Congratulations to RichmondSFBlog readers Presley M., Chiara W., and Adrienne E.! They each won a pair of passes to the de Young’s “Bouquets to Arts” exhibition, taking place next week from March 15 through March 19. Thanks to everyone who sent in their favorite Richmond District florist for a chance to win.

The exhibition features over 140 floral arrangements by prominent Bay Area designers and garden clubs that both interpret and complement the museum’s permanent collection.

If you didn’t win but still want to make it to the show, tickets are available online.

If you’re a de Young Museum member, entry is free – just pick up your tickets at the box office when you get there. Plus on the night of Wednesday, March 16 from 6pm until 8pm, there’s a special members-only event.

For more information, visit the Bouquets to Art 2011 website.

Sarah B.

One of the 365 sketches by Jay Mercado that will be on display at his studio this Saturday

[This event was originally scheduled for March 5, but it will now be on this Saturday, March 12th - SB]

Local artist Jay Mercado is hosting a special, one day only exhibition on Saturday to showcase his daily sketches from the past year.

This group of ink scribblings is a sampling from my ongoing morning sketch ritual. I invite you to see the 365 from 2010! To sketch is to live in the moment. It becomes a visual journal born from the quiet action of observing. Sketching is an integral form of meditation which serves to ground me and provide an inner oasis as I begin each creative day.

The show will run from 10am until 5pm, with a special “informal super-mini-sketching-semi-workshop/doodle session” from 10 until 11 from Jay. I hear mallomars will also be served, or you can just salivate over some of Jay’s donut art.

Jay’s studio and gallery, Art Mercado, is located on the corner of 10th Avenue and California.

Sarah B.

Photo by Evan Carroll

In my scan of new Richmond District photos on Flickr last week, I came across some strange ones of statues sitting in the pews of a Internet Archive sanctuary. The IA moved their headquarters into the church at Clement and Funston in early 2010.

The photographer, Evan Carroll, was attending a conference at the IA recently when he took the pics. I asked him what those figures in the pews were and he replied:

Brewster Kahle, the director [of the Internet Archive], explained that it was his idea to create Terracotta Archivists after he saw the Terracotta Army [in China]. If you work for the IA for 3 years they have a statue made in your resemblance and add it to the collection. I only photographed a few, but I remember somewhere around 30 in the building.

Forever immortalized in terra cotta! Definitely a little odd but I suppose it’s better than getting a gold watch or a gumball machine (which I got for hitting 5 years at my last company). Creepy or cool?

Sarah B.

Terra cotta figures sit in the back row of the sanctuary. Photo by Evan Carroll

Photo by Evan Carroll

Do you like fine art? Do you like flowers? Then you won’t want to miss this year’s Bouquets to Art exhibition at the de Young, where the museum will display over 140 floral arrangements by prominent Bay Area designers and garden clubs that both interpret and complement the museum’s permanent collection.

The week long celebration of art and flora is the largest fundraiser held by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco to bring in funds to support acquisitions, special exhibitions and education programs.

Bouquets to Arts is also considered one of the country’s premier floral events. In addition to the fabulous exhibition, a swanky opening gala (pics from last year’s event), the museum will also host a series of events during the week where six prestigious floral design experts create arrangements onstage while discussing style, trends, and tricks of the trade. The programs range from “London Calling: Flower Trends From Across the Pond” to “Love of People, Flowers and Nature” from Ikebana specialist Soho Sakai.

We were lucky enough to receive three pairs of passes to Bouquets to Art 2011 from the de Young which we’re giving away to readers. To enter for a chance to win, just use the contact form to send us an email with the name and address of any flower store in the Richmond District. Winners will be drawn randomly from correct entries. Deadline for entries is March 7, 2011 at 5pm.

Even if you don’t win, be sure to make it to the de Young to see the exhibition. It runs from March 15th through the 19th, with hours on Tuesday through Saturday from 9:30am until 5:15pm, and extended hours on Friday, March 18 until 8:45pm.

If you’re a member, there is a special members-only night on Wednesday, March 16 from 6–8pm. Museum members receive free admission, and do not need to make advance reservations for admission. Just pick up your tickets at the membership desk on the day of your visit.

Tickets ($11 to $21) for Bouquets to Art 2011 can be purchased online at the de Young website, or from the museum box office.

Sarah B.

On Friday, the de Young Musuem in Golden Gate Park opened their latest special exhibition, Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico, featuring 140 objects from one of the oldest known civilizations in the Americas.

The Olmec were a Pre-Columbian civilization living in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, known today as the Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco.

Olmec architects and artists produced the earliest monumental stone structures and sculptures in North America, including enormous basalt portrait heads of their rulers.

