11/16/07

Unpleasant experience

by sussunen

I visited this charming-looking art shop because I am writing a travel article on San Francisco. The people in the shop were on the phone, and did not acknowledge me as I walked in. I took a couple of photos while waiting for them to get off the phone, because I wanted to jot down the names of the artists and feature the shop in my article. The woman got off the phone long enough to bark at me for photograhing and demand that I delete the pictures. She then got back on the phone and made me wait there as she chatted with apparently a relative. I left, and regret to say that the artists or this shop will not be featured in my article or any other article that I will write in the future. I have talked with lots of shop owners and gallerists in the course of doing my research, and nobody else has been rude or aggressive towards me. Too bad for the artists in question, that their work is in a shop where customers are ignored and journalists are chased away.

• Pros: colorful and interesting looking on the outside
• Cons: chilly and rude reception of customers

Colorful and artfully stocked, this enchanting store lives up to its name.

by Contributor

In Short
With its Frida Kahlo tote bags and sacred heart refrigerator magnets--not to mention the adjoining gallery, displaying excellent works by postmodern Chicano artists--this charming little store fits in just fine with the increasingly boho-yuppie environs that surround it. But it also maintains close ties with the Latino community in the Mission (its owners are longtime community activists) and with Mexico, offering arts and crafts imported directly from known Mexican artists at fair prices.