I walked thru at a brisk pace the installation of “Wanted” posters on the second floor of Cantor, the modern room, maybe part of the Marmor collection, yesterday (Terry my Terry and I also walked thru the new McMurtry art building, including the roof terrace).

It reminded me of a couple of my Earthwise Productions concert posters, from my series at Cubberley Community Center in (off-campus) Palo Alto, from the late 1990s.

1.

Jon Hess of BGP helped me design this poster for John Doe, (with Matt Nathanson and Jonah Montranga, pka onelinedrawing). The artwork comes from a Rolling Stone magazine article about the fact that George Bush’s Texas executed a huge number of people, all of whom used a public defender as defense (or rather, none of whom could afford private defense). These are more likely booking mugshots rather than from “Wanted” posters. I recall asking John Doe, thru his management company — Jordan Kurland at Zeitgeist or was it Figurehead — for the ok and the response was the fact that John Doe had done a recent benefit for the West Memphis 3.

2.

Jon Hess designed this second poster, for Pansy Division. I think the artwork was from a book he had about Alcatraz. Not sure what he was saying but close enough for punk rock (was he confusing “patsy” with “pansy”?)

3. Item 3 I art directed and Lane Wurster designed, with Sal Maglie the former Giants pitcher for SF Seals, named for a defunct baseball team — get it? Sal looks like a hood, that is all.

4. Further lost in left field or in foul territory, a quickie flyer i.e. from Kinkos and not offset printed, for Mermen using one of the Three Stooges, from a lifted milk ad.

5. another flyer, I made, I call “talk to the hand”.

I would donate all five of these, to Stanford Cantor, if they wanted them. In fact, I could make a set of 75 posters I had produced or helped design, for the Cubberley series, 1995-2001, just let me know. I might take the chutzpah manuever to send to Connie Wolfe the first 2 posters, but will take a closer look at the show first.

edit to add: I’m a wee bit off in my construct: the show is “Missing Persons” and “wanted” is one of three sections therein. To wit:

Following this introductory section, the exhibition is divided into three sections: “Wanted,” “Remains” and “Unseen.” In “Wanted,” artists consider systemic injustice—from slavery to mass incarceration, gentrification and political violence. The word “wanted” takes on multiple meanings in this section; the artists might “want” justice, freedom from oppression, or representation on the walls of museums and in the pages of history. Historical objects such as a 19th-century runaway slave advertisement and the F.B.I. wanted poster for Angela Davis ask the viewer to think about those who intentionally flee from a system of enslavement, imprisonment or institutional racism. Contemporary artists Glenn Ligon and Kara Walker provide a modern-day lens on the legacy of slavery in America. Up thru March 21 and features Kara Walker and Glenn Ligon. I thought of Veronica De Jesus of SF mission, who draws the recently deceased.