Seemingly a permanent display, my prints have been up at the Main branch of the SFPL across from the Jewett Gallery for 8 months. Sooner or later they will come down, but for now you can check them out there.
The exhibit is called Put a Librarian on It and features nine silkscreens on collage done in late 2011. Here’s the artist statement for it:
Although some may be more familiar with my career as musician and punk rocker, I am also a longtime library employee and visual artist. This series of portraits presents my coworkers as the everyday heroes who make the San Francisco library an inspiring and enjoyable place to work and visit. Starting with photos, I have created line drawings, which are then silk-screened onto collages constructed from the detritus of our workplace. The artistic use of found materials was inspired by a recent exhibition of Kurt Schwitters’s collages at the Berkeley Art Museum. From thrift stores and Friends of the Library book sales, I’ve assembled old novels, books on exotic birds, Texas longhorns and Kau Cim (Chinese fortune sticks) as well as library pocket-cards, used scratch paper, date due slips, and old homework. These materials will continue to age and yellow over the years, emphasizing the individuality rather than sameness of each print in the editions. The printmaking technique referred to as “rainbow roll” also allows an almost accidental process that results in unique images. The variety of materials and the serendipitous nature of the work expose the different characters in all of us. From City Librarian to custodian, police sergeant to library technician, our team is a great collage of people working together to build the institution that San Franciscans have supported for 100 years.
