"The first time I entered San Francisco, the first thing I noticed was all of the colorful houses. I’d never seen anything like that before. They immediately drove my curiosity. Why? How? Was it planned? Were they always like that? Little did I know, very few people knew the answer. This is the answer. I’ll just copy and paste straight from Wikipedia.

'During World War I and World War II many of these houses were painted battle ship gray, with war-surplus Navy paint. Another 16,000 were demolished. Many others had the Victorian décor stripped off or covered with tarpaper, brick, stucco, or aluminum siding.
In 1963, San Francisco artist Butch Kardum began combining intense blues and greens on the exterior of his Italianate - style Victorian house. His house was criticized by some, but other neighbors began to copy his example. Kardum became a color designer, and he and other artist/colorists such as Tony Canaletich, Bob Buckter, and Jazon Wonders began to transform dozens of gray houses into painted ladies. By the 1970s, the colorist movement, as it was called, had changed entire streets and neighborhoods. The process continues to this day.'

I think it’s fascinating that one person, Butch Kardum, began a movement that transformed the look of an entire city. My Painted Ladies series is my version of his vision."