Past & Present

I was cruising around downtown a few weeks ago and came across this old Art Deco clock on the corner of 16th and Broadway (below left)…

oakland street clock, art deco clock, lamp with naked figures, sexy lamp

It’s design is unusual because although the base is rectangular, the tower and clock itself is pyramidal, with only three sides. According to Bill Sturm, who runs the history room of the Oakland Library, street clocks used to be common in Oakland, erected by jewelry stores as advertising. Most of them are gone now, and Sturm says this is the oldest one in the city, hands down.

Commissioned in 1930 by the Davidson and Licht Jewelry Co. and originally installed at 1318 Broadway, this clock was uprooted twice when the jewelry store moved and has been at its current location since 1947. Interestingly enough, though no longer functional – it was damaged by a car sometime in the 1980’s – it still marks the location of a store that sells jewelry, among other things.

1635 Broadway is now occupied by The Home Fashion store. You can see their sign in the background which touts everything from “jewelry, watches, clocks, art pictures, figures, silk flowers, lamps, phones, women’s lingerie, and sunglasses.” Lingerie… really?!? That’s quite an assortment of stuff.

I spotted the lamp (above right) in their store window… Its tag reads “the unique and best lighting source.” All I can say is… WOW.

I ♥ Oakland

A gorgeous mosaic at Bret Harte Middle School in Dimond District.  Fashioned together by students, including dozens of custom hand-painted tiles…

oakland pride, oakland tree, oakland tree mosaic, oakland mosaic art

bret harte middle school, oakland tree mosaic, oakland mosaic art

Painted sentiments include “I ♥ Oakland”, “East Oakland Pride”, “We love Oakland”, “HOPE”, and much much more…

hand painted tiles, mosaic of oakland tree, mosaic by oakland students

This spotted in my soon-to-be-new-neighborhood. Regulars to this blog will note a heavy emphasis on Downtown/Uptown and West Oakland districts because that’s where I live now. But in the next couple of months I’ll be making my way over to Dimond district and I’m extremely excited to explore and discover more of Oaktown’s East Side!

Note added 4/28/2011:  I now know this project is titled “Spirit of Oakland” and was organized by artist/teacher Pam Consear.  See her blog-post documenting the work… “Spirit of Oakland,” Bret Harte Middle School, Oakland, CA

Oakland Museum of California

Did you check out the weekend long celebration at the newly reopened Oakland Museum of Art last weekend? Open for 31 hours straight, honoring California’s place as the 31st state in our union, activities were planned round the clock from Saturday morning till Sunday night, and while I can’t say we made it to the 4am rooftop tour, we did put in a pretty good showing on Saturday night…

new oakland museum logo, interactive art at oakland museum

The first thing you noticed as you approached the museum was the bold new logo, configured out of multi-dimensional retro-cool orange letters…. so much better than the stodgy old uniform brown lettering that used to announce your arrival. This sign alone is indicative of the larger changes incorporated within… more modern gallery spaces, more comfortable seating areas, and more interactive displays.

One example is pictured above right… a box constructed out of glass and a mirror-like surface that appeared and disappeared as one walked around the box, at times you could see through it to the person standing on the other side, at times you could see your own reflection, and if you both stood just right, you could see both, and even multiple images of each.

Another fun interactive station was incorporated below into the People of California exhibit. A wall of portraits of various periods, mediums, and styles included two framed digital screens that displayed visitor generated self-portraits, created on a slick touch screen (think Ipad!) with a wonderful little drawing/painting program allowing the use of various brush sizes and colors. Patrons could save their creations to be later displayed, both on the wall as framed art, and on a secondary screen that allowed other visitors to scroll through all the recorded portraits, viewing the sequence of brush strokes that created each one. This exhibit had a line of people waiting for as long as I was there. Nice job OMCA!

oakland museum reopening, oakland museum of art

The weekend activities highlighted the the completion of Phase 1 of the renovation plan with the re-opening of two main galleries: Art and History. (Phase 2 is slated for completion in 2012 and will comprise a new Natural Science wing.)

