You Were Always on My Mind
Ruminations on Living in Sutro Tower’s Shadow
2020 - Present
For the past eleven years, I’ve lived underneath San Francisco’s Sutro Tower. Even before I moved here, it always was a presence, and one of the seven towers that makes up the “Tower Theory of Navigation” for getting around town. I could see it from my office when I ran a small startup. I could see it from my adolescent bedroom.
During the pandemic, when roads on top of the hill were shut down to cars, I found out how actually close it is. If I take a strenuous thirty minute walk uphill (through the cloud forest or up Clayton Street, it doesn’t matter, it’s steep and a slog either way), it’s possible to walk almost up underneath it. Being at home everyday reinforced its presence. It. Was. Always. There. Watching?
These paintings are inspired by my ongoing relationship with this triangle-shaped orange and white tower.
Sutro Diaries
2020. Acrylic on Wood
Each is 18” by 7”
Ends of the World (Apocalypse Series)
2021. Acrylic on Wood
Each is 8” by 31 3/4”
Karl is Flirting, Again
2021. Acrylic on Wood
6’ by 18”
Private Collection