Courtesy the Extra Baggs blog by San Jose Mercury News sportswriter Andrew Baggerly comes this news: Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel — known, among other things, as a musician, snazzy dresser, and above all, a miracle-worker at shortstop — is also an accomplished painter, with a show opening tomorrow at the Caldwell Snyder Gallery, 341 Sutter St.

Click the thumbnail image to go to a page where you can see Vizquel’s paintings, which show an impressive touch.

Fans of Vizquel’s work in a baseball uniform may have only a few days left to see him exhibit his skills on the field. Though he has the most hits (2369 at this writing) of any active player, he’s been hitting under .200 all season long, and many are saying his playing days are numbered. But the 11-time Gold Glove winner still makes amazing plays at shortstop, exhibiting the unearthly grace and composure of a great dancer.

The three-month-old clothing and curios shop BellJar (don’t go too dark) in the Mission is hosting a show in two weeks with work by Jon Carling. The California College of the Arts grad’s ink drawings are imaginative, and, like the shop that’s hosting him, darkly romantic. You can preview his work on Etsy before the June 26 event at 3187 16th St. If it’s anything like the last one, champagne and beautiful tattoos will abound.

The Lee Miller exhibition at the SF Museum of Modern Art, which was due to open July 1, has opened early, and I toured it today. Beautiful stuff, with material from her career as a mid-1920s fashion model through her work in Europe and Egypt in the 1930s, her wartime work in the 1940s, and her postwar slowdown.

Overheard at the exhibit:

One woman to another:
      “I never hear of something… and then it’s everywhere.”

A couple standing before a Miller portrait of her mentor and lover Man Ray (pictured above, though not the picture they were looking at):
      Her: “He was no cutie.”
      Him: “Well, that’s why you become an artist.”

The exhibit remains through Sept. 14.

Metal cookware, that is. Beijing artist Zhan Wang has sculpted a metal version of San Francisco as a part of the exhibit On Gold Mountain: Sculptures from the Sierra at the Asian Art Museum. He has painstakingly crafted a model of San Francisco with mirrors, pots, pans, and rocks specially selected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains that were then transported to his studio in China to be integrated into his sculptures.

Zhan Wang has also created similar sculptures for other cities, such as London, Beijing and Chicago. On Gold Mountain: Sculptures from the Sierra is on display at the Asian Art Museum until May 25th.