We got the opportunity to meet Brent and it was one that really touch our hearts. He is probably one of the rare people we’ve meet whose eyes seemed to have seen all. It isn’t easy to be an artist in San Francisco, and survival is a little hard and even harder now than ever.
The Examiner mentions that “with apartments renting at $2000 a month and condos selling for five million and up, it’s become a city for the 1%. But some artists have managed to survive without compromising their vision of making art that transcends boundaries and speaks to both environmental concerns and mystical beliefs. Just ask Brent Bushnell who has managed to survive in San Francisco for decades, with one stint “in exile” in Sacramento… Brent came to San Francisco in 60s and got his MFA at SFSU, studying with noted Bay Area sculptor Stephen de Staebler, (among others)”
His studio was a small one and there was so much organized clutter all around but the kind of clutter where everything seemed to be used often and never lost it’s place on the shelf or crevice. Just like all the tool he had used to create his art, he and his passion for will forever have a place in this city.
The other wonderful thing is that the homeless, encamped around the sculpture, tended the the works to keep them from being destroyed. Brent and Sofia brought some art even into the grim and difficult lives of San Francesco’s lowest of the low, proving that art can communicate across all boundaries.
“Brent shares concerns about the environment, our wanton misuse of natural resources and destruction of the wilderness. He is on a journey compelled by the love of art and, for both, it is the journey that is the reward.” You can find some of Brent’s sculptures around the city. “And the wonderful thing is that the homeless, encamped around the sculptures, tended the works to keep them from being destroyed, proving that art can communicate across all boundaries, even into the grim and difficult lives of those in San Francisco.”
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