Laurie Wigham has an exhibition of watercolors up now at Spark Arts in the Castro. She created some of the works during the SF Sketcher’s meet-up that she, Jeanne, and I organized around the Dolye Drive falsework back in March of 2014. She captioned the falsework watercolors this way:
The Presidio Pet Cemetery
In 2014 a massive concrete “falsework” was built to protect the historic Pet Cemetery in the Presidio from the new freeway construction going on overhead.
More than $3 million was spent to save the crumbling homemade grave markers for “Happy the tiger fish (loved by Kate)” and “Oreo (the best hamster ever).”
Was this about preserving a sacred space, or was it a product of the general confusion and anxiety about how San Francisco can preserve its fragile historic identity from the powerful forces remaking the city?
For some of the watercolors, see the SF Curbed article, Artist’s Dreamy Watercolors Make San Francisco Construction Beautiful. And Laurie sent me the following images:
And this note:
The first one (small vertical sketch from the viewpoint above) was started onsite, finished at home. The other 4 were done afterwards, from photos taken on the sketching day.
See also our film Falsework, the installation project Temporary Structure, and all posts about Laurie Wigham.
