I’m part of a super fun end of year group show at Mini Mart Gallery in SF! It’s an honor to show alongside so many talented artists and to celebrate creativity together.
Come check out the amazing mix of works and help us wrap up 2025 with a burst of color and inspiration!
📍 Mini Mart Gallery, 720 Geary, San Francisco
🗓️ Opening: December 4th, first Thursday art walk.
Hope to see you there and can’t wait to share my latest cowboy painting with y’all! 🤠
DRAFT:
Serendipity in the City: The Spark Behind My Small Business
Starting a small business is always a leap of faith, but sometimes the city itself conspires to give you a nudge. My venture, focused on helping people slow down and truly appreciate San Francisco, was born out of a moment of pure serendipity.
It all started when I joined my friend Cathy on one of her Castro walking tours. Midway through, I struck up a conversation with a lovely couple visiting from southern Germany, currently on a sabbatical year to explore the world. We shared stories, admired the neighborhood, and then went our separate ways. Or so I thought.
The very next day, I was stationed at my pop-up kiosk at the Union Square Muni station, my small business was barely a day old, when I looked up to see that same couple strolling by. We laughed at the coincidence, and we all had the pink rose crystals from the Pink Triangle Park, which commemorates LGBTQ+ history in such a moving way. We even snapped a photo to send to Cathy, connecting the threads of our serendipitous meetings.
As if the universe wasn’t done weaving the story, the couple immediately booked my POPOS (Privately Owned Public Open Spaces) tour for Monday morning. That tour turned into another magical moment, Yana, the brilliant designer behind the San Francisco walking map, joined us just before our meeting to discuss the upcoming New York City map design. I found myself guiding new friends from across the globe through hidden rooftop gardens and tucked-away plazas, while collaborating with a local creative talent I deeply admire.
That’s the heart of why I started this small business: to create opportunities for spontaneous connection, discovery, and appreciation of the city. San Francisco is full of moments like this, glimpses of beauty and community, if we simply slow down to notice.
If my first week in business at the kiosk was any sign, serendipity is not just a theme for my business, it’s at the core of my artist lifestyle, and the ethos for the experiences I hope to share with every curious person who engages in community with me.
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There’s something magical about Thanksgiving morning in the city. It’s quiet with many having traveled to the suburbs for turkey prep.
However, this year instead of cooking, I had a last minute morning meeting with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, (SFMTA, better known as the iconic worm logo, MUNI) to finally get kiosk keys for the Union Square Muni Station.
This morning I was clutching a fresh set of keys that jingled like music for the holiday season!
Today is about food, friends, and family for sure, but it’s a complex holiday that carries both joy and reflection. Embracing both sides of Thanksgiving allows us to celebrate family and food while honoring the truths of the past.
This year was very special for me, it was about getting the keys to be ready for opening day, this Black Friday for theurbanist.com kiosk!
I had been working behind the scenes with the city on permitting and with collaborators for months. Designing goods and services to help everyone enjoy the city like a local. We crafted our best welcoming urban conversation starters with welcome kits, walking maps, and our walking tours.
Travelers and shoppers are about to rush through the station this Friday. I am ready to join the Black Friday buzz. There’s a unique thrill in opening the kiosk for business for the first time.
I’m excited to be rolling up the shutters for the first time this Friday. The metallic click, click, click will feel like unlocking a tiny stage where personal, people-focused community building can happen.
By the time the post-turkey crowds head to downtown for Black Friday, I’ll be right in the heart of it all. Union Square is already shimmering with lights, an ice skating rink, and the energy is contagious.
Whether you’re a commuter, a holiday shopper, or just passing through, swing by our new kiosk. We’ve got Urbanist flair to share. You might even find a city-themed surprise or two in our just released 2026 Walking map design!
Here’s to starting the season by rolling up the gates at our new kiosk, with a smile, and to bring a whole lot of excitement for what’s ahead.
Happy Thanksgiving and see you in person at the Kiosk!
220 Geary Street San Francisco CA 94102. The kiosk is inside the Union Square Muni station.
Land Acknowledgment. We acknowledge that this project takes place on the ancestral lands of Native Peoples. We acknowledge this not only in thanks to the Indigenous communities who have held a relationship with this land and stewarded it for generations, but also in recognition of the historical challenges. Additionally, we make this acknowledgement as a point of reflection for us all as we address these wrongs in an effort to heal our relationship with Native Peoples.
Open 11 am to 6 pm for Black Friday, 2025.
