Description
Shirley Staschen Triest was a painter, muralist, and writer associated with bohemianism in San Francisco. Born in 1914 in Oakland, she studied at what is now the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1937, she applied and was hired to work on the WPA Federal Art Project in San Francisco. The first project she worked on was the Lithography Project at 901 Potrero in San Francisco. Staschen also designed murals in mosaic tile while working for the WPA. By 1939 she began to work on her own lithographs and assisted many Bay Area artists. In this interview, Staschen discusses the early Bohemian life in San Francisco during the thirties, marriage to Frank Triest, the California College of Arts and Crats, different styles of art, and her involvement with the anarchists in the Bay Area.