To say these sculptures are enormous is not hyperbole; the “Monument Q” colossal head in the exhibition weighs in at 13,000 pounds. Another sculpture of a female figure is over eight feet tall.

The exhibition also features smaller treasures, including small-scale jadeite objects of religious figures.

Olmec artists were unsurpassed in their ability to work with extremely hard stone like jadeite, using elementary tools of chert, water and sand. What’s also interesting is that the basalt boulders used for many of the colossal heads were not local to where the sculptures were eventually discovered on archaeological expeditions; the first stone head was unearthed in the mid-19th century.

That means the tons of stone would have to have been quarried and transported to the cultural centers to be worked on. No small feat when you see in person how massive these sculptures really are.

The Olmec collection at the de Young is also interesting as a lead-up to the Picasso exhibition that opens in June. While Picasso took a great interest in African primitive art, you can’t help but recall some of his work as you look at the early sculptures of the Olmec.

The objects in the Olmec show are drawn primarily from Mexican national collections with additional loans from over twenty-five museums. The exhibition runs from February 19 until May 8, 2011.

Save $5 off your admission to Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico
From now until March 13, you can receive $5 off admission for all ages to the exhibition. Click here to download the coupon and then present it at the museum box office. Or purchase tickets online and use the coupon code: OLMEC at checkout.

Special thanks to Helen for help with this article.

Sarah B.

Whether you enjoy the outdoors and history, or like to spend time with fine art, you’ll be interested in two events taking place in the neighborhood this Sunday. Please read the following closely and don’t show up naked at either event, ok?

On Sunday at the Legion of Honor, Watson Adventures is offering “The Naked at the Art Museum Scavenger Hunt”.

Throw down $20 (plus museum admission) and join others to search for nudity in art through the centuries at the museum:

You’ll scrutinize provocative paintings, startling sculptures, dazzling decorative objects, undclad athletes, vixen-like Venus, a hunky Hercules, bathing beauties, striking stargazers, sultry Shades and more. No previous experience with art, or nudity, is required.

The scavenger hunt begins at 2pm. Buy your tickets online; 21+ only. These are naked bodies after all.

If you’re into hunting but prefer the outdoors, check out the free Shipwreck Hunt Hike at Lands End, led by San Francisco Hiking.

The hike is scheduled specifically during a time of low tide when tops of two drowned ships can be seen. One ship is during the middle of the hike and the other ship is at the end of the hike.

There were three ships that we know of that met their fate off Lands End. The freighter Ohioan struck Point Lobos on a foggy night back in 1937, illuminating the night sky with sparks as it hit the rocks hard. And in 1922 and 1937, the Lyman Stewart and the Frank Buck each ended their days on the exact same rock off Lands End. (Source: GGNRA)

The 4 mile hike/hunt runs from 11:30am until 1pm (you can go to the Legion right afterwards for more hunting!) and meets at 870 El Camino Del Mar (map; just inside the Lands End trail entrance near 32nd Avenue and El Camino). Dogs are welcome as are kids, but both should be on leash (ok, just the dogs but close supervision for kids is requested!).

Happy hunting! Bonus points if you can find nudity and a shipwreck at the same time, which really is possible at either event I think…

Sarah B.

P.S. – If you can’t make the Lands End hike, this GGNRA website has some good tips on how to spot the shipwrecks (scroll down to the bottom of the page).

[via sf.funcheap.com]

Inside the WestSide Art Studio before it opened. Owner Marisa Gregory on the left
with building co-tenant Scott Silverberg of Keltic Designs.

This past Saturday, West Side Art House at 540 Balboa officially opened for business. Part dance studio, part art gallery and part community center, it was started by Marisa Gregory, a trained yoga instructor.

But unlike other yoga or pilates studios you may have come across, WestSide offers something a little different – donation-based classes. In other words, pay what you can when you attend one of their yoga, dance, art or music workshops.

Their philosophy behind the donation-based model is printed on their class schedule. “Because we believe that the world would be a much better place if art, ideas and education were shared amongst everyone.”

The studio operates in the front half of 540 Balboa while fellow tenant, Scott Silverberg’s Keltic Designs, operates in the back.

Marisa says the walls in the studio will soon be adorned with artwork from the classes, while the new wood floor – laid by Marisa herself – will be ground zero for the various classes that the studio offers, including Mommy & Me Yoga, Breakdance 101 with Mischief, and Art 101 with Valerie.

Classes are offered 7 days a week at various times throughout the day. Check out the February schedule.

The studio’s website is a work in progess; you can also follow them on Facebook or on Twitter.

Welcome WestSide Art House to the neighborhood!

Sarah B.

A shot of a pint-sized billboard in the window of Frankenart Mart gallery and workshop on Balboa (also the home of free hot dog days). What a bargain for ad space! Photo by Mimi Hernandez.