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Mona Caron live painting on glass
Mona Caron Drawing at Illusion5 MAAP
Mona Caron Painting at the Red Poppy Art House MAPP
Pequena Bicicleta Voada by Mona Caron
Mona Caron Homage to Gottardo Piazzoni
Mona Caron live painting Slow Food at counterPULSE
Freeway Bird by Mona Caron
Stinging Nettle in Barcelona by Mona Caron
Market Street Railway Mural - by Mona Caron
Noe Valley Mural West by Mona Caron
Cochabamba Mona Caron
Brisbane Mural by Mona Caron
murale dimitri parco del clown
Duboce Bikeway Mural by Mona Caron
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Homage to Gottardo Piazzoni

Live drawing performance in the Piazzoni Room at the M.H. de Young museum in San Francisco, CA. five charcoal sketches, 3' by 5', done in 3 hours. (part of the event "illusion5 - fuera del barrio / beyond our block" curated by René Yañez…

Mona Caron Homage to Gottardo Piazzoni
Feast of Fools at counterPULSE

Slow food, fast painting... live painting at the bi annual slow food "Feast of Fools" at counterPULSE, San Francisco, April 2007. This night's theme was the sea. As guests enjoyed a menu made entirely with seafood and other sea products (chef…

Mona Caron live painting Slow Food at counterPULSE
Painting on Glass

live painting on plexiglass, at a private event at a press agency in downtown San Francisco. Photos by Nick Kasimatis

Mona Caron live painting on glass
Projections + live painting with Rupa & the April Fishes in Greece and India

I went on tour with my friends, the band Rupa and The April Fishes, in their Occupy Everywhere tour to Greece and India,  contributing visual elements to the shows in the form of background projections of my artwork, and live on-…

Mona Caron artwork projected behind Rupa and The April Fishes during concert in Rhodes, Greece
Drawing at Illusion5 MAAP

 - inspired by Giuseppe Ungaretti's 1918 poem Soldati, at "Illusion5" 2006:    

Mona Caron Drawing at Illusion5 MAAP
Live Painting Performances at the Red Poppy Art House MAPP

live painting performances during MAPP (Mission Arts and Performance Project) - victorian nature fantasy, drawn to live music by Lulacruza, at the Red Poppy Art House, 2006:   

Mona Caron Painting at the Red Poppy Art House MAPP
Pequena Bicicleta Voada no São Paulo, Brazil

Some of Sampa's intrepid bicyclists set me up to do a little pichação on Avenida Paulista at Consolaçao (aka "Praça do Ciclista") to kick off their bicicletada (LINK BROKEN), i.e. critical mass (the monthly activist bike ride happening…

Pequena Bicicleta Voada by Mona Caron
Phyteûma betonicifolium

This wildflower grew at Casa Merogusto, in Malvaglia, Switzerland. Inside this house, culinary wonders are created that elevate the gifts of wildflowers and weeds, like my murals do, but through the pleasure of the palate.

Phyteuma - weeds by Mona Caron
Dandelion in Mendrisio

A dandelion in Mendrisio, Switzerland, with painted seeds flying out the courtyard, into the streets, even down to the train station, so that if followed, they lead a visitor to the mother plant.

Dandelion in Mendrisio by Mona Caron
Freeway

Freeways, freeways everywhere.... but which way is really free?  Charcoal mural, drawn live at the happening ILLUSION3, at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco.

Freeway Bird by Mona Caron
The Botanical Mural

This was my first public mural in San Francisco that featured plants only, some of which were found growing in the cracks of the sidewalk directly in front of the wall. It is the mural that spawned my WEEDS project.

Botanical mural by Mona Caron
Stream of Life

A stream of water in the forest, a stream of people in the city. Both are key to the vitality of their respective environments. Private commission for a prominent workers' rights and environmental activist.

Sonchus Asper

Waiting to take over.. . . This is a weed I found growing in a parking lot near this building. Sonchus asper, or spiny sowthistle, is rudely named but actually edible when not covered in nasty city grime. It's a tough and prickly one, won't be…

Coronopus didymus

The name of this weed is particularly sad. Its common English name is apparently "lesser swinecress". With a name like that, I had to pay it tribute.

Weeds project by Mona Caron at the Luggage Store, San Francisco
Dandelion 1

With thanks to Khaled Olaibah and the Masjid Darussalam mosque, San Francisco.

