Starting at Montgomery BART, follow the festive holiday LED snowflake banners hung along Market Street like breadcrumbs from the fairytale Hansel and Gretel, leading you deep into the forest, in this case this stretch known as Mid-Market which is well worth a night time visit this season.    You heard it here first~ this neighborhood is changing.  OK, well others have said it first and I could be wrong, but interesting energy is moving here and Mid-Market does present an opportunity now that City officials have turned their gaze to this long forgotten strip.

Artists first, right?   Exploring the identical territory of the Mid-Market Special Sign District from last November’s failed Proposition D, the “ARTery Project” was funded by the San Francisco Art Commission to create a series of light events to liven things up.   Instead of the intensely bright light advertising extravaganza of Prop D (of which I for one was rather fond but I don’t know a single friend who agreed with me), three artists were funded to create light installations for Market Street around 7th.

Jim Campbell‘s installation Urban Reflections at 1119 Market gets it right with a visual intensity capable of standing up to the surrounding street lights, noise and overall unease of the neighborhood.   Due to the direct source technology of his image made from a grid of LEDs, Campbell’s subtle, yet mesmorizing images match the intensity and brightness of the vast and daunting surroundings.  (Writer’s disclosure: yes, I am prejudiced because he’s a friend.  Yes, his work is genuinely magical and I am not the only one to think so.

But this is a tough competition.  See that face hovering on the side of the building on the right upper portion of the image above?  That’s the work of third artist, Theodore Watson.  Take a moment to stop in front of 998 Market to have your picture taken and then gaze up at the projected image at a massive scale on the side of the Furniture Store building at 1017.

Keep going through UN Plaza towards City Hall and you will be greeted by the gargantuan Three Heads, Six Arms by Chinese artist, Zhang Huan.  It is hard to miss this amazing piece, a fragment fallen from a celestial world.  The building of City Hall holds it stature as the queen of the area, with her regal dome and beaux arts facade decorated with festive holiday lighting necklace that are somehow manages to be festive and eerie at the same time.