COVID Art on Valencia Street
May 6, 2020
The Chrome store on Valencia Street in San Francisco is boarded and colored with art and graffiti.
It seemed like forever ago that we used to walk the streets, without caution, without masks, and we were able to enter our favorite restaurants and stores. The shelter-in-place has impacted much of the United States and it left us missing the real world. It left us reminiscent of our freedom.
Loló, a family-owned restaurant that serves Jaliscan-Californian style cuisine puts artwork up on their storefront that displays words of sentiment during the shelter-in-place orders.
Much of the city of San Francisco has become a canvas for artists and creators. The honey bear figure with a mask could also be seen in parts of the city such as the Fillmore stamped onto mailboxes and storefronts.
A boarded store on Valencia St. that features artwork similar to that of Banksy.
The storefront has the word “vaccines” written on it. The art is very telling of the shelter-in-place and living in the times of COVID-19.
A storefront displays a sign that addresses customers and pedestrians with a positive message.
San Francisco has always been known for being a liberal city. Store owners encourage residents through hopeful messages in their storefronts, urging the importance of harmony during stressful times. The message above tells readers to help each other and know that we are not all alone in all of this.
A “we are closed” sign posted on the window of 1-2-3-4-Go! Records at 1038 Valencia St.
Other store owners display ways in which you could support their businesses during the shelter-in-place orders. The photo was taken early April when California still had not extended the shelter-in-place orders until May 31st, 2020. Many business owners thought that they would be opening their businesses back up sooner. Unfortunately, this was not the case.