Mark Harris
It is the neighborhood where I had my very first art studio. I was in a building that was started by an artist here back in the early 80s. It was called SOMA Artists Studios, and it was originally called The Bridge Art School, I believe. It was a very established studio space full of artists.
I was welcomed into the space, learned a lot about my craft and how to present my work. The woman who started this studio space—she’s 91 years old. She’s still painting, still lives in San Francisco and is a mentor of mine. I recently reconnected with her about two years ago and learned a lot about the history of the space, so it has a lot of meaning for me.
I was working full time in South San Francisco. I would I would drive up I-80 North into The City, get of right at 6th Street. I’d turn on to Brannan and then I go up to 5th and park in the back of this building. Definitely very fragrant. It was a mixture of cheap Pine-Sol cleaner and other unpleasant things. I saw a lot of needles, a lot of people that were in in bad shape mentally. I saw people who were in need of housing and I saw a lot of hopelessness. It’s a very sobering experience for me to come to the studio when I was in that space. I feel like this impacted my work, without a doubt. It made me very grateful to have a home and to have a job.
Around 2007, my work began to get more political and I think that the environment of the neighborhood impacted that. These people are citizens and they are in our community. I believe that engaging someone is the least you can do for someone that’s in such a dire circumstance. You can look that person in the eye and at least acknowledge them.
This part of SOMA has changed a bit. There’s a lot more luxury housing that’s moved in. The new baseball stadium has come in and that’s brought a lot more traffic. The tech startups are starting to come back in the area and it’s a mix of the extremes of income and education and health.
Unfortunately, the building is no longer housing artists. It’s still there, but the owner of the building did not renew the lease and about 40 artists lost their space. Fortunately for me, I left the studio space before it went under and moved away. When I came back to The City I was able to find another art studio on Bryant Street literally one block from my old space. It allows me to have a place to go and practice my craft. Without a working studio space, it’d be very hard to do what I do.