Hayes Street Shutdown Art

Tara Mechani, the fifteen-foot female Buddha by sculptor Dana Albany at Patricia's Green in Hayes Valley, has gained a few accessories recently, namely gloves and a mask.

The pandemic shutdown has gone on long enough that most storefronts in the Hayes Street shopping district are boarded up.

The silver lining is that murals have been commissioned from local artists...

...such as Nora Bruhn above...

...who has painted two gorgeous floral pieces on opposite corners.

acoté, a fashionable French clothing store at the corner of Laguna and Hayes...

...is featuring a trio of murals that are timely...

...and delightfully whimsical.

Animals of all sorts are represented, from a bird...

...to a fish...

...to a big cat.

This Mighty Mouse Ratfink cartoon character appears in various poses around the block, but my favorite is in front of True Sake, America's first store dedicated to the Japanese rice wine.

The store's opening in 2002 was a clear marker of the complete gentrification that was about to overwhelm the neighborhood, so it was especially amusing to see the post-it graffiti added on by some joker.

Across the street at PROXY, there were are a few more graffiti-style installations...

...including this striking bit of stenciling.

On the other side, there was a fitness enthusiast doing pushups, who I preferred to view as a solo performance artist doing a Men's Health version of a Marina Abramović routine.