SPSA No. 1
SPSA No. 1: Illustration by Lois Hansom. Design and layout by Mark Hogan.
This is the first of our Sartorial Public Service Announcements (SPSAs), a numbered series of wearable art projects — in the spirit of a proclamation, a declaration or a decree — to support and promote The Emperor's Bridge Campaign (now known as The Emperor Norton Trust).
SPSA No. 1 begins life as a limited-edition t-shirt — and initially is being funded by a Kickstarter that ended in September 2015. *
The design of SPSA No. 1 is based on a rarely seen 1939 illustration of Emperor Norton by Lois Hanscom (1915-95).
Hanscom's whimsical drawing of the Emperor was one of many of her "cartoons" that appeared in a tourist guidebook, Let's Have Fun in San Francisco: A Handbook to the City, that was published that year.
The book — written by Edith Shelton and Elizabeth Field — included contributions from William Saroyan, Beniamino Bufano, Antonio Sotomayor and Herb Caen.
As you can see from the image of Hanscom's original illustration, below, we've funked the Emperor out a bit.
SOLD OUT
* Engraver's Circle
Special thanks to the following supporters, who each contributed $100 to fund SPSA No. 1:
Greg Carden
Hazel Dakers
Chris Huning
Judi Leff
Jane Winhall-Rice