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BA of the Week: Neon Artist Meryl Pataky

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Every week we feature a different person from the community shedding a little light on their life of brokeitude. Who knows, maybe you’ll learn something about the human spirit — probably not.

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meryl-Pataky

I’m pretty sure I met Meryl because we have a trillion facebook friends in common. I saw that she does work with neon, and I fucking LOVE neon, so I hit her up and she invited me to her studio. To be fair she works with many different materials as you can see here on her site, but her work with neon is what drew me to her stuff. She actually has a big show coming up at the White Walls Gallery on July 6th that will be “awesome neon work with live mixed media elements like a living wall etc.” I will be there for sure. And to give you a little taste of what Meryl does, here’s a pic I took of her in her studio. She’s rocking a neon, neon sign!:

meryl-neon

Name: Meryl Pataky

Age: 30

Occupation: Artist and educator

What neighborhood do you live in?: Lower Pac Heights (in a shitty backyard studio)

Best money saving tip: I’m definitely not the best person to ask.

What do you refuse to spend money on?: Currently trying not to buy cigarettes – my friends hate me 😉

Most expensive thing you’ve ever bought: Most of the materials for my artwork. Most recently, $500 for roses

How’d that feel?: Dirty

Favorite cheap eat: 20 cent wing night at Dr. Teeth

Favorite dive bar: Shout-out to Fishbowl on Divis. A throwback of mine is The Riptide but it’s too far away now.

Best deal you’ve ever gotten: Nothing really comes to mind – it could always be cheaper.

Favorite free thing to do: Ride my bike

If you woke up a millionaire, what’s the first thing you’d buy?: A bunch of plane tickets to travel and probably a house in Berlin.

Despite not having money, do you still love your life?: Of course!

Do you own my book?:  :/

Best hangover cure: A greasy spoon and more beer

Are you a hipster?: Pretty much but I’m not one of those that gets defensive. I mean, what’s wrong with it? We just wear what we want and have poor eyesight.

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Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap

Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap

Stuart Schuffman, aka Broke-Ass Stuart, is a travel writer, poet, TV host, activist, and general shit-stirrer. His website BrokeAssStuart.com is one of the most influential arts & culture sites in the San Francisco Bay Area and his freelance writing has been featured in Lonely Planet, Conde Nast Traveler, The Bold Italic, Geek.com and too many other outlets to remember. His weekly column, Broke-Ass City, appears every other Thursday in the San Francisco Examiner. Stuart’s writing has been translated into four languages. In 2011 Stuart created and hosted the travel show Young, Broke, and Beautiful on IFC and in 2015 he ran for Mayor of San Francisco and got nearly 20k votes.

He's been called "an Underground legend": SF Chronicle, "an SF cult hero":SF Bay Guardian, and "the chief of cheap": Time Out New York.