Temescal Now (neighborhood account) Instagram

Welcome to the Brian Brooks Art Institute

Computer Illustrations
Plein Air Paintings
Plein Air Drawing and Map Making
Filmaking

Supply list of tools and materials
History in the Neighborhood

My neighborhood projects document my immediate surroundings in a roughly 1/4 mile radius of my home and include: road design, details in sidewalks, current business logo design, and surveying and mapping projects.

I am a fan of the construction process and enjoy documenting the changes that occur to my neighborhood through the days and years.

I distribute my discoveries in a series of brochures and zine booklets that I hand out on the street. Scroll below to take a tour of my neighborhood in the chronological manner of the projects I’ve been working on.

Plein Air Drawing on Telegraph Avenue by Artist Brian Brooks | 50 evenings | Telegraph Avenue & 46th Street, Oakland, California
August 11 2022 – December 21 2022

Artist Brian Brooks created  50 plein air drawings of  Kasper’s Hot Dogs from August – December, 2022.

This Old House is one of my all-time favorite television programs. I love buildings, and enjoy observing the progression of a construction project. The restoration of Kasper’s Hot Dogs was a perfect subject for a series of drawings.

Kasper’s Restoration Drawing 25 9-28-2022. Ball point pen on 4 in. x 6 in. index card.

The general rule of thumb I follow for construction documentation is that I will draw one drawing following each day of construction, totaling five drawings or paintings a week. I add the date to the front of the drawing to add a layer of information.

Selected Kasper’s Restoration Drawings

To have fun and challenge myself, I tend to vary my vantage points from which I draw, moving around the space to take in additional details. Wide angle views are the most ambitious.

The exaggerated birds-eye-views are drawn from imagined viewpoints–some from comically high above the street. As a draughtsman trained in cartooning, I can “see” and render buildings from just about any angle.

48 (of 50) Kasper’s Restoration Drawings completed in the fall of 2022.

Kasper’s Hot Dogs Exterior Restoration Construction Documentation Videos
Telegraph Avenue and 46th Street, Oakland
September – November 2022

Kasper’s Hot Dogs Exterior Restoration Construction Documentation Documentary Videos (2022)

I sometimes bring a tripod to record time-lapse video of my process, then edit and add a soundtrack with over-the-top sound effects to create a short and film. Originally shared as Reels on my social media account [@briancharlesbrooks on Instagram]. Archived on the artist’s  Vimeo page.

Plein Air Drawing Tools 2022

The artist’s drawing materials.

I keep to using simple tools and rigid practices such as wearing a uniform. I am always attempting to keep a no-nonsense aesthetic to try to reach the most general of audiences. I keep myself interested by setting ambitious projects that can be completed in one day, but can also build to form something that stretches out over weeks, months, or years at a time.

Kasper’s Hot Dogs Exterior Restoration Construction Documentation Brochure Publication
December 2022

Brian compiled his Kasper’s Hot Dogs Drawings Exterior Restoration Construction Documentation Plein Air Drawings into a brochure style publication titled Kasper’s Hot Dogs Exterior Restoration Construction Documentation Drawings (2022) [Link 10.2 mb]

I use brochures as a gathering spot for the different elements that make up multifaceted projects that become richer through the addition of context and history.

Kasper’s Resotration Drawings Brochure

“I strive to make my publications for a general audience, i.e., someone who finds a brochure on the back of a city bus will have something to look at for 7 minutes. My art practice has always tended to use the black and white aesthetic because most photocopy machines are black and white. I also prefer the use of black and white graphics as something more universal and refraining from “unnecessary conversation” as the sign above bus drivers says.

I like to imagine that perhaps cats and dogs and other animals may more enjoy the simplicity and rigor of black and white. I am looking for any advantage I can get in case animals are talking about us and judging our work.

Kasper’s Hot Dogs Site Plan Illustration From Field Survey

Beginning in 2020 during the pandemic lockdowns, I spent hours around the neighborhood teaching myself how to survey areas of land by foot and capture the information onto index cards that I could then translate into digitally-illustrated maps when back in the studio.

