When Cynthia Cao was a young girl, her mother liked to reward her with trips to Michaels. There, she would buy stamps for her collection. It was an inexpensive way to encourage creativity—drawing and painting were her childhood hobbies when she wasn’t reading or playing outside, happily entertained with the family pets.

Even as a baby, Sara V Cole held art materials in her hands. Her mother inspired her to find no limit in her creativity, and Cole truly hasn’t.

If you’ve ever participated in the First Friday Art Walk, or seen the Phantom Galleries while strolling downtown, or been in to Kaleid Gallery, you’ve probably heard about Anno Domini, operated by Brian Eder and Cherri Lakey, two very passionate individuals who have set out to cultivate the art scene in San Jose. 

Ally Spray is an 18-year-old, visual artist. She creates many of her abstract works of art on paper using Sharpie markers and pens. Most contain vibrant and colorful creations with detailed patterns, shapes, and lines.

Jackelin Solorio is an agent of visual language. Each photo, each ceramic, each video performance that emerge from her studio are a question and a dare.

As Francisco Ramirez grew up, art became a form of escapism from a turbulent home life. It was a hobby for a long time. Only recently has Ramirez begun taking it seriously, picking up mural work and other commissions to keep himself afloat.

Miguel Machuca likes working in charcoal because it’s like ash—like what his body will one day become.

Is it real art or is it digital art? This is the question that San Jose artist Joseph Arruda is frequently asked, and his answer is: both. Influenced by award-winning American artist and writer Bill Sienkiewicz’s aesthetic to “learn all the rules so you can fundamentally figure out when to ignore them,” Arruda creates what he calls an “art hack,” mixing a variety of digital and traditional techniques to create his abstract and portraiture artwork. 

Born in Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico, Claudia Blanco was surrounded by art from birth. Blanco’s father was a part-time jeweler whose font books fascinated her as a child, as did the painted signs and screens sitting around the screenprinting shop her uncle ran.

Jonathan Crow’s stylistic theme fits into the context of current events, but our quarantine and global pandemic increase the emotional potency for viewers. His art may reveal hard truths while also offering a catharsis that brings you back from the void.

Artist Isaac S. Lewin is a multidisciplinary artist with a studio at the School of Visual Philosophy in San Jose. He creates unique sculptural pieces in two different styles: signs that contain text-like forms with no concrete meaning and large, three-dimensional, welded-metal wireframe structures.

With Digging Sound Collect, photographer Abraham Menor utilizes his masterful eye for the moment to elevate the seemingly mundane exercise of collecting records into a celebration of culture and heritage.

While spray painting on canvas remains his primary mode of artmaking, the phrase “the world is your canvas” holds literal meaning for Fernando Amaro, Jr.

There’s a picture book kind of playfulness to Diane Villadsen’s photos. Not only do they practically twirl with sprightly youth and wonder, but they also toy with colors and shapes. They remind the viewer to let out that inner kid for a breath of fresh air.

Finding inspiration in skateboarding and the world around him for his crisp, allusive art.

Art can do a lot of good things for people—it can make them feel like they never have, articulate previously unknown emotions, provide direction and open the heart, and given the right (or wrong) circumstances, art can even save a life.

Marie Cameron is a Los Gatos artist who usually works in oils and mixed media assemblage. However, during the pandemic, she has been embroidering silk rainbows onto vintage photographs.

Japantown Augmented Reality Project Unearths the History of a Unique Neighborhood.

Ruben Escalante suffered a heart attack as a freshman in high school. But this is only surprising until Ruben reveals the trauma he endured as a child: the father who went out at least once a week and came home drunk, angry, and violent; the early death of the grandfather who was the only one that could subdue his dad’s temper; the constant and vicious attacks at school by bullies who could not accept a sensitive, poetry-loving brown boy.

As a teenager, Doug Hughmanick’s creative outlet was graffiti: spray paint was his medium of choice, and the South Bay was his canvas. Someone suggested he channel his artistic abilities into art school, an idea he had never thought of before. Hughmanick found out about Academy of Art in San Francisco and was intrigued. Two years into the art school experience, he realized a career in design was his future. 

