The artist fnnch believes art is for everyone. He notes that, even outside of a pandemic year, only about five percent of a city’s residents and visitors tour its art museums. Street art and murals are for the other 95 percent, inspiring and engaging them with the arts.
The San Francisco Bay Times can, at least at times, be viewed as a form of street art, given that the print publication is free and often features artist-designed covers. Professional artist and San Francisco Arts Commissioner Debra Walker, for example, has designed numerous covers for us over the years, such as our recent one celebrating the election victory of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
Now we are proud to present a keepsake cover designed by fnnch himself for this last issue of 2020, which extends into the early part of 2021. We thank LGBT community leader and visionary Mark Rhoades for his help in making this possible.
As we share in the monthly column concerning the honey bear mural at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, Rhoades came up with the idea for the Center’s colorful mural, which fnnch brought to vivid fruition—donating his time, resources, and daily upkeep as a gift to the Center.
As these pages show, numerous LGBT leaders, other artists, and more have had their photo taken in front of the mural as a show of support for the Center. If you take your own selfie there, perhaps you can now hold up this issue of the San Francisco Bay Times for a triple dose of fnnch (mural, cover, and cover within a cover) and a bear infinity effect!
During these difficult months of the pandemic, and now as rains finally come to the city, our days are brightened by the mural and other images of the honey bear throughout San Francisco. As for how fnnch creates these and other murals, he uses multi-layered stencils and spray paint. He calls his work “contemporary pop art,” depicting objects from both nature and everyday life.
Over time his work has gained a strong following on social media and has been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and now the cover of the San Francisco Bay Times. His art can be found not only in our city by the Bay, but also in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago, St. Louis, Tel Aviv, and Hong Kong.
For More Information
Mark Rhoades PR
https://www.markrhoadespr.com/
fnnch
https://fnnch.com/
SF LGBT Center
https://www.sfcenter.org/
Photos by Mark Rhoades
Published on December 17, 2020
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