. -- great tavels, -- great travels, everyone. you next year. >> the supervisor is running just a little bit late. she should be here shortly. we do have with us this afternoon mohammed nuru, director of d.p.w. mohammed, where are you? [applause] mohammed is going to have to rush out, but he wants to say welcome and thank you. >> good afternoon, everyone. and thank you for inviting the department of public works over here to talk about our contract processes. we are part of the city family

. -- great tavels, -- great travels, everyone. you next year. >> i came out to san francisco about seven years ago. i was trained as a carpenter. i got sick of the cold weather and the hot weather. i wanted to pursue art. i thought i really be here for about three years. here i am, 7 years later. ♪ i have problems sleepwalking at night. i wanted to create a show about sleep. a mostly due painting kind of story telling. these are isolated subject matters, smaller studies for the larger paintings. i fell in love with it and wanted to create more of them. it is all charcoal on mylar. it is plastic. i was experimenting and discovered the charcoal moves smoothly. it is like painting, building up layers of charcoal. it is very unforgiving. you have to be very precise with the mark-making. a mark dents the paper and leaves the material embedded. you have to go slowly. the drawings are really fragile. one wipe and they are gone completely. it is kind of like they're locked inside. all of the animals i am showing are dead. i wanted them to