Neil G. Ballard's 2024 Year In Review

A Look Back At 2024's Creative Projects

Welcome, one and all, to a special edition of my email newsletter. Please enjoy a look back at 2024.

NEIL G. BALLARD’S 2024 YEAR IN REVIEW

San Francisco Candidate Portraits for Mission Local

2024 was a big election year. National matters aside, the election result in San Francisco was an interesting grab-bag of outcomes varying in scale and impact—some promising, some alarming—but I personally had a lot of fun drawing portraits of each candidate in San Francisco for Mission Local.

A goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year was to work with more physical (as opposed to digital) media, so I drew each portrait by hand with a nib pen dipped in India ink.

Ocean Avenue Walgreens Mural

In February and March, I painted a large-scale mural on the side of the Ocean Avenue Walgreens. I titled the mural “Ocean Avenue Landmarks” as it features all of my favorite landmarks of the Ingleside (including the Beep’s Burgers neon sign, more on that below).

For years, I sat in Java on Ocean Cafe and looked at the wall of the Walgreens dreaming of one day painting a mural there. It was a dream come true for me to see this project through.

This was also a project that I designed using my nib pen rather than by digital means.

Movies On TV

I made a new comic-book zine this year entitled Movies On TV. It is about me watching movies on TV. I’ve made two issues of it so far, one of which is available for sale on my website, and I was pleased to debut the first issue at Santa Rosa Zine Fest in April.

Beep’s Burgers Neon Sign Restoration

The Beep’s Burgers sign was last repainted 10 years ago, and the paint had been fading and flaking since at least 2018. It had long been an ambition of mine to repaint the sign, and this August, I was able to do so by assembling a team of specialists to work alongside me to bring the sign back to its original glory.

In short, the process involved repairing a couple areas of rust damage at the bottom of the sign, removing the neon tubing for inspection and repair, stripping the paint off the sign back to the bare metal, priming the sign with an epoxy primer, painting the sign with enamel lettering paint, and finally replacing the neon tubing to the newly repainted sign.

Architecture + The City Festival Illustration

The American Institute of Architects asked me to create an illustration for their 2024 Architecture + The City festival which was held during the month of September. It was a delight to collaborate on this project with AIA, as they gave me a very clear idea of what they wanted resulting in an illustration that I think evokes San Francisco’s current urban landscape very well.

I like drawing older buildings generally, but it was a fun challenge to juxtapose the old with the new for this particular illustration, and of course I had a good time including an array of figures wandering past each building.

24th & Potrero Mural

In September, I painted a mural on three sides of the Walgreens at 24th and Potrero. I designed a repeating pattern of trees and houses that I freehanded on the walls and I chose colors evoking the setting sun, hence the mural’s title, “Evening Trees.”

I brought Mrs. Ballard over to show her the mural once I had finished:

Urban Transformation Summit Paintings

I painted an imagined cityscape for the World Economic Forum’s Urban Transformation Summit in October. This was my first time doing a live painting, and it was fun to focus on creating work with conference attendees all around.

Final Thoughts

Finally, I’d like to thank those who helped me accomplish the projects that I undertook this year: Mila Kirillova, Ellen Lo, and Matt Stansell. This is a group of talented artists and I was so pleased to be able to work with them.

I’d like to give a special thanks to Nathaniel J. Bice, who helped me with just about every one of my major projects this year. Nathaniel is a great problem-solver and we always have fun working together. Check out his work and sign up for his monthly newsletter, it’s a great chronicle of the life of an artist.

Also, lest you think that it was all work and no play for me this year, here’s a picture of me with a red Mustang that I rented for a weekend trip to LA. My goal for next year is to work even harder so that I can afford my own red Mustang. I need one.

It is my pleasure to create art that I can share with the world and with you. I’ll see you in 2025!

Neil G. Ballard