Our day with ISIS

We had a fantastic day last week with ISIS!

It began with some fresh oj, Cole coffe, & Mariposa coffeecakes on the bus.

We escorted them over the bridge to Pier 14, where we had them bounce on balls, hula-hoop, & jumprope all the way down the pier, while playing rounds of “Pictionary” games on easels in between.  The end of the pier gave us all a gorgeous panoramic of SF on a gorgeous day (thank God!  the day before had been grey/rainy!).

We all caught our breath from there to the SF Art Institute.  We rented out the rooftop with stunning panoramic views of SF – Angel & Alcatraz Islands, Coit Tower, etc.  No better place than to do the Hokey Pokey (where we had them “stick their right arm, while they painted it) & Musical Canvases (ie, painting with their feet, turkey basters, hard hats with brush screwed on, squeegees, toilet bowl plungers, & brooms) while wearing white, tyvek (paper) suits, serenaded by Arann Harris of the Bluebellies.

The real kicker here was the PAINT-OFF.  We took away the easels & canvases but kept all the squeegies, brooms, etc. out for the ISIS team to paint each other with – the objective to paint other people as much as possible, without getting painted yourself.  One-by-one they were eliminated, leaving an impressive catastrophe all over our dropcloths.  Nice job, guys!  🙂

Onto lunch:  We orded food from Lemongrass, & brought it to the bus, which was at this point covered in tapestries – the theme:  Moroccan tent.  We wanted to create a warm, private place for them to gather after all the running, hopping, & painting.  After lunch we surprised them by bringing on a fabulous bellydancer from Tanjia.  She got everyone up dancing, all the way to111 Minna, where we had transferred their paintings for their very own gallery show.  Rounds of champagne brought everyone back to Oakland, with an extra fresh “day at work” on Nov. 4th – election day.  What a way to celebrate!  Thanks ISIS!