Today in SOMA

FYI... the SFMM will be open today in the garage at 1268 Folsom Street, from 12 - 5pm. It also happens to be the workshop/studio of Marcia Stuermer, one of our participants who did the Chinatown box:

About the box: Bonsai & Power Lines

Genius Loci: Various locations around Denver
By: Jesse Howard

In any urban environment, there often exists conflict between natural and built environments. Perhaps the most fascinating is the unintended macro-bonsai trees created by groups of linesmen with the highly coveted job of trimming tree branches away from power lines.


Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. This curator is now intrigued to look at the relationship between trees and power lines in through the lens of high craft.

About the box: Lawyer's Take (3)

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. In our initial request, we asked all participants to design their boxes in landscape format. Rebecca, being a lawyer of course broke the rules... with style.

Genius Loci: Fridge, Bernal Heights, SF
By: Rebecca Grey

Its the fridge. It contains life's greatest joys.


PS: Rebecca is the Mom of Dinah, wife of Chris.

About the Box: Chris' brain (2)

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. In addition to being a talented product designer, he is also the Dad of Dinah, and wrote about their family's "making of" on his blog.

Genius Loci: My Head By Chris Luomanen

Sadly, my Genius Loci is in my head, which is like a big cluttered workshop with partially finished projects lying around all over the place. I go there to relax, pick up one of those dusty projects and putter. Sometimes things get done, sometimes I just make a bigger mess. I should probably get out more.

About the Box: Sleeping on a bunny's tale (1)

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. Dinah was one of our youngest, yet most magical participants. Her entire family participated- Mom and Dad will be featured next. Dad (Chris Luomanen) wrote about the "making of" on his blog.

Genius Loci: Rabbit Hutch
By Dinah Grey, Age 6

If I could go anywhere I would get shrunk down really small and live in a rabbit hutch. I would ride the bunnies all day long. And at night I would sleep with my head on their fluffy tails.

That or go to sushi.

About the box: the city under our feet

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. Peter Forrest Kline is a long-time garden designer here in San Francisco.


Genius Loci: Underground
By Peter Forrest Kline

My box is about San Francisco's underground.. I don't mean some counter culture scene but the physical place under San Franciscans' feet.

As a gardener here for many years, I've dug in it's mostly sandy, soft soil, regularly finding an old marble or fragment of pottery--sometimes an old cast iron toy or clay bottle, even a layer of charcoal & fused glass, evidence of the 1906 earthquake & fire.


Note: garden by Peter.

About the Box: A special little alley in Chinatown

Genius Loci: Ross Alley, SF
By Marcia Stuermer

This genius loci is Ross Alley located in Chinatown in San Francisco. The alley has always to me possessed a strange presence, seeming like some type of movie set with various layers of hidden meaning, history and everyday life.

Although now somewhat 'famous' with the tourist set, because of the proliferation of travel guide books, it still holds a charming mystique.

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. This Loci is iconic for San Francisco, and Marcia did it justice.