Beautiful gardens in neighborhood near Gish Road.
Gish Road Neighborhood
Downtown San Jose
Above is The Peralta Adobe; worth learning about. The oldest building in San Jose, the last remaining from our original pueblo homes, hand built in 1797 by its first occupant. Perhaps it should be called the Jose Manuel Gonzales Adobe. Jose Manuel Gonzales built the house, was a member of the Anza expedition, an Apache Native American, one of the founders of the Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe (San Jose’s original name in 1777), the second Mayor of San Jose, and the first resident and builder of this Adobe which is the oldest building in our city. Very interesting article about it here. And you can sit right by it with a pizza and a beer to ponder it, as it is preserved in the outdoor area of the San Pedro Square Market.
Exchange Painting
Walking along the street, I spotted the painting in a lobby. It is called “Exchange” by Philip Buller. It is large. I enjoyed the feelings and the path my mind took looking at it. The gentleman at the lobby desk was friendly, too, as I spent several minutes taking it in up close and chatting with him about others who have stopped to appreciate it.
I don’t know who wrote the plaque that accompanied the painting in the lobby, but there was a poetry to it. The commission was to produce a work of art about commerce. The author of the plaque wrote, “Commerce, on its most basic and beneficent level, is the service of others through exchange.”
The “service of others through exchange.” A new perspective I will play with when I exchange. It makes me smile to think this way when purchasing groceries or a cup of coffee. It makes me smile to inact commerce “on its most basic and beneficent level.”
San Pedro Square Market
Vida Abundante Mural
This is my favorite mural right now as I type this. It is beautiful and mixes several qualities so well. It is several aspects of San Jose in one artwork along the side of the Hotel De Anza. What I see is an inherently beautiful painting that manages to blend Hope, the Abundance of our fertile land, the Virgin Marry representation of gift and nurturer, Art Deco, and a Boldness of people in lines and in color. It is currently the mural I look forward to driving by most. One I appreciate walking up to greatly.
Mural on side of Hwy 87
I stare at this one so long. I can feel the heat. Up close, the heat is tangible. That small sun of a sphere in the sepia sky; that was the genius of this. That brought so much more of the woman’s texture to bear on my feelings, there in that sun.
There is more to interpret and play with as you see the rest.
Japantown Murals
This service station is a perfect slice of Japantown in San Jose; history meets today, still running and valuable, with bits from all times in between, in a blend rare and wonderful to find.
The Alameda Murals
So many murals down one alleyway off of The Alameda. This was a happy find and I spent a lot of time enjoying these. At the end of the alley and parking lots, was a wonderful smell or flowers. There were roses and jasmine in the vicinity. To smell the roses I ended up next to this fence. I like this fence, I don’t know why I liked it so, but I think it was the aged wood and older San Jose home with the extra detail and color, and of course, the smell of roses all around it.
West San Carlos Street Murals
Elementary School Mural
Washington Elementary School Mural
