{"id":275704,"date":"2026-04-19T15:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/275704\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T15:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:58:16","slug":"doug-rhodes-clarion-alleys-only-open-studio-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/275704\/","title":{"rendered":"Doug Rhodes, Clarion Alley\u2019s only open studio artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout the Mission, alleys are hubs of public art, with garage doors and the backs of buildings covered in painted images and statements. Among the standouts is Clarion Alley, home to the eponymous mural project<\/a>, where hundreds of artists have left their marks over the years.<\/p>\n

One of those artists is\u00a0Doug Rhodes<\/a>, whose \u201cTree City<\/a>\u201d has been a fixture on the alley near Mission\u00a0Street since 2013. A short distance away from his mural is his open studio, the only one in the alley, which is located between Mission and Valencia streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rhodes\u2019s artwork fills walls, racks and shelves inside the repurposed garage. One acrylic painting shows the Transamerica Pyramid submerged in water; in another, plant people strike poses in Victorian bay windows. His sculptures, many of them with\u00a0 large, protruding eyes<\/a>, seem to stare back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Together, they map Rhodes\u2019s years as an artist, a body of whimsical work driven by his imagination.<\/p>\n

A lot of stuff is AI now, \u2026 but I think people can still want what I call \u2018real art,\u2019\u201d he added referring to art that \u201chumans make with their blood, sweat and tears and their life experience, that they\u2019re putting their emotions into.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On my first visit to his studio, Rhodes, a Generation Xer, was perched behind his work station, facing Clarion Alley. Nearby sat a stack of his book, \u201cThe Last Garibaldi<\/a>,\u201d alongside multiple prints for sale. A white laundry basket held inexpensive picture frames he buys at Salvation Army and Community Thrift on Valencia Street.<\/p>\n

When I returned a week later, Rhodes was in the same spot, working on a new 3-D piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m playing with some ideas,\u201d he said. \u201cIt involves motion sensors and motors and stuff, sort of inspired by a cuckoo clock. I always loved how cuckoo clocks had something that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other current projects include small collages made from prints of his originals and a globe with a stand, solidly painted black, that he\u2019d come across.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of cool-looking, but I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m going to do with it yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"ADoug Rhodes\u2019 mural \u201cTree City,\u201d seen here on the right behind the chain link fence, has been a fixture in Clarion Alley since 2013. His art studio is right around the corner \u2014 the white garage door facing the alley. Photo by JL Odom.\"AOne of Doug Rhodes\u2019 works in progress is a bowling pin from the Mission Bowling Club. So far, he\u2019s created a base for it and added eyes. It will be featured in an exhibition down the road. Photo by JL Odom.\"ArtMany of Doug Rhodes\u2019 paintings blend nature and San Francisco fixtures, such as the Transamerica Pyramid, the Golden Gate Bridge and Victorian houses. The large painting on the back wall, seen here, depicts a sidewalk in the Mission neighborhood bustling with produce and plant people. It\u2019s titled \u201cReflection on Mission Street.\u201d Photo by JL Odom.\"ADoug Rhodes\u2019 work station faces Clarion Alley, located in the Mission. Visitors can find Rhodes in his studio on most afternoons, though he tends to take Tuesdays and Wednesdays off to walk around San Francisco and get inspired. Photo by JL Odom.\"ASmall collages, made from prints of his original pieces, hang on a wall in Doug Rhodes\u2019 art studio. It\u2019s one of a few projects that currently has his attention, and he says he\u2019s having fun with it. Photo by JL Odom.\"ADoug Rhodes stands in the rear of his art studio \u2014 a repurposed garage in Clarion Alley. Nearly every inch of it features his unique artwork. Photo by JL Odom.<\/p>\n

Another work in progress, a \u201cretired\u201d bowling pin from Mission Bowling Club<\/a>, was on his desk. So far, he\u2019d added a base and eyes, which, as with the other peepers throughout the studio, seemed ever-watchful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoy making them [look] sincere,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During his youth in Southern California, outside of doing bike jumps with friends, he\u2019d busy himself with drawing eyeballs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He now uses old spotlights and glass domes for the orbs, which bulge from book covers, paintings and other objects. Two atop his work station resemble creatures in 1980s fantasy films, like \u201cLabyrinth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many have sold, including \u201cFurry Face,\u201d white-and-brown-furred from forehead to chin, with eyelashes, a nose and lips. It was featured in a circus freak-themed group exhibition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018I\u2019ll do a taxidermy human freak\u2014that would be really trippy,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Timing, and luck, got him his studio. He lives in the building next door and had been working out of another garage there for several years. As a tenant, he was on a waitlist for his current spot, which opened up at the beginning of the Covid pandemic in 2020. He now uses the other, smaller garage for storage.<\/p>\n

Rhodes moved to the Mission from Santa Cruz in 1999, and he\u2019s been here ever since, save for a few years in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, a beach town where he ran a gallery with his then-girlfriend, doing monthly exhibitions to which he drew people with free sangria.<\/p>\n

He moved back in 2011 and reclaimed his sublet apartment.<\/p>\n

Rhodes stays active in and beyond the studio, showing work in spaces like Evolved SF, doing live-painting at events such as The Edwardian Ball and curating artists for the How Weird Street Faire and other festivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like to say, \u2018The art scene\u2019s dead here,\u2019 but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s dead. It\u2019s just not the hangout scene \u2014 the \u2018work in a cafe and do your art and live in a place and buy records\u2019 scene \u2014 that it used to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During the dot-com boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he took on animation\u00a0 projects, including interactive CD-ROMs<\/a> for B.B. King and the progressive metal band Queensr\u00ffche.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good time to do it, because everybody wasn\u2019t a digital artist,\u201d he said. \u201cIt did take me away from painting and other stuff, but in the end, it gave me a lot of tools.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Working as a digital art freelancer was lucrative, he said, but his interest waned.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a certain point, I just realized it\u2019s like chasing the dragon. You always need that newest thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The past couple of decades have been devoted to physical art-making. He\u2019s found a way to make it work financially.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore lately, I\u2019m just like, \u2018Okay, if I budget properly and with the prints that I sell, I\u2019m able to cover the expenses for the most part.\u2019 Every once in a while, I\u2019ll pick up a side gig,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Among the nods to San Francisco throughout his pieces is a specific ode to the neighborhood he\u2019s called home these many years. \u201cReflection on Mission Street\u201d\u00a0 includes produce stands and a busy sidewalk scene. It brings to mind walks to the 16th Street BART station.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The original hangs high in his studio, on the same wall as his many small collage outputs\u2014of which he\u2019s aiming for 100.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m actually having so much fun with them that I might just keep doing them forever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throughout the Mission, alleys are hubs of public art, with garage doors and the backs of buildings covered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[111984,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-275704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-people-we-meet-mission","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}