About the artist:

Lex Munson has been a professional artist and designer for over thirty years. His projects have ranged from designing banks to theater sets, from interior design and graphic arts to theme trade shows and major retail/industrial exhibits. He has taught and inspired hundreds of artists, from beginners to instructors with his unique, dynamic methods, and holds a reputation for creative and entertaining demonstrations. His works appear in many private and corporate collections throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Raised in Yosemite National Park, Lex Munson’s deep appreciation of nature’s beauty began early. He absorbed Yosemite Valley’s sheer cliffs, magnificent trees and cascading waterfalls. Today his paintings recall that misty, magical world in a unique blend of fantasy and reality. Visions, reflected in bold, free watercolors that take the viewer into dreamlike vistas of Yosemite and the Western landscape. Many of Munson’s paintings are created on site, but so deeply ingrained are the images of his youth, that the majority are created solely through his imagination.

For more information on Lex Munson and his current workshops and retreats, please visit http://GetawayWithArt.com.

A Transition

We hold on
Too tightly
To an idea
That most closely fits
Into the current
Context
Of images, feelings
That are the living
reflections
Of our dearest
Insecurities
Those beautiful things
dangling
From the ropes
Tied to a stick
Above our heads
Is only us
And we suffocate
The dream
until
It is but a random
Flash of lunacy
In that moment
Before the eyes open
To see that we have grown
Much too big
For the space
We’ve chosen
For our roots

You may reach Sam Burks at srburks@gmail.com.

About the artist:

Johanna Poethig is an internationally exhibited visual, public, and performance artist. Over the years, she has collaborated with many different artists, professionals, communities, and cultural groups. The work you see here is specifically from a mural project in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, CA. You can contact Poethig at jpoethig@mindspring.com.

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New Mural in SF

Poethig and Wofford, mugging and working on new mural in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. Expect more progress posts as the project continues over weeks to come.

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Week 4: Tenderloin Heights

Civic Center Post Office Mural: Street Art/ Mural Performance Painting/ Social Theater

It’s either “Tenderloin Heights” or “Tondo (famous slum in Manila) in the Tenderloin”.  Our scaffolding is periodically inhabited.  There are sleeping things stuffed in the tree next to the second level.  I call it the “Garden Level” .  We look over the top planks gingerly every work day hoping for no surprises. What’s worse, a tag or some human dung. Hmmmmm.  Hard to say.

The police are not around this week.  People are corralled into this neighborhood.  Arrests seem very arbitrary. There is no space in California prisons and clearly not enough mental health services.  An anti Drug War demonstration came down the street last Friday.  The police were all around that.  There was also a bomb scare at the Federal building 2 blocks down so it crowded up on our block that day. A little too cozy. A blind man knocked over a blue jar of paint and it splatted on to the sidewalk.

Natural Beauty

With a click the severed sunbeams
Flutter and descend like canary’s feathers
As a cat holds down the body.
A body trapped beneath the paws and
Claws that pierce skin, releasing
Fluid that leaves no trace.
A small stubbled head placed
Upon trembling cupped hands
That trap falling water.
The eyes make up lakes,
The mascara raging tributaries.

You may contact Don P. Musey at donpmusey@gmail.com.

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