Color is abundant in artist Erika Gómez Henao’s work. Through the use of several artistic mediums, including painting, performance, and ceramics, the vibrancy of Gómez Henao’s work captures audience attention, while her choice in subject matter commands it. Born and raised in Colombia, Gómez Henao credits her love of color to the richness of both her culture and the area where she grew up.

Originally from South Pasadena, artist Fanny Retsek attended Loyola Marymount College for a degree in European history before relocating to the Bay Area in her late twenties. Her interest in art grew out of a study of art history, and after moving to the Bay, Retsek earned an MFA at SJSU with a focus on printmaking.

Martha Sakellariou began her journey earning multiple degrees from the Athens School of Fine Arts in Greece. She went on to obtain her MA in printmaking from the Royal College of Art in London. In 2005 she worked as the Creative and Art Program director for a climate change awareness program for Friends of the Earth, London. In 2013, her family moved to the Bay Area where she now holds a studio space as an independent visual artist with the Cubberley Artist Studio Program in Palo Alto.

Tony May’s 1920s downtown home is peaceful, with dried leaves hanging from strings, handcrafted cupboards displaying his and others’ work, and the soft hum of water boiling for a cup of tea. There is the normal collection of items that gather after living in a place for nearly forty years.

I’ve always told our employees who want to rise in management, just go out and hire people who are incredibly smart. Smarter than you…

Robert Ragazza finds inspiration on the tough streets of San Jose, and through his photographs, exposes the city’s heart.

At his show “Almost Famous,” held at Cukui last March, Jay Aguilar completely covered the single wall he was given with his photography. From nearly floor to ceiling, each meticulously placed, independently developed square shot portrayed various local scenesters and musicians. The sheer volume of his work was overwhelming, but what made the evening extra special was how each portrait brought back memories of the many shows he had memorialized on film.

Using a variety of mediums, from photography to linoleum cuts, Anabella Piñon finds visual symbolism in the tumbleweed’s transient form.

Gabriel Edwards, who goes by Gabe, is a full-time artist and dad, living with his wife and daughter in San Jose, and with a son on the way. Over the past six years, Gabe has been working on two large, ongoing projects: drawing collages of objects from horror films using a style called “knolling,” where the artist arranges various objects in parallel with each other on paper, and recording his own audiobooks on cassette.

Allan Barnes creates stunning photographs that look as if they were unearthed from an antique book in an old library, and that’s because the process he uses is more than 150 years old. The technique, called wet plate collodion, results in monochromatic pictures that are haunting, soft, and beautiful, with a grainy depth that can’t be recreated with modern film or filters.

Artist Duo Brightens the World with Colorful Vinyl Art

Although a visual artist now, Matthew Heimgartner was initially drawn to the creative world through storytelling. Writing stories throughout his childhood in San Jose and adding doodles in the margins, it wasn’t until 2017 that he made what he considers the official switch—that is, showing his artwork publicly.

Jorge “J.Duh” Camacho uses the symbiotic duality of his creative process—fine art versus street—to create unique, vibrant, and witty works of art.

School of Visual Philosophy: An Arts Revolution. Yori and Danna Seeger, husband and wife, new parents, artists, educators, and revolutionaries.

The Montalvo Arts Center, besides being a beautiful local park, is home to a number of artists from all over the world.

Juan Sanchez’s journey to founding a digital agency Act I Juan Sanchez loved the city. He would wander the streets, marveling at the cool…

Whether it’s styling the latest looks in weddings or pushing modern design to the next level, Jonathan and Linnae of Asiel Design give new meaning to event planning.

What kinds of people become full-time artists? Sometimes it’s the kind that meticulously plotted their futures, enlisting in daily portfolio camps and yearly summer intensives. Other times, it’s the kind—like Kristina Micotti—who let their careers evolve naturally, flowing with the course of their lives, somehow winding up exactly where they wanted to be. In every way Micotti interacts with her creative practice—whether in choosing it, developing it, or taking it full-time—Micotti proves that you don’t always need to plan. Sometimes it just works out.