WEEDS series by Mona Caron: Dandelion at masjid darussalam in San Francisco
Aster in Asheville

Found this little Aster weed growing behind Spagnola and Ishmael's studio in Asheville, North Carolina. Across the street from them, on the wall of Collapsible Recording Studios, I made it grow larger. I had a late start, so I painted two,…

Aster in Asheville by Mona Caron
Stinging Nettle in Barcelona

This stinging nettle sprouted by the entrance of Can Masdeu, a stunning, vast and successful nowtopian experiment in the form of an anarchist squat within a 16th century leper hospital perched on a hill in the midst of Barcelona, Spain.…

Stinging Nettle in Barcelona by Mona Caron
Weed in Ahmedabad

This stop-motion animation of the WEEDS series was among the 3 I painted while on tour in India as visual band member of Rupa & the April Fishes (the band who also made the music of my WEEDS video.) It was 2012, the…

Weed in Athens

With thanks to Rupa, Tasos, Sophia, Dimitra at Nosotros social center, Athens, Greece. 

Windows Into the Tenderloin

A mural with miniature-detailed panels narrating life at this corner of the Tenderloin District in San Francisco, along with its history, legends, and an imaginary future. It was created through an immersive community process.

The Market Street Railway Mural

A bird's eye view of San Francisco's Market Street, divided vertically into sections showing 8 different historic periods, from the 1920's into an imaginary future. It's a reflection about what and who the street can be for, as a public space.

Market Street Railway Mural - by Mona Caron
Noe Valley Mural - East Wall

This is the Eastern wall of a diptych at the site of a weekly farmer's market. It contains vignettes showing the neighborhood in the past, and in a utopian future fantasy.

Noe Farmers Market mural by Mona Caron
Noe Valley Murals - West wall

This is the West side of a mural diptych at the Noe farmers market in San Francisco. The banner juxtaposes two neighborhoods that share the same street: The Mission and Noe Valley.

Noe Valley Mural West by Mona Caron
Manifestation Station - a painted utility box

When you look at this utility box from a specific viewpoint, its perspective lines will match those of its surroundings, providing a glimpse into an alternative reality.

"Manifestation Station" by Mona Caron
Water War Mural in Cochabamba, Bolivia

180 feet long mural, painted by invitation of the Cochabamba Federation of Factory Workers and the association of local water cooperatives, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the uprising against water privatization in Bolivia.

Cochabamba Mona Caron
El Camino

This 120 foot long mural uses the invasive mustard plant, and the red and gold colors, as metaphors for El Camino Real, aka the Mission trail, within a 60 foot long map of indigenous people’s prior presence in California.

"El Camino" by Mona Caron
Taking Root

Featuring the first wildflower that made it back to barren land after its rehabilitation from industrial pollution. Its roots contain miniature paintings about the land's history, and a future vision based on resident children's wishes.

Taking Root, by Mona Caron
Brisbane Mural

This mural narrates the history of this Californian small town. It features its native flora, and a series of vignettes show the transformation of land and communities here, from the native Ohlone indians to the present.

Brisbane Mural by Mona Caron
Dimitri mural - Murale Clownesco

This mural is dedicated to the legendary Swiss Clown Dimitri, to his extended family of acrobatic performers and musicians, and to the Dimitri School, in Switzerland.

murale dimitri parco del clown
Duboce Bikeway Mural

A 6000 square foot mural celebrating the first street segment in San Francisco to be converted into a bicycle path. The painting follows a bicyclists' route crossing San Francisco from East to West, mentioning alternative transportation activists…

Duboce Bikeway Mural by Mona Caron
San Mateo County History Museum Mural

A commission by the S. Mateo County History Museum in Redwood City, California, for the permanent exhibit called "The Immigrant Experience in San Mateo County."

Detail of San Mateo County Museum commission - by Mona Caron
Bicycle dandelion - cracking the cement in Porto Alegre

Cracking the pavement, spreading the seeds of a simple solution to much of what ails our urban centers... A corner-wrapping piece in Porto Alegre, Brazil, for the second World Bicycle Forum. 

The World is Watching

A drawing created at a protest to stop the violent repression of the september 07 uprising in Burma, and adopted by San Francisco's Zen center members for subsequent protests.