Like many San Francisco visitors, I am interested in local events, installations, artists, start-ups, and anything that represents the heart of San Francisco.

I came across an art installation recently being installed at Alice Community Garden. Historically, local artists have displayed their 3-D installations there as a gift to the park. This is organized through the neighboring office buildings that own the park. This installation had been to Burning Man in 2015 and the artist was on her way to Burning Man with a new piece to display. Her name, is Misel Chrysafo and she is the artist that drew the artwork/stencil for the pieces she installed at the garden. This year will be her 13th Burn, in a row. As she drilled into the cement and prepared everything for the heavy rains, she shared with me her new medium and how her piece for this year’s Burn came to be.

Misel, was originally a stencil artist and only worked on stencils part -time. She had never really considered working on her art as a profession. But through the process of turning her stencils into installations, her love for creating art was reinvigorated. She had been in art school, attending SFAI since last year where she was learning skills under their 2nd Bachelor’s “skill building” program. Here she was learning to draw and paint with aspirations of becoming a full-time painter.

Shout out to SFAI, an institution that is a traditional art school, with alumni like Annie Leibovitz, Richard Diebenkorn and Paul Kos. SFAI also has a long history in San Francisco and its teachings are deeply rooted in authenticity and hard skill building. Misel, who is also know as Michelle (an English translation of her name), shared that she did not want to create art in the 2-D space but instead wanted to learn how draw and paint by painters who can share their years of experience. She was also counseled by SF’s beloved Alicia McCarthy on her patterns of doodles and how she might use them. Alicia is a professor at SFAI currently and a muralist in SF.

I asked Misel what she had planned for Burning Man this year, and she shared her new medium and how she came to develop this new process. She used her childhood doodles, pictured here:



to over lay onto photographs and/or paintings and then create vector files for use in CNC. Wondering how she was able to do that and distribute her doodles, she gave me a peak into her process. She would not tell me her secret but instead shared that they are placed on the photos after the photos are heavily manipulated in Lightroom® to bring out the dark and light aspects of the photo. And the rest is completed in Adobe Illustrator®.

Here is a great shot of her piece at Burning Man this year.



Photo credit: Manual Pinto

If you would like to see her pieces from 2015 at Alice Community Garden, you can visit the garden as it is open 24 x 7. Conveniently, located off Harrison Street, behind the Wholefoods on 4th, on Lapu Lapu St & Bonifacio St, San Francisco, CA 94107. There isn’t much written about this garden, but it is definitely worth the visit. Here is the google link: https://tinyurl.com/28nn89n7

If you would like to check out her doodles from her collaboration from 2016 you can go here: https://www.everfest.com/magazine/burning-man-photos-2016

Editors note: you can find the work of Manual Pinto here: https://www.manuel-pinto.com/

TZena, Staff Writer