Joshua Curry’s studio is a tech haven saturated with LEDs and wires, screens flickering abstract visuals, gently humming monitors, a congregation of speakers, and two electric keyboards...

During her career, Susan Sayre Batton has held a number of art museum positions, including deputy director at Honolulu Academy of Arts, collections consultant at Norton Simon Museum, and her current position as Oshman Executive Director at San Jose Museum of Art.

Gallerist Emily McEwan-Upright opens Gallery 1202, offering a home for marginalized and underrepresented voices in the art world.

Her Vision, Her Voice. René Lorraine Schilling-Sears, a graduate of San Jose State with a BFA in Pictorial Arts, has moved from oils to watercolor and pen, giving a voice to what she sees.

Painting Prodigy and Regular Kid. At age 14, Tyler Gordon and his art are already in the national spotlight.

Explore downtown Campbell and you’ll find The Cruiser Shop tucked inside a Valley-of-the-Heart’s-Delight-era courtyard on Campbell Avenue. Walk inside and you’ll meet Dominick Guida….

Starting out as an actor but ending up as a director, Diamond eventually made his way up to Chicago where a vibrant and extensive small-theater scene welcomed him. Soon, he was running a small theater company with his friends, but meeting after meeting led Diamond to experience something of a crisis of faith. “[I] had a major life crisis and pretty much quit theater forever,” Diamond says. “It was then I decided I wanted to make visual art, particularly visual and graphic design.”

Over the last half-century, Silicon Valley has become the global center of innovation—the world’s brightest minds flock here in droves.

A vegan, eco-conscious artist who paints endangered species into reclaimed wood and uses soy-based ink and plant-based packaging might sound intimidating—but Brittni Paul expresses her passion with graciousness: it’s not about being perfect, it’s about being informed.

At 20 years old and homeless, it was the gift of a paint set and easel that presented Patrick Hofmeister with a path to find his inner strength. Through art, the San Jose native discovered a compulsion to create, thus giving himself a sense of purpose and determination. Patrick immersed himself in the many different styles that came his way, first absorbing the likes of painter Mars-1 and pop surrealist Greg Simkins, among many others. Like Simkins, Patrick dabbled in graffiti at an early age. While he didn’t commit to developing his skills in this style, elements of graffiti gradients still influence his work.

Have you ever noticed how anything of worth—careers, relationships, books, antique vases—gains value not from the finish line, but from the journey? That attentive (sometimes painstaking) development provides rich meaning. It’s the reason why, when Chelsea Stewart paints, she’s much more fascinated with the process than the product.

Rayos works full-time for a non-profit community health clinic, but having to work from home during the shelter-in-place (SIP) has blurred the lines between business and a sacred space for pleasure and relaxation. A wrench has been thrown into his normal routine since, like many of us, once he rolls out of bed, he is already in his office. His art has become his saving grace, giving him structure and routine as he enters his studio.

Bay Area native Metz grew up in Sunnyvale. After studying sculpture at the University of Oregon, she settled back in San Jose with her high tech husband. “When I came back, I didnʼt have any connection with anybody art-related around here,” says Metz.

The SVArts program annually awards prestigious honors to Santa Clara County-based artists in a variety of categories and disciplines...

Artist Yoseph Gebre finds the essence of the human spirit in his expressive, vibrant artwork...

Alan Rath’s body of work is the journey that results from exploring this and other questions about our relationship to the things we build. For the artist, the journey began as a childhood curiosity with the mystery surrounding machinery.

Although artist and illustrator Allison Marie Garcia is still in school, her artwork shows the technical poise, confidence, and restraint of a veteran artist.

Frances Marin is a multifaceted artist who paints, designs, and illustrates original and commissioned artwork. Taking on a variety of projects—from painting people’s dreams to creating large paper installations—keeps her open and always growing and exploring as an artist.