Selection into ArtSpan's 2017 Selections show grew out of several years of embeddedness in San Francisco's Mission-district co-op gallery scene, beginning with membership at City Art Gallery on Valencia Street. Through the artists already showing there, Bernard became involved with ArtSpan — participating in SF Open Studios, becoming a member, and getting into a couple of ArtSpan-sponsored exhibitions — before applying for and making the cut for Selections 2017, a juried exhibition held as part of ArtSpan's Annual Art Bridge Gala. Two A Colorful History works were shown: Lombard Street . 1922 v2, a newly repainted version made specifically for this exhibition (distinct from an earlier original of the same subject), and Baker Beach . 1935. The Lombard Street repaint sold that evening for $800 and led to a follow-up commission. Looking back, this show marked the height of the San Francisco run of A Colorful History — the point at which continuing to build a career in the city would have meant pushing that one series harder than Bernard wanted to, at a moment when he still wanted to experiment. That tension was part of what led to the move to Berlin shortly after.