Art Gallery at Oakland Museum, oakland museum of art

The galleries are certainly more spacious and inviting, but the real changes are more conceptual than structural. While galleries used to be organized chronologically, now objects will be organized thematically, mixing various mediums and periods in order to tell complete “stories.”

art gallery at oakland museum, museum of art oakland

Another primary change is to make the galleries more easily transformable. The museum’s collection dates back to the early 1900’s, cobbled together from three older existing museums. “With nearly 2 million objects in its permanent collection, the museum is considered a leading resource for the research and understanding of California’s social, cultural and environmental heritage.” (The reinventing of the Oakland Museum of California by Angela Hill)

With a collection this large, only a small percentage is viewable at any point in time. “One of the key ideas of this whole renovation is to create a situation where we can change things out in a much easier way,” said René de Guzman, the museum’s senior curator of art. (The Oakland Museum Remixes Its Gallery Space by Rachel Swan)

Lori Fogarty, the museum’s executive director, further emphasized the shift… “We’d heard people coming through, saying things like, ‘Oh, I came here in fourth grade, and it’s just the same,'” Fogarty said. “We needed to do something about that, making the gallery spaces more flexible for changing exhibits, bring more programming like lectures and poetry readings directly into the galleries.”

art gallery at oakland museum, opening night oakland museum

From the scene this past weekend, it looks like their efforts have paid off hugely. The museum was packed!

opening night oakland museum

If you haven’t seen the new museum yet, it’s definitely worth checking out…  see their site for hours, directions, current exhibits, and more.  Oakland Museum of California

If you want to achieve greatness, stop asking for permission.

Well it was a big night of “openings” this past Saturday and our first stop was the new 5733 Retail Clothing Store & Gallery on Piedmont Ave (this before heading to the Oakland Museum Opening party, but more on that tomorrow…)

5733 clothing, 5733 opening party, 5733 store on piedmont

We weren’t sure exactly where the store was, but as we approached the correct block, the bumpin’ beats led us straight to the party. Tucked into an alcove off the main avenue, and up a flight of stairs, folks might know this location from the next door neighbor Chez Simone, who serves up delectable french cuisine as though you’re a guest in her own home.

5733, 5733 clothing store, 5733 grand opening

Despite the early hour, the party was already in full swing… the place packed and thronged with photographers. It was anything you could do not to get smacked in the face by a huge zoom lens. Others twittered away on their blackberries… and of course, people shopped. A steady buzz broadcast from the direction of the cash register, and with all goods produced locally & sustainably AND marked 25% off, the temptation was hard to resist. What can I say? I love my new hoodie!

5733 t-shirts, 5733 tshirts, 5733 artwork

Above, a display of some of artist Eddie Colla’s T-shirt designs… the far right was particularly memorable, titled X’s. Stitched onto the shirt were various fabric reproductions of polaroid snaps of gorgeous lingerie-clad girls in compromising positions… handwritten notes were scrawled on each one, like “Jiao – Bad English, but we were both fluent in Smirnoff.”

5733 gallery, eddie colla gallery, 5733 retail store

The murals above and below were my favorites… especially the “If you want to achieve greatness….” piece, from which I titled this post. It’s a bold sentiment embraced whole-heartedly by artist and founder Eddie Colla. As a street artist whose works are more typically found on abandoned buildings and back alleyways, the whole point is to create without authorization.

“There is a visual conversation that takes place on the streets of urban environments. This conversation is dominated primarily by advertising and utilitarian signage and assumes  passive participation. Whether invited or not I am going to participate in this conversation. Public spaces were never intended to be coated from top to bottom with photos of consumer products. These spaces should, in some manner, reflect the culture that thrives in that space.”

Hence, the concealed identity through use of bandanas… I love how this is mimicked in other pieces through the use of asian characters wearing masks (but for entirely different reasons).

5733 opening party, 5733 gallery opening, art by eddie colla

Don’t fret if you missed the opening party… After the success of this one, they’re sure to have plenty of future events. You can visit the store at 4125 Piedmont Ave, Oakland.