Short Film Series | Hooper’s Loopers
Filmed in the lot of the vacant Hooper’s Chocolates building | Telegraph Avenue & 46th Street
October 2022

I created Hooper’s Loopers in 2018 as a daily challenge to make an interesting short film every evening in the same empty lot. I developed a lot of reoccurring “routines” such as snapping my beret which causes funny spring-like noises, or using a tape loop noise every time I spin in a circle. In this way, I become the conductor of a soundscape.

I begin and end each video in front of an old side door. The videos are conceived to loop.

Graphic Design | Social Media Account | Instagram User @temescalnow
2022

Temescal Now @temescalnow on Instagram [Link to Instagram page] 72 Posts in 2021, 480 Followers.
My neighborhood-based subject matter has taken over my art practice.

Desktop Publishing | Publication | Temescal Now #1 5.5 in. x 8.5 in.
24 Page Booklet
Published June 2022

Temescal Now #1 24 page zine. (2022) [Link] May – June 2022
“I began creating brochures of my neighborhood projects as a way I could share with my neighbors and folks out on the street what it is I am doing out on the street, night after night.”

Graphic Design | Telegraph Avenue Storefront Architecture Façade Illustrations (2022)

Telegraph Avenue Storefront Façade Architecture Illustrations, an ongoing project started in 2021.

Details of Jack In The Box on Telegraph Avenue and 45th Street. The Promotional posters come and go, flavoring the scenery for months at a time. Only pedestrians can take in all of the endless details of the neighborhood.

Graphic Design | The Collected Logos of My Neighborhood | Telegraph & Shattuck Avenues, 40th Street – 52nd Street (2021)

Collected Logos of My Neighborhood. A long process which entailed scouring the internet, social media accounts as well as more often than not photographing storefront signage and tracing those images  in the Adobe Illustrator computer illustration program using a mouse These are now vector file image types  that can be enlarged without a loss in detail.

Desktop Publishing | Publications | Project Brochures (2021)

Single page, folded brochure-style pamphlet. Toner ink on 8.5 in. x 11 in. paper.
45th Street McDonald’s McGraffiti Report  (2021) 
45th Street McDonald’s Land Survey & Map (2021)
45th Street McDonald’s McParks & McGardens  (2021) 
Hooper’s Chocolates Land Survey & Souvenir Map (2021)
Temescal Archipelago  (2021)
Telegraph Avenue Road Redesign Survey & Illustration (2021)

Desktop Publishing | Publications | The Temescalatarian #1, #2 (24 Page Booklets) (2021)

The Temescalatarian: a 24-page zine attempting to give my neighborhood projects more context. #1, #2

Short Films | Document Video Projects (2021)

Drawing the construction of a road median on Telegraph Avenue at 45th Street. Still from short film Middle Of The Road Drawings By Brian Brooks, 2021.

Short Films | Middle Of The Road Drawings By Brian Brooks (2021)

Time-lapse video of on-site drawing sessions with original soundtracks. A humorous document capturing an artist in action capturing plein air drawings filmed after the road construction crew has gone home for the day. Part of the Telegraph Avenue Road Redesign. 6 episodes.

Short Films | Bus Stop Build-Out Construction Drawing With Brian Brooks (2021)

Video documentary with original soundtrack by artist Brian Brooks capturing the different steps in the construction of a bus stop build out on Telegraph Avenue at 45th Street. Series includes seven episodes.
Videos are hosted on my Vimeo page.

