Expecting to Fly (for the Zeros), Fred Tomaselli, 2013.
You might remember I posted photos of street art and many of the Murals of La Jolla a couple years ago. You can see all of that fun artwork by clicking here. Sadly, a couple of those murals no longer exist.
My adventure today included passing by even more public art murals, plus some beautiful and inspirational stuff that I found while journeying down sidewalks.
I snapped a great map and legend of the Murals of La Jolla in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego on Prospect Street, which is undergoing a renovation. To see the location of all the current murals, which include some that I photographed in that earlier blog post, click the map below and it will enlarge.
Map and legend that you can use to locate the many amazing Murals of La Jolla.Playing La Jolla (for all it’s worth), Terry Allen, 2015.Suns, Victoria Fu and Byron Kim, 2016.Man, Myth and Magic, Steven Hull, 2017.Art near entrance of Le Chauvinist depicts three kids at the Lincoln Memorial.A fish etched in the concrete sidewalk near El Pescador Fish Market!Angel wings on a gate.One of the most stunning gates I’ve ever seen. Shining golden leaves and blooms seem to grow through it.By the sidewalk… Joan Goldstein Graf and Alan Goldstein. Their bench.Painted flowers near the roof of Salvage Salon.Come into my garden so my flowers can meet you.A very cool mural in the alley next to the Grater grilled cheese shop in La Jolla.It appears Mona Lisa has a taste for grilled cheese sandwiches!
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A clean, beautiful city by San Diego Bay, painted on the side of a building in Little Italy.
Yesterday morning, as I walked through Little Italy to photograph that cool Mona Lisa freeway on-ramp mural (my previous blog post), I discovered some additional artwork in the vicinity of State Street and Fir Street.
The large mural on the side of a residential building is clearly seen by motorists heading down Interstate 5. It contains a positive message. Colorful scenes encourage people to get out of their cars and jump on a bicycle or public transit.
A large, dynamic mural on a building that can be seen from nearby Interstate 5. Images convey an environmental message, encouraging bike riding and public transit.Mural on side of Porto Vista Hotel shows reflections of sailboat masts in blue water.A big eyeball near the entrance of the Landscape Architecture business Environs.Riding a bicycle with a dog in the active city.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Washington Elementary students create abstract Mona Lisa chalk art during 2014 Festa in Little Italy. As you will see, it would later become the basis for a very cool public mural!
Students at Washington Elementary STEAM Magnet School in Little Italy have helped to produce a very cool public art mural! As motorists depart Little Italy, turning onto southbound Interstate 5 from Grape Street, they are greeted by a colorful Minecraft-style Mona Lisa along with the big word CIAO!
The abstract 20′ x 20′ Mona Lisa mural is based on chalk art that Washington Elementary School kids created for 2014 Festa, an annual Italian-themed festival in their very own Little Italy neighborhood.
I happened to blog about Festa that year, and took the above photo of the kids working on the original Mona Lisa chalk art. With the help of local artist Jayne Barnett, their completed work would eventually become a very large, very creative mural that thousands of delighted drivers pass every day!
Mine-A-Lisa’s Salutation. The Little Italy mural is a much larger recreation of chalk art created by students at 2014 Festa. The Italian art-themed piece was rendered using “bricks” of color in the Minecraft style.Mona Lisa says goodbye to everyone with a large CIAO as drivers head onto southbound I-5 from Grape Street!
If you’d like to see more chalk art created during 2014 Festa, including many amazing pieces produced by students from schools all around San Diego, click here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
How time flies! Cool San Diego Sights is almost five years old!
You might not realize it, but Cool San Diego Sights now has hundreds of unique blog posts, and thousands upon thousands of fun photos that you can explore!
One easy way to revisit old blog posts that share a particular theme or subject is to click a tag. You might be surprised by all the diverse, unexpected things you’ll discover!
As you explore my blog, you might notice there’s a whole universe of tags. You can find a handful of pertinent ones located at the bottom of each post. If you’re interested in a particular San Diego neighborhood, those tags exist, too!
There’s also a handy search box that you can use. Look for it in the sidebar.
Make exciting discoveries and have fun with me as I explore San Diego! I’m going somewhere fascinating this Saturday that very few people know about!
