2022 SAN JOSE

Archive of SJ Walls sponsored by Fomo Mofo.

Today our festival officially kicked off! We gathered the artists, operations and media team together for our opening ceremony at our event headquarters Empire Seven Studios (E7S) in the Japantown neighborhood of San Jose. During artist registration, participating artists receive their paint and swag bags with all kinds of goodies from our sponsors. We also have a festival tradition of blessing everyone participating with good health and a positive creative experience. Each year this blessing is different, sometimes it’s done by one of the artists and sometimes it’s done by a member of the community as an expression of gratitude. This year, we received a ceremonial blessing from a local Aztec dance group called Calpulli Tonalehqueh and then enjoyed the best poke in the city from Santo Market, a Japantown institution.

Yoshi47 who is visiting us from Japan, got a head start on his mural “From The Ground” and is painting SO fast! He happens to also be in San Jose for an upcoming solo show opening next Friday and squeezed us into his schedule. Yoshi’s paintings harness the spirit of modern day Yōkai (妖怪, "strange apparition"). Capturing all the qualities of the Japanese folklore, the furry fuzzy fun looking mysterious hybrid anomalies; look suspicious, and whose behavior can range from mischievous to friendly, fortuitous, or helpful to humans.

Later that night, everyone gathered for the opening art show “This is the Way” at E7S, featuring work by the festival artists. This was also the re-opening of the gallery after a 5 year hiatus when they lost their space to redevelopment. Such a great way for us to kick off the festival!

Photos by Ian Lundie and Lan Ngyuen.

First full day of painting is underway! But there is a ton of work that happens before the artists hit their walls. Prior to the festival our team works with 5 different local agencies to get all the permissions required to be painting in a public park. Then we have site preparations where we power wash each wall, prep the surfaces, prime and base coat each site so they are ready for the artists. All of this work is done by the SJ Walls Directors, our friends and family as volunteers (including my husband Scott who is a fellow Fomie!). It’s a key aspect in making sure the artists can actually finish their walls within the week. To give you a sense of what a pain in the butt it can be, we actually had to remove 6 layers of paint from one of this year’s sites . But this is what keeps the murals looking so good in the long run so it’s worth it!

Each artist sets their own schedules and our team floats from site to site making sure the artists have whatever they need. All we ask is that they wrap up by next Sunday 5/8. Today, the legendary Horitomo and his Monmon Cats team showed up in full force and made a ton of progress on their site. 3 artists from the Humble Beginnings tattoo shop crew started on their sites: Alan Pham, Jeff Quintano, and Orly Locquiao. Yoshi47 had quite the audience today as thousands of people participated in the Viva Calle event, a city sponsored free event where streets are closed down for people to bicycle and skate around the city. The route ended up passing right past his wall and the E7S gallery. So in true SJ Walls fashion we set up an impromptu DJ Booth and passed out some of the amazing drinks and merch from our sponsor Monster Energy!

Photos by Ian Lundie and Lan Nguyen.

Today our team is honoring Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by highlighting the 6 murals being painted by the Humble Beginnings collective. Humble Beginnings is a local tattoo shop celebrating 20 years in business. Their artists Jordan Gabriel, Melissa Manuel, Ricardo Gonzalez, Jeff Quintano, Alan Pham, and shop owner Orly Locquiao are collaborating on the largest mural we’re producing this year totaling over 2,200 square feet. In this collaboration, 6 different murals are woven together to pay tribute to the artists’ native homelands and local community by telling the story of resilience, honor, strength, and traditions. This includes a celebration of Filipino, Vietnamese, and Pacific Islander communities. In San Jose, over 30% of our population is Asian and we feel a particular sense of pride producing public art reflective of the asian diaspora. The local response has been super positive with many folks coming by to share how happy they are to see their specific community being represented.

On the operations side, I’m happy to report that things are going well! Part of creating murals in a nature conservancy means a lot of unpredictability. We have to be very careful to make sure that we’re not interfering with wildlife or polluting the river or surrounding vegetation in any way. So our team has to take extra steps to dispose of waste water, clean up paint spills, etc. So far, so good. Back with more updates for the Fomily soon! Photos by Ian Lundie and Lan Nguyen.