Desktop Publishing | Publications | Project Brochures (2021)

Single page, folded brochure-style pamphlet. Toner ink on 8.5 in. x 11 in. paper.
Brian Brooks Oakland Artist District One – About the artist. (2021) [Link 2 mb]
Big Temescal Map Drawing: Telegraph Avenue, 43rd – 47th Street (2021) [Link 2.3 mb]
Jack In The Box Corner Construction Drawings (2021) [Link 7 mb]
Pedestrian Plaza North Tip Brochure (2021) [Link 6.4 mb]
Pedestrian Plaza South Tip Brochure (2021) [Link 7mb]
Logos of Temescal (2021) [Link 2.4 mb]
Telegraph Avenue Road Redesign Documentation Illustration (2021) [Draft]

Graphic Design | Survey | Telegraph Avenue Road Redesign Documentation Illustration Project

Telegraph Avenue Redesign Draft 10-21-2020, Brian Brooks

The goal of this project is to map a 1/4 mile section of the recently repaved and redesigned Telegraph Avenue. I am about 1/3 done with this project.

 

My field notes are taken on index cards. I typically draw the scene, then measure the feet, using my feet, by walking toe-to-toe. My 12″ shoes are “perfect” as one might say.

I am able to count off feet by just taking steps. My notes are either in feet and fractions thereof, or in feet and inches. I can use the 4″x6″ index card as a sight measurement.

After I take these notes home, the tedious work of deciphering my notes begins. I turn this information into a digital map using a Adobe Illustrator, a program that allows vector-based illustration.

Plein Air Drawings | Surveying (2020)

Surveys of “Kasper’s Plaza”,  creating a technical drawing by surveying the area using a grid overlayed onto a index card. July 2020. Other surveying drawings were done at Hooper’s Chocolates Lot and McDonald’s as well.

Plein Air Drawings | Surveying | Hooper’s Lot & McDonald’s north Parking Lot | Telegraph Avenue At 56th Street
August 2020- July 2020

Hoopers Lot map

4 index cards with 1/2 in. grids overlayed in pencil, with survey drawings in ballpoint pen.

Plein Air Drawings | Sidewalk Changes (2020) | Telegraph & Shattuck Avenues 45th – 46th Streets

Selection of drawings of sidewalk construction, including the documentation of a BB who signed the cement in what we can only assume was 1977 – 43 years of having their initials embedded in the cement of the sidewalk on the northeast corner of 46th Street and Shattuck Avenue. May- June, 2020.

Brian & Emily Weekly Pandemic Portraits | Hooper’s Chocolates Warehouse Wall
April 2020 – April 2021

Brian & Emily Weekly Pandemic Portraits (48 of 52) April 2020- April 2021

Plein Air Painting | Painting Telegraph Avenue At 46th Street ] Beginning of the Covid Pandemic Lockdown (2020)

Painting Telegraph Avenue, facing north, at 46th Street. Photograph by Chuck Harlins, March, 2020. Brian has named this traffic median “Brian’s Island”.

End of an era: The McDonald’s Suite. I painted these three paintings at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic was taking hold. These three paintings capture the sight of the future Pedestrian Plaza, and capture Telegraph Avenue before the road redesign.

Plein Air Paintings | The McDonald’s Suite (2019-2020)

McDonald’s Suite: Three paintings painted on site, February – March, 2020.

Three paintings painted on site, February – March, 2020.

McDonald’s Suite Map
McDonald’s Suite Painting 1
McDonald’s Suite Painting 2
McDonald’s Suite Painting 3

Plein Air Paintings | Telegraph Avenue & 49th Street – 51st Street (2019)

 

 

In the spring of 2019, I was captured painting out on Telegraph Avenue (at 51st Street) for the opening credits of KQED’s Check Please featuring local Ethiopian restaurant Asmara.

5 paintings of the façades of the buildings lining the east side of Telegraph Avenue, from 51st to 49th Streets.

