 24th Street station and take a quick loop around the neighborhood.  We saw all sorts of fabulous things but I don't want to use this post to show Mission pictures since I will be spending a lot more time in that area on future walks.  For now, you'll just have to enjoy this wonder: