To make ‘GPS art,’ these athletes use San Francisco’s street layout as their canvas

In essence, San Francisco’s panorama is a canvas and the artwork is a large-scale contour drawing primarily based on the athlete’s actions. For San Francisco’s GPS artists, biking or operating up and down hills is just a part of the inventive course of.

“It’s wholesome, clearly, and it’s enjoyable,” stated Lenny Maughan, 61, a distance runner whose hundreds of Instagram followers know him because the “Human Etch A Sketch.”

“Distance and size are completely irrelevant,” he stated. “I make a design and do no matter it takes.”

The pastime — some name it “GPS artwork,” others “operating artwork” or just “run-art” — lends itself to creativity and adaptableness. As a result of it’s a comparatively new medium, the group is basically decentralized, with little construction, no expectations and plenty of room for low-stakes experimentation.

Native GPS artists have digitally plastered San Francisco with phrases, quirky symbols and different squiggly designs representing all the pieces from individuals and animals to pictures and phrases that decision consideration to present occasions.

“It’s natural and everybody type of does their very own factor,” Maughan stated. “This isn’t one thing that somebody could make a paint-by-numbers package and let you know what to do. In that case, what’s the purpose?”

What the artists have in frequent is their obsession with accuracy. With location-tracking apps akin to Strava, MapMyRun and Relive chargeable for “drawing” the road that the artists fastidiously plan, precision is all the pieces. One flawed flip or misplaced beginning or ending level and the entire drawing will be ruined.

“You do not have to be quick to make the run-art; you simply need to not make the flawed flip,” stated Frank Chan, 49, a Russian Hill resident who began making run-art across the begin of the pandemic.

Earlier than lacing up his trainers, Chan makes use of Photoshop or related software program to sketch the design he has in thoughts over a digital map of San Francisco. It may be a painstaking course of, generally requiring a number of revisions to clean out bumpy traces, scale back or improve the size of the route or regulate the path to keep away from buildings and different constructions.

“For those who’re doing it proper, it normally takes longer to sketch out and plan than to run the rattling factor,” Chan stated with amusing.

As soon as his design is prepared, he prints out the map, straps on two Garmin watches in case considered one of them fails to trace his motion, and heads out. More often than not, he doesn’t want instructions; having run each road in San Francisco helps him know the place to show, he stated. Maughan, who’s near conducting that feat, uploads his design to a Kindle and reads the picture like a paper map. Mosur, his fingers on the handlebars, has a small Wahoo GPS clipped to his customized bike.

The deliberate routes will be dozens of miles lengthy — the longer the route, the clearer and smoother the picture. It might take a number of days to complete operating or biking the longest ones. However in some methods, these prolonged runs or bike rides are what the pastime is all about, the artists stated. Some crave a runner’s excessive — “it’s a must to earn it,” Maughan stated. Some benefit from the feeling of connection they get with town or use the artwork kind as a manner to boost their exercises.

As they zip by way of neighborhoods, previous waterfronts and over hills, the artists get a different sampling of the very best — and worst — of San Francisco. On a single run or bike trip, they may go elegant multimillion-dollar Victorians one minute and folks battling homelessness and drug dependancy the subsequent.

“It may be a method to form of power sure interactions with the world,” Chan stated. That was particularly essential, he famous, when the pandemic started.

For Mosur, the GPS artwork can really feel ethereal, he stated, like a picture drawn within the sand earlier than waves wash it away. A historical past buff — his bike is called Le Vizir after Napoleon’s trusty steed — Mosur stated his work satirically reminds him of a few of humanity’s earliest artwork varieties, akin to cave work and geoglyphs just like the Nazca Strains in Peru. When he rides his bike, often in a Napoleon costume for enjoyable, he looks like he’s telling a narrative, he stated.

“I type of need to create this historic narrative throughout chronological time, but in addition I’m doing it to type of encourage others which may be into artwork or could also be into biking to think about their train another way,” Mosur stated. “It doesn’t need to be simply me shifting my legs on a motorcycle pedal, however slightly it could possibly be only a completely different expression and a manner of speaking with the remainder of the world.”

The artists share their work on Instagram, Strava and different on-line platforms, and have developed a group of like-minded athletes enthusiastic about GPS artwork as a inventive outlet. A few of them do group rides or runs and have collaborated on some bigger tasks. Chan and Maughan labored collectively to recreate Michelangelo’s well-known “The Creation of Adam,” with Chan operating the road that might turn out to be Adam’s hand and Maughan creating God’s, the 2 fingertips assembly within the Haight-Ashbury.

“Artwork is abruptly — to my delight, and to not my expectations — a part of my life once more,” stated Maughan, who as a child would doodle caricatures of his buddies, impressed by the artwork in Mad Journal.

Maughan is retired now however plans to maintain on operating till he can’t anymore, he stated. Whereas his operating artwork is nothing greater than a private problem, he stated, it does make him joyful to know that he could also be inspiring others to assume artistically.

Maybe others can discover a excessive in making operating artwork, too.

“You’ve gotten a canvas,” Chan stated. “It’s best to do one thing with it.”

Andy Picon (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle workers author. E mail: andy.picon@hearst.com Twitter: @andpicon