You know the old story about urban redevelopment: “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot,” as the singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell put it. A new exhibition, Sign of the Times, going up at History San José, pays tribute to a chapter of Silicon Valley’s history fast fading from view.
Vintage signs - for shops, restaurants, bowling alleys, and so on - have a way of encapsulating our sense of place. Sometimes, the signs become landmarks, vestigial reminders of places that no longer exist.
Originally from Bombay, Suhita Shirodkar is an illustrator and graphic designer who moved to San Jose about 20 years ago. "I originally thought I was coming here for a couple of years, and then I ended up meeting my husband and staying on," she says.
The graphic design tethers her to a computer, but sketching is something she can do anytime, anywhere. "I’m an urban sketcher, which means I walk around with a sketchbook all day in my bag, and I draw anything that catches my eye," she says.
Shirodkar noticed over time she was filling her sketchbooks with drawings and watercolors of signs like the “Dancing Pig” that advertises the now demolished Stephen’s Meat Products on Montgomery Street. The signs point to a world that disappeared before she got here.
