Picking up the weekly groceries might be a more usual reason to visit the new Market Park shopping center on Berryessa Road in San Jose, but stopping to gaze at a set of new murals while you’re there isn’t a bad idea at all.
The Bumb family, which owns the center and the nearby San Jose Flea Market, brought on muralist Lila Gemellos to work with KRP Architects to add some color with a historical touch to the blank walls of the shopping center’s buildings. The result was a series of murals that celebrate the east valley’s bucolic past.
There are images of a Peninsular Railway car making its way up Alum Rock, children playing at Penitencia Creek, fieldworkers drying apricots and a scenic view of an orchard-filled valley from Mount Hamilton Road. There’s even a nod to the Bumb family’s own history, with a box of Berryessa cherries labeled Bumb Family Farms.
While Gemellos’ always colorful work has a wide range, the San Jose native has told me she enjoys being able to add history to her work, especially to help newcomers learn about what this valley was like before silicon. You can see more examples like that at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, where Gemellos led a team that created a series of murals celebrating the many cities that make up Santa Clara County.
There’s a lot more of her work all around San Jose, and you can see a good collection on her website, www.gemellosmurals.com, or keep up with her on Instagram at @gemellosmurals.
GOGH SEE IT: The new “Beyond Van Gogh: An Immersive Experience” show at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center should be a hot ticket this fall. Of course, this is an entirely different exhibition than “Immersive Van Gogh” running in San Francisco, but it’s worth the time for fans of the Dutch painter or anyone else who wants a surreal artistic experience. About 200 guests attended a preview party Thursday night before the show opened to the public Friday.
Fanny Curtat, the art historian who worked on the show, told me that while nothing can match the original paintings created by Vincent Van Gogh, the immersive digital presentation is a wonderful tool to allow people familiar with his work to explore it in a deeper way or to introduce it to new fans. We talked a bit about his portraits, which in the exhibition dissolve into patterns and eventually flowers, maintaining his well-known brushstroke style.
“That’s because he painted flowers like they were people,” she said.
If there’s one drawback to the show, set to run through Nov. 14, it’s the coffee bar that presenting sponsor Keurig has set up on the way toward the exit, where visitors can also take an artistic selfie or buy Van Gogh merch. The problem isn’t the coffee, it’s just that all the decor in the world can’t turn South Hall into a French sidewalk café. It’s only then the illusion that you’re living in Van Gogh’s world falls away.
SAN JOSE WHISKEY WINS BIG: The next time someone asks you what San Jose is known for besides the Sharks and technology, you can tell them, “We make a darn good whiskey.” And you can give the credit to 10th Street Distillery, where founders Virag Saksena and Vishal Gauri were stunned to find out their Peated Single Malt Whisky won Best in Show at this year’s New York World Wine & Spirits Competition, one of the top tasting events in the world.
The two engineers and college buddies founded 10th Street Distillery in 2017 and have been quite the success story, using their chemistry know-how and distilling skills to create whiskies that taste like they’ve been aged for a decade or more despite spending only a fraction of that time in a barrel. And, they’re no one-trick pony, either. Their California Coast whiskey won a gold medal at the same competition. Check ’em out at www.10thstreetdistillery.com.
NOW WE’RE COOKING: To celebrate its upcoming 80th anniversary, the San Jose Auxiliary for Children has put together “Recipes Out of the Box,” a cookbook that compiles recipes submitted by the organization’s members. The San Jose Auxiliary was founded in 1942 to support the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, a mission it continues today by running the Thrift Box in Willow Glen.
The cookbook contains starters like Missy Ryan’s Cheese Puffs and Spinach Salad, drawn from the recipes of Sue Casey and Colleen Lund. But it’s also got entrees — ribs glazed with a Gordon Biersch Märzen beer barbecue sauce — and desserts like the gluten-free chocolate-tahini brownies contributed by Carrie Townsley.
You can pick up the cookbook at the Thrift Box, 1362 Lincoln Ave., for $27.43 — which works out to an even $30 with tax.
CONCERT WITH HOPE: Rock N Roll Hall of Fame inductee and onetime Doobie Brother Michael McDonald will headline the third annual In Concert With Hope, a virtual fundraiser for Hope Services on Oct. 2. McDonald will be joined by jazz saxophonist Mindi Abair, a two-time Grammy nominee.
The concert supports Hope Services’ programs for children and adults with developmental disabilities, including Homestart, an early intervention program for kids 5 and younger that’s already helped more than 500 families. Tickets are available for just $20 at www.hopeservices.org/icwh-2021.