San Fran Voice

Over the past weekend, I met up with some new friends at a coffee shop on Polk Street that I’d never been to before. (It’s A Grind, located at the intersection of Washington and Polk.) I was early to the meeting and so wandered into some of the stores in the area that I hadn’t been to before. There was a curiosity and crafts shop with a name that escapes me which sold interesting trinkets and old typewriters. I stopped into Mascara Vintage and almost bought a new dress but reminded myself that I’m trying to confine my spending, even at the thrift stores. I enjyoed immersing myself in the oddities on display at stores throughout the area but managed to buy nothing before heading to the coffee shop.

This is an issue I’ve had for awhile and one which I brought up during that coffee shop conversation. I never buy art. I also almost never buy music. And I rarely buy designs from fashion designers, although I have on occasion. I feel odd about this. I feel like the desire to support local artists should extend to my purchases. And I suppose that it would if I bought those things. When I do buy music, it’s CDs at local concerts. When I do pick up art for some reason, it’s in support of local artisans. But it’s rare that I buy those things and I suppose that I feel like my commitment to supporting local art is more in the form of letting others know about it than it is in monetary support.

But I digress … the coffee shop meeting was wonderful. I connected with new friends, talked about a range of different creative topics and found myself surrounded by a large crowd of Sunday coffee drinkers who apparently are more familiar with this coffee shop than I was. When the hanging out session came to a close, a couple of the folks I was with were headed up the street to a nearby art jewelry gallery. I joined them because it was a place I’d never heard of that caught my interest. Once there, it also held my interest.

Velvet da Vinci is a small gallery (although I hesitate to say small since the space is rather large for storefront space on Polk Street) which displays the work of artistic jewelry. There are also metalwork displays which serve to accent the store and highlight the artistic nature of the jewelry. The current exhibit is an earring show … so within the display cases were hung unique earrings that looked like miniature sculptures one could adorn the sides of their heads with. The earrings were made of a range of different materials from plastics to metals to recycled items like the wheels from LEGO cars. I don’t wear much jewelry myself but can definitely see the artistic aspect to accessories and thought that the display highlighted that perfectly. Form and function at its finest …

The gallery is free to enter so maybe if you check it out, you can do better than me and actually support local artists with a purchase!