The shops, skyscrapers and multi-story condominiums in downtown San Jose were built with the vision and leadership of developers with years of life experience. But look closely at the ground level and you will see the artistic vision of young Santa Clara County students who are not even out of high school.
Rampaging robots, social media saturation and local architecture are some subjects of the student artwork currently exhibited as part of this year’s Downtown Doors competition.
The annual Downtown Doors program is administered by the San Jose Downtown Association. Original art pieces by local high school students are digitized, enlarged and transferred onto vinyl adhesive decals and then installed on double- and triple-paned utility doors or boxes at sidewalk level along the center city’s core.
The Fremont Union High School District has one new artwork in the program this year. Joyce Seok, a student from Homestead High School, saw her piece titled “Find your Happy Place” selected. It can be found on 201 S. Second St., between San Fernando Avenue and San Carlos Street on Camera 12 Cinemas.
Joyce’s piece is the ninth door to feature the work of a Homestead High student. Two works were selected in 2012, and six in 2013. Cupertino High School saw three artworks selected in 2010 and another three pieces in 2011. Many of these works are still on display.
Since its beginnings in 2003 when four drab doors were enhanced with student artwork, nearly 200 works of art have been put on display, according to Downtown Doors organizers.
About 20 art pieces can be found just on the facades of the Fairmont San Jose Hotel and Camera 12 Cinemas. The vast majority of students in the competition have come from Lincoln High School in San Jose, which has seen 48 selections since 2003.
New artwork titled “New World” by Lincoln student Matthew Reddy can be seen along Paseo de San Antonio between Third and Fourth streets. “Downtown San Jose” by 2014 Lincoln graduate Esther Dello Buono is wrapped around a utility box in front of the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce building at 101 W. Santa Clara St.
Esther started working on her abstract acrylic as a junior in Lincoln’s AP art class. She wasn’t happy with the initial result and spent the summer reworking the piece. The result is a brightly colored compressed view of familiar downtown buildings such as the Fairmont Hotel, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Center for the Performing Arts and St. Joseph’s Cathedral.
“It turned out a lot better than I thought it would,” Esther says. “It took me forever to make the straight lines of color that makes it look digital. Acrylics are hard to work with.”
Esther’s artwork also won the Congressional Art Competition and will hang in the Capitol’s Hall of Congress for one year.
While Downtown Doors features art by local high school students on public doorways and other outdoor sites, this year’s exhibit has gone international to include works by students in San Jose’s sister cities: Dublin, Ireland; Okayama, Japan; Pune, India; San Jose, Costa Rica; and Tainan, Taiwan. In all, 26 new works have been added to the rotating exhibit, bringing the total number of sites to 91.
For more information about Downtown Doors and a location map of the artworks, visit sjdowntown.com/downtown_doors.
