Yesterday I spent a couple of hours at my favorite local museum, the San Jose Museum of Art. Here are my some bits and pieces from my visit.
My favorite piece from the show “POSTDATE: Photography and Inherited History in India” was a piece by Jitish Kallat. It consisted of an everyday street scene from Bombay (?) printed as a series of large lenticulars, creating this fascinating effect where, as you walked past it, different pieces of the scene were in view and hidden. Almost like walking down a street seeing just one little bit of a panorama as you walk past it. Except, disconcertingly, the part of the view right in front of you is obscured by a a vividly colored lenticular effect.
Okay, I lied. My favorite piece from that show is this note a little kid posted about the show.
If you have little kids and live anywhere near San Jose, take them to the Museum. They have this amazing Art Kit for anyone to grab : you can sketch or take notes as you walk around. And there’s a space in the basement to make art. There are tons of kids at the museum and they always seem totally engrossed and happy. They’re the only ones not checking their phones.
This is Calder’s Big Red, 1959. From the museum’s permanent collection. I love Calder’s red. Apparently, Calder loved it too 🙂 The piece twirled slowly as I stood by it and sketched. I tried capturing it’s motion and changing shapes with different colors.
There’s one view I’m always drawn to at the museum: looking down from the second floor, past the red, yellow and blue Chihuly pieces suspended from the ceiling above. It’s quite a dramatic scene. And, I can sketch it from a common area outside the exhibit space which means I can pull out my watercolor kit!
Sketch Away: Travels with my sketchbook 