Far Out Gallery: Art at the Edge of The City

by Jonah Raskin

Herbst brought Downing and Craig together in her gallery for the first time in the summer of 2022. Then, in January 2023 she arranged their work on opposite walls so they feed into and bounce off one another. They show how different and how similar two San Francisco artists can be. "There's a dialogue between the two," Herbst said. Craig painted images of the ocean at Ocean Beach for an international conference about water held in Germany in the summer of 2022. Ken Downing leaned forward, gazed at Craig’s work and said, "She muscles out the paint. Unlike me, she's not afraid to sling it." Born and raised in San Diego, right on the water, Craig lives in the Marina District in San Francisco, though she has also spent considerable time on the Atlantic Ocean. "Every ocean has its own personality," she said. "I think of the Pacific as passionate and engaging. The Atlantic is docile until a storm comes in and then it's fierce." Her Ocean Beach paintings, which she created at different times of the day, and from dawn to dusk, capture the feel of the surf, the churning of the water and the beauty of the sand and the shore. “Each work is a meditation on a moment in the day,” Craig said. “My expressionistic images are meant to capture my sensitivity to the ocean’s beauty which can be tame, treacherous, and wild.” In 2020, Craig published her sketches and photographs in Caminando, Walking. She made the sketches with pen and ink brush in Spain, France, Romania, Scotland and San Francisco. Art has taken her around the world. Once a year, Herbst takes all the wall spaces in the gallery and shows her own work. For now, it's in a small room behind the large front room that features Downing’s and Craig's paintings. "At FOG we're not trying to compete with the big commercial galleries," Herbst said. "I show artists whose work moves me and that isn’t in the regular art world." She has put the stamp of her own warm and engaging personality on FOG and made it a sanctuary for edgy work where neighborhood folks, who are often hesitant to come in, learn to understand and appreciate art. While it's often foggy on Taraval Street, it's always crystal clear inside the walls of 3004, that art really matters. When you're in The City take a look.

Art and art galleries are two wonders of The City, my friends North of the Golden Gate tell me. That observation has been true for me over the course of the last two years, ever since I moved to San Francisco. When Anne Marguerite Herbst founded Far Out Gallery, aka FOG, on Taraval Street seven years ago with her partner Peter Munks, a singer, she wanted it to be, she said, “a sanctuary, a place to go in the mind and the imagination." It has been all that and more. "Art saved my life," she added. "It has gotten me through traumas." San Francisco gallery owners such as Collier Gwin, at Foster Gwin in the Financial District, complain that art isn't selling. "COVID really did us in," Gwin said. The same works by well-known Bay Area artists like Wally Hendrick, who painted the American flag long before anyone else, hang on the walls of his gallery month after month.

Anne Herbst tells a different story about art and artists, including the two painters, Natalie Craig and Ken Downing, whose work is currently at FOG. The show opened in mid- January and ends February 26.

Natalie Craig's canvases explore the Pacific Ocean at Ocean Beach where she often walks, sketches and enjoys the sand, surf, wind and sun if it happens to be sunny. At the edge of The City, Ocean Beach isn't for everyone. For years, Ken Downing wouldn't go near it. “I was a snob,” he told me. Born in Napa, he served in the US military in Germany and in the 1970s settled in San Francisco where he says that he fell among artists, and refused to go west of Twin Peaks, a City landmark. After a while, he explains he "started fiddling around with oil paint and got the bug."


 

Natalie Craig  Sunset, Low Tide  mixed media on yupo paper, 48 x 30 in. 2022, unframed $1000

Ken Downing Nasturtiums  watercolor, ink on rice paper, 57 x 17 in. 2012  Scrolled (sold)

Ken Downing still has the art bug. His paintings at FOG tend to be long and narrow with Asian influences and with nods toward the surreal and the whimsical. For decades, he made Japanese-style woodblocks. Five years ago he switched to acrylic on paper. One of his canvases on exhibit at FOG featured white bananas; in others raccoons peek out at viewers and invite them into their fugitive world.

His watercolors on rice paper offer fantastic shapes and spectacular colors and they match Craig’s shapes and colors, though that wasn’t his intention.

Seventy-six-years-old and with hearing aids to help him follow conversations, Downing can be self-deprecating. "I'd rather look at Craig's work than my own," he said. When asked what he'd like art lovers, as well as the cautious and the curious, to take away from his paintings he said, "I want them to take them home. I don't want them back." His prices are as low as can be, perhaps because this is his first gallery show. By the start of February, he'd already sold three of his canvases: he was a happy camper at Ocean Beach.

