Last week I read on Arrested Motion that Josh Keyes was going to be having a show of some of his new work at Fecal Face Dot Gallery in San Francisco. Hooray! So I hustled up a plan and tricked Mandy into accompanying me to opening night of the show by telling her that it would be fun. Some would say that she is up for any adventure...some would say that she is easily tricked.
Things started off well in that Mandy's keen eye for good neighborhood bars led us to Zanzibar. I felt at home immediately with a trillion beers on tap, a giant smoking patio and a jukebox that seemed to only have Ramones and Willie Nelson songs in it. What more could you ask for? Needless to say we stayed much too long. My favorite beer was something called The Devastator. The Dominator? The Decapitator? Who can be expected to fucking remember with a name that's even close to any of those and what they imply.
Total Domination! That's what it's called. Get it now.
We got a bit lost on our walk to the gallery but it wasn't our fault (see one paragraph above). Eventually we made it there and took a look at what was doing. Josh's paintings were terrific and it was great to be able to get up close and see how he does some some of his amazing work. You wouldn't believe how simple his paintings appear to be when you stand right in front of them. It's like the guy never makes a mistake. No rough spots, no vague areas that he was fudging, no nothing. His paint surface is almost like glass. I had to search hard to even find some spots that looked like he MIGHT have corrected something. Bastard.
Afterwards, Mandy 'called bullshit' because that's what she likes to do. She didn't like that there were only four final paintings at the show with some pencil drawings to fill up the spaces in between and I tended to agree. It's true, I was hoping to see a larger number of finished paintings and was a bit disappointed, but I was glad to have seen those that I did. Luckily for our evening, this was the new positive Andrew that has an excellent outlook on life (see two paragraphs above) and does not get crabby anymore.
When did this become a goddamn Yelp review? Fucking Christ.
The point of this post was that after seeing it everyday for years when I enter my parking garage, I noticed that there was a ten foot wide Josh Keyes mural painted on the wall. Seriously, it's been there for five fucking years. I AM TRULY AN IDIOT. I've seen the mural almost everyday and almost always appreciate it as I pass by, but I'm so retarded that not only can I not put 2 and 2 together. Apparently I don't even know what a 2 is.
The Mural is in the entryway to the Locust Street Parking Garage in Walnut Creek if you're ever in the area.