
Alligator in the Sky

Traveling around in #SanJose and #NearbyToSanJose at 825 mph on our spinning planet.
I really like looking at this mural and taking it in. It is beautiful art by Carlos Rodriguez (https://www.carlosrodriguezart.com/).
“The mural, “Pacha Mama,” depicts the Incan mother earth deity in a market scene surrounded by melons, grapes and avocados.” (https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/02/20/two-alarm-fire-engulfs-san-jose-grocery-store-leaves-eight-residents-displaced/)
Sadly, the grocery store that hosts this mural recently experienced a fire. Thankfully, no one was hurt including the occupants of the apartments above the grocery store. Hopefully the mural will be saved during the repairs.
Here are some other views of the building and beautiful murals despite the fire damage.
Sure, we have all seen shoes on a wire. These ones amused me because I just did not expect them out next to the Guadalupe Reservoir. It would be a bit of a walk or drive without shoes from where these ones hang near San Jose.
Mural by Chuba Oyolu (www.chubaoyolu.org , and an article at: www.mercurynews.com/2021/01/19/ruth-bader-ginsburg-watching-over-downtown-san-jose/).
Often seen in passing through downtown will be this site and sculpture:
It’s usually passed and so not as often appreciated considering the number of people who go by it. When you look, though, it is really interesting to stare at and appreciate.
It’s on a little triangular wedge of grass across from the Hotel De Anza. I finally, and thankfully, took the time to walk around it.
And I found that for me, the genius of the work is how much it changes in feel and perceived motion from different perspectives. I never realized that I liked it so until I got close and gave it my attention. So much of life is like this.
Up close, here are a couple of the differences and representations I admire:
What I think and see and feel between these two views of the same work is nothing the same except for the awe that the same work can feel so different to me from different places.
I like the images but also the perceived motion. How did I describe the motion to myself when I asked my mind to put it into words? The upper image (second one of three on this post) moves like a flowing skirt on a dancer or sea creature along the ocean sand and the lower image (third of three above) moves for me like the opening hands in the kids’ rhyme with the wriggling fingers in the middle that we did when you “open up the church and here’s all the people.” Remember that?
Well, there is much more to see than I had ever done before in years of passing by and noticing its presence but always on the way to get somewhere. Meanwhile, the art and imagery waited patiently for me to discover how I felt about it.
Sculpture by Stephanie Scuris. (You can see a neat photo of the sculpture in its original home indoors in San Jose’s Eastridge Mall in another neat angle at: www.bigmallrat.blogspot.com/2009/07/vintage-postcards-eastridge-mall.html)
Great mural of San Jose with so many special places and icons. It is interesting to see the businesses and signs that are and that are no longer there in the city amongst the special shapes and buildings.
Mural by Lila Gemellos (www.gemellosmurals.com/portfolio/midtown-76-station).
I really like this mural. I had seen it once on social media and wondered where it was. I tried searching for it online with no luck and keeping my eyes open for weeks. Recently, I went for a drive just to get out of the house for a bit. While driving back towards home through Morgan Hill, I saw it! So excited! The search, the wait, the find… so many things go in to pleasure.
I learned that it was designed by Morgan Hill Art School (www.morganhillartschool.org) and, I believe, painted by volunteers. Some great location icons are in the mural, too. In addition to the firefighters, you will see Lick Observatory atop Mt. Hamilton, the Box atop Mt. Umunhum, and the Beacon atop Mt. Diablo.
I am glad that I do not need to be a firefighter and so grateful that there are firefighters protecting us.