Plain white water tower

This plain white water tower  and smokestack on 5th street in San Jose once belonged to the American Can Company and stand as a quiet reminders of the agricultural past of Silicon Valley.

Now this little forgotten pocket of San Jose is where one of the last buildings that houses artists’ studios in San Jose stands. But you can literally see the new gentrified San Jose creeping in around it. We do need high density housing in San Jose, but surely we can find place for the arts and artists too?

I love that the water tower holds historical significance, but I suspect I’d have been drawn to this scene anyways. I love urban scenes. And another thing I love to draw (this one surprised me too): Cars.

I don’t understand a thing about cars: how they work, how the wheels are attached to the body, how the different bits fit together… which means I’m free to draw purely from observation, piecing together shapes and angles. I love the contrast of the dark undersides on them, the way tires flatten where they hit the ground, how cars parked on the sides of roads look a little wonky because they slope towards the gutter.