Plein Air Painting | Temescal Wash & Dry Parking Lot, Telegraph Avenue & 49th Street (2019)

Temescal Wash & Dry Parking Lot and Surrounding Sidewalk, Acrylic paint on watercolor paper, 9 X 12 in. East side of Telegraph, south of 49th Street, Oakland. Plein air painting, April 2019

Survey & Map of Bougainvillia In The Neighborhood by Emily Wick & Brian Brooks (2019)

Bougainvillia Distribution* in the Temescal Neighborhood, Oakland, California by artists Emily Wick & Brian Brooks
* As viewable via public streets and sidewalks. Survey taken 2019. Map Draft 10/17/2019

Plein Air Filmmaking | Shine Hunters series of Short Films (2019)

Shine Hunters advertisement. Shine Hunters is a series of short films featuring artists Emily Wick and Brian Brooks. October – November, 2019

Shine Hunters (2019)
Short film series featuring Brian and artist Emily Wick in search for reflected shines around their neighborhood. 7 Episodes. Total runtime 7 minutes.

Shines from the sun reflect and bounce around our planet. Some surfaces amplify or focus shines in predictable ways. When you find a shine, it can be fun to trace it back to the shine sources. Illustration by artist Brian Brooks, 2019.
Shines from the sun reflect and bounce around. You can feel the heat from a shine on you face when you are in the right place at the right time. Illustration by artist Brian Brooks, 2019.

Plein Air Paintings | 4700 Telegraph: Construction (2018)

4700 Telegraph series 36 paintings. February – December 2018

Plein Air Filmmaking | The Chair & The Sleeper 2018

Still from The Chair (2018) Brian filmed nightly episodes on the east side of Shattuck Avenue just south of 47th Street during the summer and fall of 2018.

The Chair was a daily series featuring an artist and his meetings with a well-used discarded broken plastic chair that refused to go away. Filmed along Shattuck Avenue between 46th Street and 47th Street.

Still from The Sleeper (2018)

The Sleeper framed as the wake cycle of an artist who fills his time interacting with the corner of a building and the features of the sidewalk before racing back to sleep before the sun goes down. Filmed on the south east corner of Shattuck Avenue and 47th Street.

You Tube Channel

Plein Air Painting | Telegraph Avenue & 48th Street (2017)

Painting on the west side of Telegraph Avenue, just south of 48th Street,
photograph by Eugene Shlugleit, 2017

Studio Painting | The Ghost Ship Series (2017)

Ghost Ship series, 2017
36 abstract paintings in memory of the 36 people lost in the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland (December 2, 2016)
18” x 24” acrylic paint on paper
Feb – June, 2017

Plein Air Painting | 4700 Telegraph: The Empty Lot series

The Empty Lot series, 2017
36 paintings
9” x 12” acrylic paint on paper
Jun – July, 2017

Plein Air Painting | Telegraph Avenue & 48th Street (2016)

Painting the demolition of 4700 Telegraph Avenue on the east side of Telegraph & 48th Street, photograph by Scott Serata, 2016

Plein Air Painting | 4700 Telegraph: Demolition series

The Empty Lot series, June – July, 2016. This series documents the demolition of the buildings on the 4700 block of the east side of Telegraph Avenue to make way for a condo and retail unit, 2016.

Plein Air Painting | Yellow Van Series (2016)

Yellow Van Series, July 3, August 21, and August 23, 2016. Three views of Erika’s iconic yellow touring van which was a neighborhood mainstay in the mid 2010s.

Plein Air Painting | Colorful Temescal series (2016)

Colorful Temescal series, July – November 2016

Plein Air Painting | Telegraph Avenue & 48th Street (2016)

Telegraph Avenue and 48th Street. August 2016

Plein Air Painting | The Brignole Building series (2016)

The Brignole Building, 7 paintings, Acrylic paint on watercolor paper, 9 X 12 in. West Side of Telegraph Avenue between 47th – 46th Street, Oakland. Painted November, 2016

East Bay Express | Radical Sharing Temescal (2015)

Radically Sharing Temescal
A group of artists, hackers, and other creative people have launched Omni Commons, a new community resource center in North Oakland that they hope will be an antidote to gentrification. By Julian Mark Jan 21, 2015

Photograph | Smokey’s Tangle Interface Gallery Takeover Photo Booth Diorama (2014)

Month-long community portrait photo booth diorama by Brian Brooks & Emily Wick, Smokey’s Tangle Interface Gallery Takeover. Telegraph Avenue & 49th Street. February, 2014

Plein Air Painting | Telegraph Avenue 45th Street – 51st Street (2014)

Brian photographed during a rare nighttime plein air painting, 2014. Photograph by Emily Wick. A selection of paintings. Brian included his blank canvas and easel top into the paintings themselves, to give the view that the artist saw.
The collected Plein Air Paintings by Brian Brooks completed from June – Decemeber 2014.