Herbst brought Downing and Craig together in her gallery for the first time in the summer of 2022. Then, in January 2023 she arranged their work on opposite walls so they feed into and bounce off one another. They show how different and how similar two San Francisco artists can be. "There's a dialogue between the two," Herbst said.

Craig painted images of the ocean at Ocean Beach for an international conference about water held in Germany in the summer of 2022. Ken Downing leaned forward, gazed at Craig’s work and said, "She muscles out the paint. Unlike me, she's not afraid to sling it."

Born and raised in San Diego, right on the water, Craig lives in the Marina District in San Francisco, though she has also spent considerable time on the Atlantic Ocean. "Every ocean has its own personality," she said. "I think of the Pacific as passionate and engaging. The Atlantic is docile until a storm comes in and then it's fierce."

Her Ocean Beach paintings, which she created at different times of the day, and from dawn to dusk, capture the feel of the surf, the churning of the water and the beauty of the sand and the shore. “Each work is a meditation on a moment in the day,” Craig said. “My expressionistic images are meant to capture my sensitivity to the ocean’s beauty which can be tame, treacherous, and wild.”

In 2020, Craig published her sketches and photographs in Caminando, Walking. She made the sketches with pen and ink brush in Spain, France, Romania, Scotland and San Francisco. Art has taken her around the world.

Once a year, Herbst takes all the wall spaces in the gallery and shows her own work. For now, it's in a small room behind the large front room that features Downing’s and Craig's paintings.

"At FOG we're not trying to compete with the big commercial galleries," Herbst said. "I show artists whose work moves me and that isn’t in the regular art world."

She has put the stamp of her own warm and engaging personality on FOG and made it a sanctuary for edgy work where neighborhood folks, who are often hesitant to come in, learn to understand and appreciate art. While it's often foggy on Taraval Street, it's always crystal clear inside the walls of 3004, that art really matters. When you're in The City take a look.

Sundays at 3:00

Our little circle of music has developed nicely and we now have a lovely gathering every Sunday starting at 3. We invite any newcomers who enjoy folk music and good company, and who might wish to sing along and introduce some new songs. I am also starting a “Happy Hour” on Fridays at 5 – so drop on in for a relaxing, leisurely start to your weekend.  ––Peter

 

Art Delivery

 

An exciting day! Natalie Craig and Ken Downing deliver their art for New Year Premier. The reception is this Saturday from 1-4pm. Artists’ talks at 2pm.

Peace and Love

Peace 1  oil on birchwood panel, 8 x 8 in. 2022  $425

Peace & Love-Primary Colors  oil on birchwood panel, 8 x 8 in. 2922  $425

 

I am a child of the ’60’s when Peace and Love signs were introduced by the hippie movement. Both symbols are as powerful as our actions.

All sales from my Peace & Love series will be donated to humanitarian causes. -Anne

 

"FLOW" Reception

Anne with Connie Harris and Mary Margaret / photo by Natalie Craig

Artist's Talk / photo by Natalie Craig

Anne and Peter with Margaret Graf / photo by Natalie Craig

 

FLOW will run November 4 – January 1, 2023.

 

The three owners of FOG / photo by Natalie Craig

Rasa Gustaitis Reads

Rasa Gustaitis gave an inspiring reading from Flight, a true story of her early life in Lithuania, when she was forced to flee with her family in 1940 from the invading USSR.

 

Last 3 Days to See Flowers: Open Invitation

Every flower is unique, as is every work of art. Here are just a few of the over 80 floral art contributions we have received throughout June and July. Thank you for creating a resplendent space for us all.

Fragrant Dreams by Jamae Tasker mixed media collage on canvas, 48 x 36 in. $450

Pink by Connie Harris oil and glitter on canvas, 30 x 30 in. 2022 $650

Magnolia Landscape by Johnny Karwan acrylic on birch 24 x 18 in. $895

Eye of Spring Crystal Jade Davis acrylic on canvas $250

Discover Me by Nathalie Fabri acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 in. $750

Rose Lady by Yvonne Martinez knitted cotton and wool, 28 x 19 in. $400

A small portion of our East Wall

 

We Love Our Community

Yesterday, Far Out Gallery joined Make Music San Francisco. Here is their statement of purpose:

Zachariah Spellman

Samantha Tran with sister on left, brother Harry (8 year old advanced pianist), Dad on right

“We welcome all musicians, instruments of all types, singers, percussionists, and experimental musicians to join us in welcoming summer. Make Music San Francisco is open to all: professionals, amateurs, children, adults, choirs, soloists… anyone with an ear for music is welcome to join and anyone who loves music will want to attend.

