Sam Whiting

4 days ago | sfchronicle.com | Sam Whiting

Debbie Harms, left, and Shana LeBlanc enjoy the sun and vibes on Hippie Hill where a “Peace, Love and Volo” sports event coincided with Easter gatherings. There was also an unofficial 4/20 gathering at Robin Williams Meadow in Golden Gate Park. Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. ChronicleThe Vargas family watches as two of their kids compete in a flag-football-like game near where a “Peace, Love and Volo” sports event took place on Easter Sunday.

1 week ago | sfchronicle.com | Sam Whiting

The landmark Contemporary Bay Area Figurative Painting exhibition featuring a dozen artists at the Oakland Art Museum in 1957 had all the major names — Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, Elmer Bischoff — plus one nobody had ever heard of. That name was Bruce McGaw. He was just 22 and barely out of art school. The antithesis of a self-promoter, McGaw always maintained he only got into that show on the heels of Diebenkorn, his instructor at the California College of Arts and Crafts.

1 week ago | sfchronicle.com | Sam Whiting

It had to be strong stuff because Tinkham’s third row seat was outside the San Francisco arena and across the Thrive City plaza, in the free risers where fans without tickets wear just as much blue and gold as do fans with tickets inside. They get there just as early and they stay just as long, maybe longer, on the hard concrete of the Gatehouse Steps, as it is called. Former Mayor Ed Lee stays the longest, in the form of a bronze statue front and center.

2 weeks ago | sanluisobispo.com | Sam Whiting

One of the most controversial parks in San Francisco history finally has a name: Sunset Dunes. The name for the city park that will open along the Upper Great Highway at Ocean Beach on Saturday was selected from among 4,200 entries submitted in a naming contest. That list was reduced to five finalists through an online survey with the winner awarded through a simple up-and-down vote by the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission at a meeting Wednesday. Sunset Dunes gathered four votes.

2 weeks ago | sanluisobispo.com | Sam Whiting

A towering steel mesh statue of a naked woman was lifted upright by crane Tuesday on the Embarcadero Plaza where she will remain for six months. The sculpture stands 45 feet tall and weighs 32,000 pounds. Her hair of woven cables reaches higher than the palm trees on either side and appears to be almost as tall as the famous clock tower behind her. At night she will be lit from within and an interior mechanism will be activated at random to cause her chest to rise and fall as if breathing.