Today we watched a film, A Brush with the Tenderloin. Reflect on how muralist Mona Caron uses her art to paint into view a hidden part of San Francisco's landscape. How what she does similar to Marjane Sarapi's art in The Complete Persepolis?
How is one's imagination sometimes inadequate in depicting certain realities? How does the art help one conceptualize unspeakable or unimaginable realities like poverty and war, homelessness and alienation?
In three paragraphs, minimally, reflect on the art and the artist and the way artists tell stories. Is this a different kind of narrative? What do the two genres share?
http://abrushwiththetenderloin.com/
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Jacqueline Diulio
Professor Sabir
English 1B
15 November 2011
A Brush with the Tenderloin
Mona Caron, a muralist in San Francisco, painted a mural in the Tenderloin district to restore the history and past of the city. She used historic landmarks, such as the Black Hawn Jazz Club, and everyday people to resemble the quickly changing metropolitan area. The Black Hawn Jazz Club is just one of many landmarks Caron painted to restore the neighborhood although the club no longer exist. By painting these monuments, Caron was trying to show the quickly changing Tenderloin district, in its former and present glory.
While painting the mural, Caron came into contact with some of the homeless people and street vendors who visit the area every day. In order to keep the memories of these people alive, Caron painted these individuals on the wall. Caron carefully selected those who were influential to the city, such as Indian Joe, who formally lived on an Indian reservation. He moved to the Tenderloin and lived on the streets where he became clean from his former heroin and speed addictions and was able to turn his life around. Indian Joe stated he loved living on the streets because he can take care of himself better by living off the land as his ancestors once did. Caron’s The simple act of painting Indian Joe on her mural changed his life in that he will always be on the streets weather in person or in the of the mural itself.
During the creation of the mural, some graffiti was tagged on a cop car that Caron had painted. She was forced to change the car to an all black "undercover cop car" so her painting would not be disfigured again. Although the Tenderloin district is known to be a poor society with lots of violence, the people of the community came together to try and stop any further tagging from taking place on the mural. This painting represented hope and survival to many of the citizens of the district and they were very upset to see someone try and distort it.
This painting brought the community together to try and protect the history and livelihood of the society. Caron was able to capture the past, present, and the ever-changing future in her mural. Many people respect her for the time and effort she put into the mural, and will forever be remembered by the sprit of the Tenderloin.
Jay Stabler
Professor Sabir
English 1B
15 November 2011
Freewrite for a Brush with the Tenderloin
Mona Caron has done a brilliant job capturing the significance of what makes the Tenderloin district a vibrant place. Her mural included everything from the Black Hawk Jazz club, the pinnacle of the jazz scene throughout the fifties and sixties, to a homeless Cherokee named Indian Joe. She immortalized other as well, including a feisty lady, Didi, known for giving police a piece of her mind and for giving nice people kisses. She included a disabled Vietnam veteran named Sarge, a newly drug-free kite maker and a shot out hippie who took a swig of his drink when he found he was part of the mural.
She attempted to include a cop car in the mural because she thought it rounded out the theme, but someone vandalized that portion. It’s unfortunate that people are so small-minded that would try to ruin a piece of art that someone worked so tirelessly on. Fortunately, she painted the cop car black so it wouldn’t be noticed and vandalized again. It was funny when a passerby noticed it and said “Oh, nice, you included the undercover cop car”.
Mona Coral captured the reality of this section of the city, both past and present. She made all of the figures in the work beautiful people rather than portraying them as homeless or addicted to drugs.
The mural bridged the gaps between what that section of the city use to be like and what it is today. She stated “If I can just do my part to plant a seed of change through art, then I’ve done my job”. In my opinion, she has most definitely done her job. The mural is beautiful and is a wonderful tribute to those that to make the Tenderloin an interesting place. My favorite part of the film was when Indian Joe’s friends bought him a ticket to see Alice Cooper. He got to meet his hero and discuss face painting methods. Brilliant.
Tia Gangopadhyay
Professor Sabir
English 1B 9-10:50 AM
15 November 2011
A Brush With the Tenderloin
In the film, A Brush with the Tenderloin, muralist Mona Caron uses her art to capture the culture and history of the Tenderloin district in San Francisco. She portrays the Tenderloin as it is but also paints historical buildings and structures that were present in the past, and certain hopeful images of the future. In this way, Mona captures the true essence of the Tenderloin. She even paints various residents of the Tenderloin in their native habitat. In this way, she depicts the community of the Tenderloin.
