When I first saw this task I was super excited, as I've done similar things before. I am a fan of treasure hunts and scavenger hunts and have had tasks where we had to find the precise point where a 100+ year old photo was taken in order to pass that particular waypoint. That, and my love for this city (San Francisco) and her history (and all the fascinating trivia therein), meant that this would be a blast.

I grabbed a bunch of pictures from the San Francisco Public Library's Historic Photograph Collection of places around my work, and what I found is that this task is incredibly easy to do in this city. Below are photo documentation I was able to complete in a single lunch hour from work.


Lotta's Fountain at Geary, Kearny and Market with the old Palace Hotel in the background, 1906 (before the quake).


Grand and Market Streets, 1914.


Powell at Market, 1909.


Montgomery Street, looking toward Market and the new Palace Hotel, 1910.



It was just too easy, and wasn't giving me the satisfaction that I wanted out of this task. You can't spit in this town without hitting something of historic value (or Frank Chu), and because, since its birth, this town has been a town of photographers, it is highly likely that what you're looking at has been photographed from at least 6 different angles, spit included.

So, I began to think. What about photos of things that not longer exist, and trying to bring more life back to those. What if I found a picture of something that no longer exists (or at least no longer exists in that form). What could I do then.

For anyone who has known me for any length of time, you know my artistic bent, and the fact that many of my recent completions have been paintings or sculptures. So, I took a look at the instructions to this task.

Recreate a photograph that is at least a dozen years old as well as you can.

It doesn't say that the recreation HAS to be a photograph. In fact, the recreation could be anything, a bas releif, a 3d creation in Second Life, a cake, a diorama, or a painting. I chose a painting.

For the photograph, I took my favorite photo or probably my favorite destroyed building in the city, the 2nd Cliff House, which burned down on September 7th, 1907 (although September is no longer the 7th month, you can't avoid considering the 777 timing of the event).




This building was magnificent, beautiful, a thing of epic poems and ghost stories. I am still pained by the loss of this building, more even than the next-door neighbor the Sutro Baths. I love this photo because it is showing just how much use this are got, even back then when it was so much more difficult to get to. And the woman on the white horse just pins the perfect on this one for me.

So I started painting. I didn't keep track of how much time I spent. An hour or two a night after work for a couple weeks?



I'm not a realist painter/artist. Much closer to impressionism, I guess. I also wanted to have the horse be larger and more central, and similarly the carriage. I'm choosing to be done at this moment, but I'm not 100% happy with it, so it is definitely possible that I'll jump back into this painting in the not too distant future. Here's two details.



When I initially sketched in the horse, I did it very loose and really liked the feeling of movement the looseness brought. I tried very hard to keep that feeling as I continued to paint.



I don't know if the roof color is historically correct. I suppose the roof could have been green, but I suspect red, as a red roof would have helped the building advertise itself more than any other color would have.

I hope the painting brings a little movement, life, and curiosity into this amazing lost landmark for you.