Fine artist and restaurateur David Muller (Painting/Drawing 2004) credits CCA with building his confidence in the unknown and broadening his perspective of how to approach art as a lifestyle, rather than a career or project.

"I had been doing a lot of drawing after graduating from CCA," Muller explains, "showing here and there, and working in the restaurant industry to pay the bills. My wife, Lana Porcello (also a visual artist) and I eventually decided to open our own small restaurant, Outerlands, in our neighborhood, which we designed entirely ourselves and physically built a large percentage of as well.

"Our daughter was born a month before we opened, and between her and the restaurant, every moment of both of our lives became completely consumed."

Building Success

Outerlands is now a successful business, on par with some of the finer establishments in San Francisco. The restaurant has appeared often in the press, including several reviews in the New York Times, and was recently added to the San Francisco Chronicle's 17th annual Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants guide.

(Look for upcoming press features later this summer in Bon Appetit and Martha Stewart Living.)

New Artist Studios & Projects

Until very recently, neither Muller nor Porcello had any studio practice left in the aftermath of their busy new lives, but that has changed as of late. They have both built studios for themselves where they are able to squeeze in a modest amount of time to draw, create, and visualize new projects.

One of these projects is the Carville Annex, an artist studio and project space the Muller and Porcello cofounded on the same block as Outerlands. The annex offers a lecture series Sarah Fontaine and Graduate Design alumna Alexis Petty facilitate.

A vibrant community of artists now lives and works in this small community in the outer Sunset, including Painting-Drawing student Rachel Kaye and Painting-Drawing faculty member Jay Nelson, the latter of whom has contributed countless installations to the aesthetic of the block.

Next Steps

Muller has recently been working on drawings for Outerlands' upcoming expansion into an adjacent building, which is slated for this summer. In addition, he is drawing a map of his rapidly-changing neighborhood (in many ways because of his restaurant's contribution to a previously sleepy part of town), to capture a moment in time before it is forgotten by all of the impending development.

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