There was a gas station on the corner of Valencia & 20th that closed a few months ago. As soon as the business shut down, the city writers came out to throw up some very nice burns on the storefront. I remember Shepard Fairey was in town for his show at The Shooting Gallery, and lo & behold a big-ass OBEY wheatpaste plastered the gas pump pillars. Those street artists were swift on their feet.
The Mission has a high concentration of the best urban art I've seen in SF. The graffiti comes in all manner of wheatpaste, stencils, stickers, tags, etc.... Coupled with the classic Mission murals, street expression is alive and very well. I woke up one morning, took a stroll down Valencia to my local pho joint and found the fence surrounding the closed gas station beautifully decorated with autumn leaves. A natural, creative foreground to the graffiti unseen behind the gate. This piece makes me smile.
