“Mālama Āina”
“To care for the land”
Mural on West St. John and Marker Street by Taylor Reinhold (https://www.taylorreinhold.com/).
Traveling around in #SanJose and #NearbyToSanJose at 825 mph on our spinning planet.
Art
“Mālama Āina”
“To care for the land”
Mural on West St. John and Marker Street by Taylor Reinhold (https://www.taylorreinhold.com/).
From the street of San Tomas Aquino Rd. I assumed I was looking at a simple, though attractive, vegetable sculpture. Then I got closer and saw there was more to it. Notice the roof of this library has a rain spout directed to the top of the sculpture. Then, looking closer I saw that the sculpture has curves that channel water and a drain near its base. It is a part of the rain water drain path! That is just neat. I found that the artist Elizabeth Conner (https://elizabethconner.com/section/348652-Public-Art.html) calls this work “Cabbage”.
From the top you can see how the water is channeled all around the grooves of the sculpture’s leaves as it flows down towards the drain.
Waterways work their away around it all and it has integrated lights to backlight the leaves at night.
I like looking at this and hope to be near it when it is raining some day.
I stopped because I thought someone had given these koalas a scarf or something. It looks like it may actually be balloons or something that got caught up in the sculpture. According to SanJose.com (https://www.sanjose.com/2011/06/01/branching_out/) these numerous koala sculptures you see in the trees on E. San Carlos Street were put up by the San Jose Downtown Association in 2011.
When I saw this one I instantly liked it and assumed it was completed for the most part. These photos of the Alley behind the corner of Stevens Creek and Bascom were taken a couple of weeks apart and show some changes. For this mural, it was dramatic and still excellent even though very different to me after the artist added the lines you will see next.
I like it both ways so much I can not quite make up my mind which way I would prefer it. Each way feels different to me like separate and excellent works. I ran into the artist, Augie WK (https://www.thejamsbrand.com/augiewk), selling some of his artwork at a SoFA First Friday event and told him how I liked this mural off of Stevens Creek and how I liked it both ways so much. He told me that he’s heard similar thoughts often from people with his art. He sometimes uses the lines and sometimes does not when he employs this style in his work. I’m glad that I was able to stop and appreciate this mural in both phases.
Here are some more works in the alley from various artists. New pieces pop up every once in a while so this alley already has more works than is captured in these photos.
Mural by Serge Gay Jr. (https://www.facebook.com/sergegayjrart).
Mural by Matty Heimgartner (https://www.facebook.com/fabulousmatty).
Mural on a wall between buildings on South Bascom Avenue in San Jose by Tulio Flores and Francisco Ramirez.
I recognize some of these artists from their work on other murals in San Jose. This mural put together by multiple artists was found at Hermann Intermediate School in San Jose.
San Jose Earthquakes soccer mural in Japantown by San Jose artist John Barrick (https://honestjohnmurals.com/).