Pencil Vania, A Stairwell Artfully Covered in 185,252 Pencils

In the private home of Jaina A. Davis, located somewhere within San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood, there is a three-story 980-square-foot stairwell artfully decorated with 185,252 pencils. It's called "Pencil Vania."

Mosaic artist Jason Mecier spent five years (1997–2002) working on "Pencil Vania." He designed and installed the entire thing, all on his own. 

 Before this week, when my friend Emily Duffy visited Granny's Cottage (where "Pencil Vania" lives), I had never heard of it. This is somewhat amazing considering I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 20 years AND I'm a big fan of Jason Mecier's art.

The stairwell's FAQ page is a must read. 

What's it like living within walls of pencils? What does it smell like?

It's like the first day of school every day! Mmmmm!

By the way, that portrait in pencils? That's "Granny," which is described as "a futuristic portrait of Jaina when she's 88."

Emily took a bunch of photos of the stairwell, go check them out. (Don't miss the pictures of the bathroom. It's not covered in pencils, but it's also stunning!)

photo 1 by Alicia J. Rose, photos 2 & 3 by Emily Duffy



Comments (0)

$115 for a spoonful of snail eggs?

Sheesh, when the snail in my aquarium laid eggs and fill the thing up with about 100 tiny snails I should have held onto them instead of getting 20¢ apiece at the pet store
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$115 bucks?!! Wish I had known that when I had been raising snails as a science project in high school.
Those snails were extremely productive.
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I'll stick to regular caviar, thank you. I'm sure this is all very tasty, but in the end, I hate snails. They skeeve me out and I spend most of my summer killing them in my garden. The less I have to do with them the better.
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It's all so relative. I grew up eating Durian, love the smell and the taste, so to hear Anthony B (whom I love) hyperbolically say "it's like French-kissing your dead grandmother..." makes me roll my eyes. It's totally un-exotic to me.
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Well, it's official, there is nothing that you can't sell to rich, stupid people. Snail caviar? If they sold it for ten times what they are asking now, they'd sell much more than they are selling now, because if you charge a lot for it, it MUST be better and worth more, simply based on exclusivity. It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
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Ditto that Mel.....
I have some apple snails in my aquariums that love to hump and lay eggs all over the place, maybe I can start selling their egg clumps for a bunch of $$...
*rolls eyes*..... Rich people are dumb.....
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