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Dear Reader,

There are three weekends left to view an exhibition I have organized for Hayes Valley Art Works. This is a show where everyone looks right together. The work complements and enhances by proximity. I conceived of the show because of Zip’s sketching, which he would always commence during breaks in the Presidio as a fellow volunteer forester. I became aware of Ryan’s work through a single large painting of an egret that commands a large hall in the Presidio Trust’s Fort Winfield Scott offices. Laurie was recommended by Jack Laws of the Nature Journal Club, an extensive network of people who sketch nature. Here is information to give you a taste for what you will surely enjoy.

Statement for Exhibition: Nature is all around us in the city, whether native species or invasive newcomers.  San Francisco artists Laurie Wigham, Ryan Jones and Zip Lehnus work at the intersection of nature journaling and urban sketching to explore the teeming richness of life in our city. This exhibition celebrates the immediacy of impression in the works of these artists, the fresh sight/siting which harmonizes the natural and the urban. Wigham is a prolific sketch artist, recording all facets of the city.  Jones (1978-2008) was a self-taught artist whose love of nature is preserved in the watercolor works on display.  Lehnus always has a sketch pad and paint in pocket ready to record the environment whenever an idle moment provides.  Wigham and Lehnus are both educators; you may have attended one of Laurie’s journaling classes or Lehnus’s workshops at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture. Jones was a dedicated teacher where he ran youth education programs in the Presidio. We hope that this selection of works from the hands of gifted artists will show you ways to discover the rich environment we live in through your own sketches.

Ryan Jones (1978-2008)

After a memorable class visit to the Presidio Native Plant Nursery at the age of 15 Ryan Jones decided he wanted to become a park ranger.  So clear was his conviction and passion that the Park scrambled to create opportunities for match his contagious enthusiasm and post-college he fulfilled his park ranger aspirations along with other leadership roles in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

As Ryan’s relationship with urban national parklands evolved art became a medium for expressing his love and passion for nature.  In addition to the artwork he created, he began offering “art in the field” classes to volunteers and youth caring for the environment – from the National Park to their local neighborhoods.  In 2008 Ryan was killed in a motorcycle accident at he age of 30.  Today his artwork continues a life of its own in park publications and interpretive signage.

-Damien Raffa, Senior Park Experience & Partnerships Specialist, Community Partnerships, The Presidio Trust

Zip Lehnus

Zip Lehnus is an urban artist living in San Francisco. He works in pen and watercolor. His focus is urban sketching—observing and recording the world around him, from rusting pipes to charismatic seagulls. Zip sees his art practice as a method to engage fully with the world around him, a means of pursuing mindfulness. The final art is a ticket stub in the pocket, a souvenir of the experience.

Zip studied Industrial Design at the University of Illinois, won the North American Butterfly Association art contest in 2015, and has been teaching urban sketching since 2018.

Laurie Wigham

For the last decade Laurie has been sketching on the streets of the city, looking at the ways that people interact with nature in the urban environment.  She looks at curated settings like landscaped parks and community gardens but also the untended spaces on semi-wild hilltops, beaches and the weedy edges of civilization.

Laurie mostly sketches with other people, at Urban Sketching and Nature Journaling events, but when the city locked down in the spring of 2020 she went out on her own to sketch the wildflowers on Bernal Hill’s off-leash dog park.

LaborFest began a month of new programming on labor and culture on July 1st. You can access a calendar of events at LaborFest.net

I have photographs and an essay featured in the Art Gallery at their website. The sampling of photographs are from ongoing documentation of the pandemic board art and parklet structures that have appeared during shelter-in-place policies in San Francisco.

“That their more lowly path has been allotted to them by the hand of God; that it is their part faithfully to discharge its duties, and contentedly to bear its inconveniences; that the objects about which worldly men conflict so eagerly are not worth the contest; that the peace of mind, which Religion offers indiscriminately to all ranks, affords more true satisfaction than all the expensive pleasures which are beyond the poor man’s reach; that in this view the poor have the advantage; that if their superiors enjoy more abundant comforts, they are also exposed to many temptations from which the inferior classes are happily exempted; that, ‘having food and raiment, they should be therewith content,’ since their situation in life, with all its evils, is better than they have deserved at the hand of God; and finally, that all human distinctions will soon be done away, and the true followers of Christ will all, as children of the same Father, be alike admitted to the possession of the same heavenly inheritance. Such are the blessed effects of Christianity on the temporal well-being of political communities.” – William Wilberforce (1759-1833), quoted in Upton Sinclair, The Profits of Religion (1918), page 88

” ‘God has not changed his mind,’ [born again pastor Hank] Kunneman then said. ‘President Trump won. The nation is now in a place where we are being tested. God is going to fulfill what he has spoken through the prophets,’ he continued. ‘There are some prophets that have backed off, they’re not pressing in. And the prophets that will, the believers that continue to press in are the ones are going to be rewarded in this day. … These that are criticizing the prophets are going to see that they were, in fact, right.’ “

‘Great fear is even in the very bowels of Hell,’ he continued, ‘and those who are cooperating with evil. Why are they afraid? It is because of what I am in the process of doing and what I will do, that I will bring an independence day to this nation. I will deliver it. I will set it free.’ ” – from Cammy Pedroja, “Pastor Hank Kunneman Who Says Donald Trump Won Election Calls Biden’s Presidency ‘Test of Faith’ ,” Newsweek, May 26, 2021; https://www.newsweek.com/pastor-hank-kunneman-who-says-donald-trump-won-election-calls-bidens-presidency-test-faith-1589420

“ ‘I acknowledge no civil power; I am the subject of no prince; I claim more than this—I claim to be the supreme judge and director of the consciences of men—of the peasant that tills the field, and of the prince that sits upon the throne; of the household of privacy, and the legislator that makes laws for kingdoms; I am the sole, last supreme judge of what is right and wrong.” – Cardinal [Henry Edward] Manning (1808-1892), speaking in the name of the Pope, Sinclair, page 118

R is here with you now. It is time to face the reality that as much as Q helped us by embedding in the Deep State his usefulness has ended. Now I know that you are expectant to see Trump retake his throne on March 4th. But, Q promised much and did not deliver.

I am in a much better position to assist you moving forward. I am not embedded in a governmental position. I am a roaming free agent with important contacts all over the world. My intelligence comes from many reliable sources. For instance, let’s consider this very important news below.

This quickly scrawled drawing comes from a reliable source who witnessed a Jewish cabal-operated submarine firing a laser gun at an iceberg, splitting it in two. This is happening on a daily basis without our knowledge. Why, you may ask? So that we see but not understand the result of their craft, such as the current winter devastation to the US. They want to bring you knee deep in water to induce you to believe the hoax called global warming!

That will not happen! We are not lemmings. You see the parachute Trump uses to avoid the pitfalls of the Deep State? We will all have a parachute when that important moment comes. As I write parachute supplies are being amassed in a secret warehouse. R will reveal when the time arrives. Stand back.

I just placed this trellis in a bed at Hayes Valley Art Works. I was given invaluable aid by Stephen Santamaria, a manager of the garden and a carpenter extraordinaire. I searched for the roots of jasmine at an abandoned community garden at Mission Creek Harbor. The hunt was successful.