Open 24/7 at theurbanist.com
Participating in the California College of Arts, CCA art fair was an exciting opportunity to promote my small business, theurbanist.com Setting up my table with unique designs and pieces for sale was an engaging experience, allowing me to connect with art, craft, and design enthusiasts.
My wallet collaboration with Manikgrl, crafted with maps of San Francisco was a top seller!
The fair provided a vibrant location to showcase my work, engage with the community, and share the story behind my small business theurbanist.com. It was a rewarding day filled with conversations, sales, and valuable connections that will undoubtedly benefit my business for the future.
I also received helpful feedback from customers who completed my survey. Please feel free to fill out the survey at this link. If you’re a small business owner, I highly recommend participating in local art fairs to expand your reach and engage with community in person.
All of my links are here. https://linktr.ee/natemahoney
Follow along on Instagram for my latest art and city adventures! @natemahoney @theurbanistsf
Thanks to Diane and Kate for leading a fun AI playground workshop.
I’m using AI tools to create new products and services.
For my art practice:
For my small business, The Urbanist.
Tool or Tools utilized: Figma Make, Twillio, Terminal, Python, Flask, Claude, Chat GPT.
What worked well: Figma make went very well for generating a prototype. Setting up an account and verifying phone numbers on Twillio was easy.
What didn’t: Getting python running on terminal was tricky, I’m new to coding so learning a lot asking Chat GPT how to get it to work
Next steps: Prototyping and coding this so it actually works with a phone number ported to Twillio.
Links:
Walking into a retail store in person is still an inspirational experience for me.
There you are, innocently looking for dish soap, and suddenly you’re holding a panini press you didn’t know you needed, imagining all the grilled cheese glory your future holds.
IRL Retail has this magical way of telling you stories about the life you could lead, usually one with fresher breath, cooler sneakers, and at least three throw pillows more than you currently own.
The beauty of it is that retail isn’t pretending to be high art. It’s basically a friendly neighbor who says, “Hey, want to see something cool?” and then hands you a vacuum that can also talk to your phone.
It’s not sophisticated, but it is sneaky. One minute, you’re thinking about new running shoes; the next, you’re signing up for a half marathon you didn’t even know existed.
What makes retail inspiring is its casual belief in your potential. Every aisle whispers tiny pep talks: “With this blender, you will love kale smoothies!” or “These pens will finally make you that organized person you always wanted to be.”
It’s a low-stakes, high-impact theater of possibility. Sure, you might leave with a glow-in-the-dark dog leash and no dog, but isn’t that the kind of optimism life needs?
Why did I create an urban-focused small business?
I’m working on refining my ‘why’ statement as a work in progress:
I created a small business to help people thrive in the city at the intersection of local community, urban inspiration, art, and design.
My passion to support people in the city is based on my own experience. I looked for a place to call home after leaving the suburbs. I moved to the city looking for creative inspiration and queer safe space. But, it was a challenge to adapt without knowing how to find belonging and the high cost of living had me operating in survival mode.
Now, the city is my home, I want to put all of my urban problem solving skills to good use, helping others[a] here feel welcome and able to find what they are looking for by creating goods, services, and community building. This is how I want to show up as an artist[b] in the city and how I want to interact with the world.
When I started this business, I focused on things people needed. I interviewed people and curated a welcome kit through partnerships with other small businesses. The first Welcome to San Francisco Kits were sold to brides to give to their out of town wedding guests in 2014. These kits now exist as a resource for all kinds of visitors – whether visiting or relocating, their contents offer locally made products that help welcome you to the city that has so much to offer.
I want to grow and become a sustainable business by evolving these welcome kits and to offer services that build community[c]. It’s a future goal is to help people find affordable[d] housing in the city.
I thoroughly enjoy living in the city and want to also make my job enjoyable. I celebrate the serendipity that occurs when people come together and I want to use humor and inject joy into my process, making it healthy, fun, and the end result both lively, human, and engaging. I want this small business to be able to thrive while maintaining its unique voice in the fast-paced urban environment.
Welcoming essentials for urban explorers. Taking the sense of secrecy out of urban exploration while leaving all the adventure, The Urbanist aims to offer mindful, sustainable, and essential services to the community, fostering a sense of accessibility and familiarity for visitors, tourists, and relocating urban explorers.
Inspired by sketching and photographing the Fontana delle Tartarughe water fountain contraposto posture of the bronze figures at Huntington Park at Nob Hill in San Francisco, I used an analog and digtial printmaking process to create art wallpaper. Commission to install this wallpaper at The Birdcage coffee shop in Lower Nob Hill, San Francisco.
The orginal fountain, Fontana delle Tartarughe is in Rome, Italy.
The fountain in Huntington park is a copy.
