We decided that we should capitalize on the large throngs of humanity, possitive vibrations and generalized insanity induced by the Haight St. Fair to do a little public artwork with our fellow citizens. We set out in the AM and got ourselves some prime realestate on the steps of McDonalds (After 45 angry minutes trying to find parking and nearly aborting the whole mission). We came equipped with a home fabricated cardboard easel, two blank posterboard canvases, and a large box of paint markers, pens and pencils. We just plopped outselves down and started to work, figuring that if we got the ball rolling a little bit our fellow city dwellers would jump right in.

With very little encouragement tons of people started comming up and drawing, chatting, making odd looking faces at us. The feedback was so positive that we actually had to flip one of the posterboards over and let them go at the reverse side after they had both filled up. We weren't about to tell someone that they couldn't draw anymore. Who are we to shut down creativity?

I was struck by the variety of different responses that we got from the passers by. Some people looked at us with contempt and kept walking (perhaps even more briskly than before), others would peek over and give us a long glance, slowing down a little bit but kept on moving. The curiosity in these people was very easy to spot, we could see their desire for craziness leaking out of them. We would call out to them: "You sir! You want to do public art, I can see the longing in your eyes, you slowed down to look, you should add!!" This strategy worked almost without fail. People respond very positively to being noticed and engaged on an individual level. The final group of people that we encountered is what I can only describe as the "sf0" sort of people. These people would run up to us from across the street with huge eyes and broad smiles: "Drawing!!! Really!?!?! OH MY GOODNESS YES!!!" Most of these people were nice enough to sit with us, chat with us, ask why we were doing this etc... We had numerous people that would sit and chat and participate for a full hour or more.

But the bizarre responses seemed to be the most fulilling. We had one woman say "Hell naw" and then slap herself on the ass before adding "How bout you draw that!" I told her that I didn't think it would fit, but that I would try. A different woman got irrationally angry and screamed for us to "Go F*@$ Ourselves" and then she advised us that we should "Eat Her C*#$." Which is a most unusual way to respond to someone who has asked you if you would like to do some drawing.

It is clear that our country (even the beautiful San Francisco) has become too devious and comercialized, it proved difficult for some people to believe that we wern't charging them for anything, asking them for anything, trying to sell them anything, or converting them to anything. Some people would immediatly say "no", and we would tell them they could draw anything that they wanted and we only wanted their creativity. At this point they would look confused, walk over to us slowly with a quasi circuitous route, and say "You really just want me to draw something?" and with a big smile they hear "Yes sir/ma'am we're just doing community art! Add anything you want. No rules" then we hear "Cool, thanks."

Overall it proved to be an awesome way to spend the afternoon!
Tons of great memories, and made even better now that our walls have a couple sweet new additions. If our healthy assortment of photos isn't enough for you, the entire affair is also up on flickr