Ocean Beach, Breeeeeze (Week 05)

I love the beach, I pretty much grew up in the ocean so I was very excited to go to Ocean Beach. After a mere 10 minute drive I was at this gorgeous beach, and that made me very upset. I have been living in San Francisco for 2 years and today was my first visit? The entire area was breath taking and I knew once pressed the "on" button on my camera and took the first photograph, I wouldn't stop (and I didn't).

Upon my arrival to the beach, there is a large sign that not only blocks the beautiful sunlight, it carries a negative message. I didn't like this sign at all, it's basically a warning sign telling you to be careful but the way its worded was dreadful. I felt that instead of being a warning sign it was a sign that stopped you to remind you that you are in real life. I understand that it isn't my decision to make I decided that because everything that you saw was green, blue and beautiful and the breeze was killer it was unreal. Therefore I concluded that this sign is a reality check and so, I was no longer upset by it.

At the beach itself there weren't many textual signs, but there were other kinds. My favorite were people's footprints, they acted as a natural sign of direction. You could follow the footprints but you would probably end up nowhere; you could also look at them all in a big picture and see they all lead to the water.

In no hurry what-so-ever, i went over to the other side to the Beach Chalet to see the murals. In class we were discussing the issue of preserving and maintaining the murals, but that didn't really come into context until I saw them. The murals are beautiful hand painted pictures of San Francisco and its people in the early 20th century. If you take a few steps closer and look at the details on the pictures, the paint and tiles are slowly fading away and breaking. There is so much detailed work that isn't really accounted for and I realized that these murals needed maintaining. 

The issue of maintenance follows if the city would perserve the art works. I think of all the cities in the US, San Francisco is one of the few (if not the only) city that has some sort of culture. These murals are  captures of what the city and the people were at a point in time, a historic time. It is relative to the people of today and San Franciscos youngster to remember things aren't always good but you make the most of it and pick yourself up. Similar to the sign at the beach, these murals are almost like a reality check. I think that is an important sign and message to the people of San Francisco.