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Pandemic Street Art
In a very dark year, people found ways to shine.
For the past year, I’ve been taking photos of random street art I’ve literally run across while jogging in the western neighborhoods of San Francisco. Some of the art has been whimsical. Other examples have been in-your-face tags or political statements that double as graffiti. Still others have displayed a childlike innocence, in part, no doubt, because children were responsible. But whatever their sources, quality, or intent, these public works have, to my mind at least, become indelibly linked to the historical moment we endured, as well as the perilous events that defined it.
Yet for all its expressive power, public art of this guerilla type is ephemeral. It will literally disappear, and we will forget it, and move on in a cloud of collective amnesia. In my own way, I hope instead to preserve this visual record as a reminder of how in the grand sweep of history, it is often the little things that speak loudest about our past and longest to the future.