If you’d like, you can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Early this morning, while it was still dark, I moved curiously around (and inside) the new Jaume Plensa sculpture Pacific Soul in downtown San Diego. Bright lights shining up from beneath the sculpture give its hollow but extremely complex form weird substance. Every angle fascinated my eyes.
If you’d like to learn more about this amazing public art, which now stands at the corner of Broadway and Pacific Highway near the Embarcadero, visit my original blog post, where several months ago, over the period of several days, I documented Pacific Soul’s installation. In that post I also provided some information about Jaume Plensa, who is a world-renowned artist from Spain.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
An architectural masterpiece, the First Church of Christ, Scientist building by Irving Gill.
The First Church of Christ, Scientist building, designed by renowned architect Irving Gill and completed in 1910, is considered by many to be a masterpiece. I often pause a minute or two to admire its simple, rhythmic beauty when I walk near Second Avenue and Laurel Street in Bankers Hill.
During the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s 2018 OPEN HOUSE event a couple weekends ago, I ventured inside the church for the very first time.
I was interested to learn that when it was completed over a century ago, the mayor of San Diego considered the building such an amazing architectural accomplishment that he showed it to visiting dignitaries. I also learned that the church underwent a “modern” remodel in the 1950’s, which removed archways, windows and the beautiful glass dome. Thankfully the building was restored to its original appearance in 1998.
To my fascinated eyes, the arches, windows and tower are elegant, like notes of music. The white stucco enhances every perfect line and curve, as if a cloud were carved precisely with the architect’s pencil.
I took some photos! Read the captions for additional information.
Simple arches and lines mount skyward like a cubist painting.First Church of Christ Scientist 1909. I believe the 1904 signifies the year of their first small downtown building, which stands at Third Avenue and Ash Street and is now occupied by the attorney King Aminpour.Balloons outside the entrance indicate this church is a participant in the annual San Diego Architectural Foundation OPEN HOUSE.Arched windows inside admit light and create an impression of heavenly space. I’m reminded of a jewel’s bright facets.Like a crown of gold, organ pipes dominate the altar of a light-filled sanctuary.The amazing stained glass dome above the church sanctuary.A large poster containing photographs of the building’s 1950’s appearance and historic restoration. (Click image to enlarge.)The poster’s legend. The restoration brought back much of the natural light admitted by the original archways and glass dome.Photo of the sanctuary in the 1950’s. Perhaps at the time this was considered tasteful, but today it seems very drab.Old photo of this famous Irving Gill building, the dome just visible on the rooftop.I was told these are some of the original Irving Gill blueprints. The are displayed with other documents and historical photos in a hallway near the church sanctuary.An architectural marvel in San Diego’s Bankers Hill neighborhood.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
View of St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral from across Fifth Avenue.
I swung by St. Paul’s Cathedral in Bankers Hill a couple weekends ago during the San Diego Architectural Foundation 2018 OPEN HOUSE event. A friendly gentleman named Bob who belongs to this Episcopal church showed me the original Great Hall which was completed in 1929, then the impressive interior of the cathedral, or “big house” as he called it, which was finally completed in 1951.
St. Paul’s Cathedral was designed by architect Philip Frohman, who is best remembered as the designer of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The building contains elements of both Gothic and Romanesque architecture. The original pipes of the historic church organ date from 1887. They were brought by ship around Cape Horn, to serve as the first organ in Old Town San Diego.
The cathedral was visited by Queen Elizabeth II in 1983 during her trip to San Diego aboard Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia. I was told that she spoke to the congregation and enjoyed listening to Evensong.
I gleaned a few odd bits of information during the informal tour and have included them in my photo captions.