Publication | Smokey’s Tangle 5 Yearbook by Emily Wick & Brian Brooks (2014)

Smokey’s Tangle 5-Yearbook chronicles the first 5 years.(30mb pdf Link)

Oakland Art Murmur Gallery Member (Smokey’s Tangle) & Postcard/ Map Designer (2011)

Oakland Art Murmur map circa 2011
Map by Smokey’s Tangle (Brian Brooks)

Temescal Art Hop [biannual neighborhood Event] Event Co-creator and Poster, Map & Brochure Designer (2010-2015)

The Temescal Art Hop was created after
Oakland Art Murmuer changed their map
to concentrate on Uptown art galleries.
The Temescal Art Hop was a biannual
neighborhood interactive artwalk and raffle
created by galleries Smokey’s Tangle & Slate Gallery, with support from the TTBID (Telegraph/ Temescal Buisness Improvement District
Design: Brian Brooks, J. Otto Siebold, Gabriella Laz

Publication | The Wall Street Journal | Oakland’s Temescal Goes From Rundown To Reborn (2009)

Oakland’s Temescal Goes From Rundown to Reborn
How Local Merchants Found Success After Years of Work to Attract New Businesses and Reshape Their Neighborhood By Stu Woo Dec. 3, 2009

Smokey’s Tangle Studio & Gallery
Feb 2009 – Aug 2018
by Brian Brooks & Emily Wick

Smokey’s Tangle Studio & Gallery 4709 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, California

“Our gallery was funded with money we saved by living frugally and not having a car…”

“… the best part about having the space and promoting the art nights was the community we discovered.”

  – Brian Brooks (Wall Street Journal)

Where On Earth Is My Neighborhood?

My area of concentration: Telegraph Avenue between 40th Street & 51st Street, Oakland, California, United States of America, Earth.

Neighborhood As A Studio

My immediate neighborhood (pictured in yellow) fits into an area roughly 1/2 square mile.

Emily and I have not owned a vehicle for 30 years, and rarely use one other than the occasional ride to the airport to visit family

Oakland male painter photograph
Mr. Brooks enjoys plein air painting around his neighborhood, with concentration on Telegraph Avenue, between 45th & 51st Streets, Oakland, California. Pictured here in 2017 on the west side of Telegraph Avenue at 48th Street. Photograph by Eugene D. Shlugleit.

I was first introduced to the joys of plein air painting by Oakland born artist John Kilduff in 2014 upon a visit to Smokey’s Tangle.

Incidentally John was also the inspiration for me taking up studio painting just four years before, through his inspirational painting videos as “Mr. Let’s Paint T.V.”. I hadn’t picked up a paint brush in over 15 years before I watched one episode, by episode two, I had paints out and painted a long.

Once I fell in love with the joys of painting out doors, ie being outside, I all but abandoned my indoor studio painting practice.

I now view my immediate neighborhood as  “my studio”, if I can walk there with my easel, I figure it’s my right to do so.

Outdoor lighting is so superior to indoor lighting. plenty of room and different backdrops. And meeting people is so healthy and much easier when you are out doing your thing.

I consistently keep both long-term, and short term outdoor projects going as my hobbies that get me out of the house.

I began by painting the buildings around the neighborhood.

I have begun to place some of my projects onto the above interactive map hosted by Google My Maps. You can view this map full size and zoom in – to see a selection of my plein air paintings and a few drawings.

The map contains shaded color shapes which outline the vantage point that I include in the paintings attached to the map.