The South First Arts District (SoFA) in San Jose has a wide variety of businesses, ranging from cafes and restaurants to clubs, art galleries and theaters on 1st Street in downtown San Jose. This is considered "Silicon Valley's Creative District", which includes the SoFA Market, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, Mouimiento de Arte Cultura Latino Americana Museum, The Ritz, San Jose City Lights Theater Company, and Cineaquest. Currently there is a Cineaquest Film Festival going on this month and next month. I would love to attend one of the films during the festival. On the first Friday of every month there is Friday First Nights which has food vendors and art walks. I plan to go next month and check it out. My first time in this area was when I saw a New Order cover band "Temptation"and the Depeche Mode cover band "Strangelove" at The Ritz. I did not know at the time that I was in the SoFA District. This a great place to see concerts and these cover bands are a lot of fun!
Recently my son's class had a field trip at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. This was the first time that I had seen the art block on 1st Street with all three museums. Across the street from the museum is a nice park space where you can hang out. I love the artistic structure surrounding it in primary colors and sculptures near by. It makes the area very cheerful and inviting especially for children. The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles was a great place to visit. It is a small museum displaying current and historic quilts. We learned some history of the quilts on exhibit and how quilts are made with application. I loved all the colors and prints. The current exhibit was "Without a Net" by the artist Susan Else. She explores the theatrical awe and dark underbelly of the circus. "Susan Else pushes the boundaries of studio art quilt movement by integrating sound, light, and motors with colorful, stitched figures." The kids really enjoyed this exhibit especially seeing the Ferris wheel in movement and the fun skeleton made with quilting.
This past week I came back to the SoFA District to have my blog adventure day. I went back into the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles on my own. I wanted to check out the fun and colorful gift shop for my Etsy shop inspiration. There were a lot of fun stationery and gift items. I really like the beautiful tiles and stationery with tile prints, which could be a fun style for my Etsy shop. I was also drawn to the fun stationery with stitching. It might be fun to add some 3rd dimension elements to my invitation designs.
After going to the quilting museum I headed over to the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). I have always wanted to check this place out. It is a very small museum that has free admission, which is great. When I walked in I was greeted by the artist Mike Oechsli. He was super friendly. I told him that I was exploring the local area and he filled me in on how the area has changed so much since the 1970's and how it is being gentrified now, even more with condos and business coming in. He guided me with all the information on the two current exhibits along with the local artist exhibit in the back of the museum where his art is featured. The first exhibit I really enjoyed the most is called "Printstallations", which has monumental-sized works by nine artists. Large-scale printmaking was commonplace for artists such as Andy Warhol. The exhibit consists of innovative printmaking methods in combination with various media such as photography, textiles, photopolymer and digital techniques. I loved that most of the exhibit was in black and white which made a statement. I think it be would fun to incorporate black and white geometric art in my Etsy Shop for an 80's party theme or something in that vain. My favorite pieces in the exhibit are by Stephen Whisler,. "From a Great Height" uses eight woodcut prints on Masa paper. Beth Howe and Clive McCarthy's "Triumphal Arch" is a collection of woodblock prints. Kyoto Fischer's piece "Imagined Nostalgia" is an illuminated floor installation lithograph using encaustic technique with LED lights. Mixing technology with art and fabrics is the wave of the future.
Stephen Whisler, "From a Great Height"
Beth Howe and Clive McCarthy "Triumphal Arch"
Kyoto Fischer "Imagined Nostalgia"
The next time I venture over to this area I want to check out Mouimiento de Arte Cultura Latino Americana Museum (MLCA). Unfortunately I did not have enough time to go to this museum. I love the outside design of the building and the black and white maze-like typography-based mural by Aaron De La Cruz who started as a graffiti artist. This print is actually featured on the cover of December/January's "Content" magazine showcasing "Silicon Valley's Innovative and Creative Culture". Aaron De La Cruz has designed for countless clothing brands such as Nike along with designing large scale murals. He is focusing on bringing his trademark style into physical form such as sculpture. He will be exhibiting at the up and coming "POW WOW! art festival in San Jose.
To end my blogging adventure day I went to check out the SoFA Market for lunch. The SoFA Market is a small scale food court with a local following run by family establishments. Content calls the SoFA Market "a stunning example of constant change". Since I got there a bit early I started off with a chocolate croissant made fresh by "Vero's Coffee Bar" owed by Omar and Veronica who are also featured in Content magazine. "Vero's Coffee is one of the first anchor spots in the food hall". They have been established there for four years now. The rest of the vendors have only been there for 3 years. It was not until about 18 months ago when business in the market started to really take off.
I spoke with Omar and Veronica a bit about the the food market and mentioned my blog. I asked him which place he would recommend for lunch and he recommended "Vietnoms", which is a Vietnamese noodle and rice bowl place that just opened in December. "Vietnoms brings you authentic Vietnamese flavors in a modern package". I spoke to the owner of Vietnoms and he recommended trying the Vermicelli Bowl which consists of lemon grass pork, scallion oil, lettuce, cilantro, cucumber, mint peanuts, and an egg roll. It was super yummy! The market was a great end to another adventure day in Silicon Valley.
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