Walking home down Haight Street in the fog and wind this afternoon, I almost missed the newly-painted monochrome allegory beneath the display windows of one of the tourist shops. These shops are so similar – in pseudo-hippie mode and there are so many of them, that I really can't tell them apart and hardly even look at them. Yet I must be on the lookout more than I think, because I do (as in this case) frequently notice small rearrangements or variations of ornament on their facades.
I like the way the pre-existing ornamental tiles with the X-shapes are built into the picture spaces both above and below.
The figure just above seems to be half baby and half Roman emperor. I somehow doubt the anonymous artist has observed too many bears or crabs or birds or babies in real life at close range – relying instead on a sort of standardized vocabulary of visual fantasy. But that is perfectly appropriate for a commercial street that makes most of its money out of peddling nostalgic fantasies of the 1960s.