A recent Monday, 2:05 pm: Tim Armstrong always thought of himself as an artist. He sacrificed the middle-class lifestyle his parents gave him as a child to follow his creative dreams.
“I came out to pursue the neo-beat culture in San Francisco, the ’90s version, which was to be romantic, pursue your art and live in North Beach,” Armstrong said. “I think of myself as a (Lawrence) Ferlinghetti. Look at this beard.”
He signed up for classes at the San Francisco Art Institute, but gave up one semester short of graduation. His professors wanted to groom artists fit for galleries, and Armstrong was into large-scale, temporary art made from flour that lasted only as long as the rain held off and hungry birds stayed away.
He found a small apartment in North Beach for $200 a month and soon landed work at the San Remo Hotel on Mason Street as a handyman. It didn’t pay a lot, but it gave him the flexibility to pursue his art.
Seventeen years later, the 53-year-old Armstrong has become an integral part of the quirky hotel on the edge of North Beach, which was built in 1906 to house refugees from the great earthquake and fire.
“He knows where all the bodies are buried, he’s been around so long,” said Tom Field, who has owned the San Remo with his brother Robert since 1972. “He is our curator, handyman and decorator. He does all kinds of things that I’m not even aware of.”
Wearing suspenders and signature green Carhartt work pants, Armstrong scurries about the 65-room hotel with “bathrooms down the hall,” looking for the next problem to fix.
“Sometime people vomit in the sink and toilets overflow. I have to deal with it,” Armstrong said. A more pleasant duty is maintaining the Field Brothers’ collection of a dozen-plus antique cars, one of which he drives to the front of the building every day — eye candy to attract customers.
It’s all part of a job that allows the bohemian lifestyle he relishes. Ironically, he doesn’t have much time now to create art, but he still has that mind-set.
As he organized 100-years worth of junk in the hotel’s storage areas, he came across all manner of old photographs and interesting objects. Now, one wing at the San Remo is devoted to antique baby photographs he found and framed. Another is lined with rock posters from the 1960s.
In a way, the artist who shunned the gallery path now hath his own gallery. Nothing is for sale.
“I curate whatever I find and put it on the wall,” Armstrong said. “If it looks good, it stays.”
When he was evicted from his apartment two years ago, the Field brothers let him stay for free in cramped sleeping quarters in the warehouse where the vintage cars are kept. They say he can stay until the right place comes along.
“All my friends have been evicted, and I’m living rent-free in San Francisco. I’m easy to please,” Armstrong said. “Other guys my age, they want to be in love and want their own private bathroom, but I’ll just take what comes my way. What else can you do? I mean, I get to live in San Francisco.”
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