Bringing art and nature to the streets with Bikehangars

The artist known as Amandalynn has a reputation for bringing nature to the streets. Her murals and installations can be seen and appreciated all over San Fransisco, especially in the Mission District.

As of June this year, her work can also be found on four Bikehangars located in the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District (YBCBD)  of downtown San Fransisco. The Bikehangars are part of the San Fransisco Municipal Transit Agency’s (SFMTA) secure cycle parking pilot that opened to the public in June.

This secure cycling parking pilot is the first of its kind in the United States and will run for 2 years. Upon completion, the SFTMA will evaluate the results and make a determination whether to expand the secure cycle parking program city-wide.

We recently caught up with Amandalynn by phone as she was commuting to a project in Sonoma County to learn more about what inspires her work.

How she approaches each piece of work depends on the place and project itself, but she’s generally known for bringing nature to the streets. She’s also been working with other similarly minded artists all over the world including a non-profit organization called Pangeaseed who’s mission is to leverage the influence of contemporary art and the power of creativity to raise awareness of urgent environmental threats, specifically in the ocean conservation movement.

Two Bikehangars near the intersection of 4th St. and Minna St. in downtown San Francisco.

She’s been able to turn this work into a full-time job but has held onto the passion that got her started in the first place and occasionally self-funds some of her work. She aims to provide a respite within a busy urban landscape, to inspire people to take a second to enjoy something beautiful, that momentarily connects them to nature.

“My work doing art in the streets started alongside graffiti writers in San Fransisco and it kept expanding.”

From these early experiences, she learned how to work quickly and eventually developed her own voice and style. She chose to focus on natural themes because nature is the “universal connector”, it resonates with people on a deep, innate level and has a positive impact.

We talked about how the early days of the pandemic and racial reckoning that was spreading like wildfire in the summer of 2020 was an inflection point for street artists. As people worked from home and downtowns saw less and less foot traffic, artists took to the streets and their art reflected the hurricane of emotions that communities were feeling at the time. We reflected on public art’s ability to aid in collective healing processes, and she added,

“I hope my art brings people joy, no matter where it is. Even if just for a second, I hope it takes you out of your busy mindset and gives you a little beauty.”

She’s sincere about this too. As we were speaking on the phone, she was driving to the Sonoma County Juvenile Hall to work on a commissioned piece to, as she put it, “bring some light to the dorms”.

When she was approached by the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District (YBCBD) to put her work on the Bikehangars in the SFMTA pilot, she immediately saw the positive correlation between public art and active transportation infrastructure. When public art is incorporated into infrastructure in the public right of way, it makes people notice the thing it’s on and brings light and joy to a normally hard and cold built environment.

Nature is the common theme in all her work, but she’s also mindful of place, culture and history. She often incorporates culturally relevant plants, animals or symbols when creating murals to inspire a sense of local pride and ownership in the communities where she works. Her advice for businesses, elected officials and communities who want to integrate public art into their communities is this,

“Public art is an obvious way to communicate with the public, it brings a sense of ownership and pride to those who live there. It can reflect the local community and history. Community leaders everywhere are trying to bring people together, art does that without words and it allows people to experience it at their own pace and on their own time”.

For those aspiring artists and muralists out there, her advice to you is this, “Just keep painting, just keep doing it and eventually, it will create what you hope to achieve”.

We certainly hope to see more of Amandalynn’s work out in the world, and hopefully, on more Bikehangars.