Marjane Sarapi's art in The Complete Persepolis uses this same methodology: telling the story realistically and based on facts while still reflecting on the hopeful aspects of a city or country in near ruins. For Sarapi that meant telling her own story and that of her family and friends. For Caron, it meant depicting the lives of residents in the Tenderloin and their hopeful stories of resilience and strength--whether it was overcoming a heroin addiction or struggling with poverty and homelessness.
Mona Caron, through her mural, manages to depict a view of the Tenderloin that is optimistic and realistic at the same time--an image that celebrates the unique community and culture that is found in that part of San Francisco. The mural celebrates the dynamics of the Tenderloin. In this way, the mural as well as other art forms is able to conceptualize major themes such as poverty, war, homelessness and alienation. Whether it's a comic book depicting war or a mural depicting homelessness and alienation, these art mediums make it possible to connect with intangible ideas. Both, graphic novels and murals are unique kinds of narratives, that are strikingly similar but also very different. However, both genres have a healing power, the ability to create a sense of understanding and realization, and the ability to join people into a community.
Nick Malecek
Professor Sabir
English 1B 9:00-10:50am T/Th
15 November 2011
A Brush with the Tenderloin Response
Art can sometimes skew the truth instead of exposing it because the artist wants to create an image that they consider beautiful. The artist can omit many aspects of reality because they think the image will detract from the beauty of the piece. However, artists such as Mona Caron and Marjane Satrapi recognize the importance of conveying things as they are.
In the film A Brush with the Tenderloin, we witness the creation of a mural through selected sequences of video filmed during the process. There is a great story within just this brief video compilation of community and humanity. The Tenderloin is considered one of the more rough neighborhoods in San Francisco, but this film looks past the stereotypes and shows what a strong community of individuals it really is. "Indian Joe", a homeless Native American who is ten years sober on drugs, is a prime example of this. An aside featuring Indian Joe shows how he is a product of a hard life, and the fact that he still appreciates the little things is touching. He mentions that he will probably "stay cleaner out here" than indoors, meaning that he has grown so accustom to living on the streets that he could never go back to a "regular" life. It is character such as these that Mona Caron incorporates into her mural. She could have chose to omit these people from the work, but she knows that these people are integral to the story of the Tenderloin.
This same concept holds true in Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis", where the struggles and suffering of people are conveyed thoroughly in her story. Again, she could have chose to tip-toe around these images, maybe alluding to them or implicitly suggesting their content. Yet in "Persepolis" we can see groups of people getting blown up by bombs and other such negative images. These are part of the story, and without them the art would not be complete.
Works Cited
Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis. New York: Pantheon, 2007. Print.
A Brush with the Tenderloin. Dir. Paige Bierma. Perf. Mona Caron. 2011. DVD.
Adetona Adewale
Professor Sabir
English 1B
15 November 2011
A brush in the Tenderloin Freewrite
She uses her art to represent a heavily stereo typed community of the tenderloin in San Francisco by showing the residence as they actually are and not as they are thought to be. She allows them to take pictures of themselves and then she repaints them herself. She meets the members of the community and asks them to describe themselves in an accurate manner so her paintings can be as realistic as possible.
Her art is similar to the “Complete Persepolis” because like the book her art uses pictures to add more volume to the dialogue. In addition, her art bridges the gap between the real and the surreal by being as realistic just like Persepolis did as she possibly can. Moreover, her art matches Persepolis in many ways but they are almost identical when it comes to character expression.
Your imagination can be insufficient at times when trying to describe certain realities because your imagination may have many limitations on where it can go. But your imagination can help you better comprehend ideas like poverty, war, homelessness, and alienation by opening new possibilities for your brain to deeply delve into and explore. Furthermore, your imagination may hold no bounds and therefore can allow your mind to wander to better understand your realities.
For anyone who is interested, Leymah Gbowee was on The Daily Show (with Jon Stewart) this past Monday (11/14). Here is the link for the interview:
Leymah Gbowee on The Daily Show
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