Performances will take place from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm across San Francisco in community centers, restaurants, shared spaces, back yards, front steps, libraries, local businesses, slow streets, and parks.”

 

This event started in France in 1982 on the Summer Solstice and is now a national holiday and a huge international celebration of free music. I only heard about this event on Saturday, but did manage to register both as a venue and as a performer. We had four different performances: I started off the proceedings when a lovely family wandered into FOG seeking a show - unfortunately the performer who signed up for that time cancelled, but I put on a piano, guitar, mandolin performance.

Our dear friend and tubist, Zachariah Spellman joined us after his rehearsal with the SFOpera and gave a spirited tour de force of his amazing ability to make that tuba sing and ring.

Samantha Tran is a singer and part of a Vietnamese family troupe (father on guitar, 8 year old Henry on piano and another sister who sang) and they performed some lovely songs.

Wendy Loomis, our fabulous neighbor, closed the show with her new piano works and then she played her Hang drum as a mesmerizing finale. I can see this event becoming a major day of community involvement and a beautiful celebration - and another way for Far Out Gallery to be a beacon for art.

We also held the SF Election at FOG on June 7, and plan to hold the November election here as well.

We will host a meeting of Senior Power in July.

Our current Flower Show demonstrates what a rich resource we have become to our community, and what a rich resource our community has become to us.

We’re super excited about Make Music SF becoming a new way to engage and enhance our neighborhood. -Peter

 

Wendy Loomis

 

Flowers Open Invitation Continues

Magnolia Landscape by Johnny Karwan acrylic on birch 24 x 18 in. $895

At the reception: Artist Jamie Smith with her husband and their son Henry. Henry dressed for the occasion with his choice of shoes.

A strawberry cream Flower Cake from our neighbors, Sweet Passion Bakery.

Pink by Connie Harris oil and glitter on canvas, 30 x 30 in. 2022

Blooming Jamie Smith watercolor and acrylic on paper, 8 x 5 in. $120

 

Every flower is unique, as is every work of art. Far Out Gallery invites you to exhibit your art of flowers through June and July (it’s not too late to bring your art).

One entry per person. The show is hung salon style in the order received. Work may be delivered during regular hours: Friday, Saturday, Sunday 12-6pm. No appointment needed. Artists may choose to sell or not. FOG will receive a 30% commission on all art sold. We want to share your art and fill the gallery with a vast variety of artists’ flowers.

 

After Our Visit to the Flower Market

Ava with her red tulips

Peter, master florist, making bouquets

JUNE-JULY 2022

Every flower is unique, as is every work of art. Far Out Gallery invites all to exhibit their art of flowers throughout the next two months. One entry per person. The show will be hung salon style in the order received.

Work may be delivered during regular hours: Friday, Saturday, Sunday 12-6pm. We want to share your art and fill the gallery with a vast variety of artists’ flowers. Artists may choose to sell or not. FOG will receive a 30% commission on all art sold.

 

Flowers: Open Invitation

June-July 2022

Every flower is unique, as is every work of art. Far Out Gallery invites all to exhibit their art of flowers throughout the next two months. One entry per person. The show will be hung salon style in the order received.

Work may be delivered during regular hours: Friday, Saturday, Sunday 12-6pm. We want to share your art and fill the gallery with a vast variety of artists’ flowers. Artists may choose to sell or not. FOG will receive a 30% commission on all art sold.

 

Spring Break!

Anne Herbst

FAR OUT GALLERY WILL BE CLOSED REGULAR HOURS THROUGH MAY. WE WILL BE OPEN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY.

FOR AN APPOINTMENT, EMAIL ANNE

SEE YOU IN JUNE,

ANNE PETER & MAYA

 

Lawrence Ferlinghetti: A Birthday Tribute

Peter recites the poem Dog, while Anne and Maya look on.

 

Starr and friends organized a tribute parade to celebrate Lawrence Ferlinghetti on his birthday. It was a blast. The Green Street Marching Band led us down Columbus. Afterwards, we gathered at Cafe Trieste where poetry was recited. Peter recited the poem Dog.

Photographs by Starr Sutherland

 

Hello, Spring!

Bipin with a bouquet

 

On Sunday, March 20, FOG celebrated the first day of Spring. We sang songs to welcome the new season. Everyone who came to the gallery during the weekend took home a bouquet of flowers.