Looking north at the impressive cathedral and its many stained glass windows from Nutmeg Street.St. Paul’s Cathedral in San Diego was designed by famed architect Philip Frohman.Ladies exit through an arcade of elegant columns.A gentleman in the church’s courtyard greeted visitors during the weekend architectural event.Construction of St. Paul’s parish house or Great Hall began in 1928.The most notable thing I saw in the Great Hall is the incredible original wooden beamed ceiling, which is showing signs of age.Turning my camera for another shot of this amazing ceiling.Sunlight enters through a rose window.A plaque in the courtyard area between the Great Hall and cathedral. This garden commemorates the visit of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh to this church on February 27, 1983.Inside the beautiful cathedral, looking east from the nave toward the chancel and historic Great Organ.People have quietly entered the sacred place. The gray interior walls allow light from the stained glass lancet windows, created by Judson Studios in Pasadena, to fill the eyes of worshipers.This small Lady Chapel to the east was built in 1975. It’s used for weddings and other celebrations. It contains a smaller organ.The cathedra, or bishop’s seat, off to one side.More resplendent stained glass, like celestial visions shining through darkness.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Anyone can create a beehouse for their garden. All you really need is a drill!
Before my hike through the Sweetwater Marsh on Saturday, I took a stroll through the Native Pollinator Garden just outside the Living Coast Discovery Center. After reading a variety of informative signs, I paused in the garden to look at some very cool beehouses!
As I read about the beehouses, it occurred to me these would be extremely easy to make.
I took photographs just in case anyone reading this blog would like to make a beehouse for their own garden! Read the captions to learn more about the habits of ground-dwelling solitary bees and the materials you can use to make them a beehouse!
The Native Pollinator Garden just outside the Living Coast Discovery Center includes a couple of very cool beehouses!Bees are extremely important. More than two thirds of the world’s crop species rely on pollinators.A large Feed a Bee Pollinator Habitat in the native garden provides shelter for solitary bees and information for the curious.The rear of this bee condo! Holes have been drilled in a variety of materials, including logs, lumber and bricks.Solitary bees don’t live in colonies. They often seek out hollows of fallen logs, bark and branches. They make up a majority of the 4000 bee species in the United States.A close look at the fun beehouse. I think even I could make one of these.Creating various hiding places attracts solitary bees, which can be as small as an eighth of an inch.Feeling inspired? Handy with a hammer and nails? Fashion your beehouse into a unique work of art!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Stepping from the Penny Pines parking area on Sunrise Highway to the Nobel Canyon trailhead.
This morning I went on a walk in the Laguna Mountains. The pine-covered Lagunas, about an hour’s drive east of downtown San Diego, reach just over 6000 feet in elevation.
After parking at the Penny Pines area on Sunrise Highway, I began west down the Noble Canyon Trail, then turned south onto Big Laguna Trail.
A morning walk in the mountains is so quiet and beautiful.
Come along with me! In these photos we’ll be heading a couple miles or so to Big Laguna Lake, a temporary body of water that appears in the winter and lingers until summer.
During my walk I saw many broken trees and stumps, victims over the years of bark beetles and periodic wildfires. At first the air was very chilly, but as the sun slowly rose its warmth felt good on my face. I heard plenty of birdsong, knocking woodpeckers, and the soft mountain breeze in branches. I smelled new green grass and the towering pine trees.
My eyes noted many signs of early spring.
Part of a posted Map of Laguna Mountain Recreation Area. Big Laguna Lake forms during rainy season in Laguna Meadow.Horses sometimes share the trail with hikers and mountain bikers.Many fallen tree limbs and trunks were along the trail. Victims of wildfires, beetles, and violent mountain storms.We’ve turned left onto Big Laguna Trail. Many of the hiking trails on Mount Laguna connect to the famous Pacific Crest Trail, which stretches from Mexico to Canada.A swinging gate on the trail. Sometimes cattle are herded up in these mountains.A beautiful early morning. The sun is still low and obscured by clouds and hills.I saw a few small flowers along the trail scattered by spring’s fingers.The jumbled broken trunks often appeared like abstract works of art.Inner beauty exposed.Wild and delicate.
Moving forward.A tale of many seasons.Winter’s remnant.Many elements.I’m about to enter the edge of Laguna Meadow. Around here a small group of Red-winged Blackbirds were jumping about tree branches and cheerfully talking to each other.
Some collected rain and snowmelt have formed a small green pond in the meadow.
I spy Big Laguna Lake ahead.Turning my camera to the right, looking backward a bit.
A friendly mountain biker approaches.Like a silver dream on the mountain.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Cool San Diego Sights! 