Some bold pop culture art inside a window. I spotted these on Ninth Avenue in East Village.
The past few days, while walking along sidewalks in downtown San Diego, I’ve photographed all sorts of cool artwork. Some of the art is relatively new. Some of it, as you’ll see, is derived from or influenced by the popular culture.
Which reminds me! This year I’ll be covering San Diego Comic-Con again! I’m taking a week off from work, and because I live downtown I should be able to get lots of photos of cosplay, special exhibitions, building and trolley wraps, fun offsite events . . . and hopefully some unexpected surprises!
I can’t wait!
More bold art on Ninth Avenue. A green fiendish creature awaits those who might venture into Suite 102.A face painted by VISUAL on a transformer box. I photographed this (and the following two boxes) while walking down A Street.Circle around these two utility boxes and you’ll read the words: Create Future.Beautiful glasswork above the entrance of Sidiropoulos Law Firm on Sixth Avenue depicts blind Justice holding her scales.Ornamentation above the front door of the historical McClintock Storage Warehouse building on Kettner Boulevard.All sorts of amusing graphics decorate the windows of the restaurant AAHARN by Koon Thai.William Dorsett near the USS Midway created some fun spray paint Pokémon artwork!Marvin the Martian inside the front door of Funko South. The office is located on Market Street, and has served as Funko’s Pop! Up Shop during San Diego Comic-Con.Colorful art by Kelsey Montague in the courtyard of The Headquarters. People can take photos of themselves wearing ocean-themed wings!A super cool mural on the east side of Pokez Mexican Restaurant. A few years back different spray paint art was on this wall, which I also photographed!
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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!
A small army of life-size Japanese kokeshi fill the James E. Watts Studio in downtown San Diego.
I had an utterly amazing experience today.
I was walking through downtown San Diego, along Seventh Avenue, when I noticed a small table saw out on the sidewalk. It was set up in front of an unmarked door–one that I’ve passed many times over the years. When I peered through the open door my eyes nearly popped out of my head!
Through that mysterious door I saw a wonderland!
A friendly person told me that I might step inside. That very cool, funny and interesting guy was James E. Watts, a local artist who has been creating unique works of imagination for decades in San Diego. His pieces have appeared in a variety of exhibitions and at important museums, including both the San Diego Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
Why the table saw? James Watts was just beginning a new sculpture of Quasimodo, and wooden blocks would be used to form the interior structure. Thin aluminum sheets nailed to the surface would produce the sculpture’s skin.
As you can see from the above photograph, his studio is dominated by a series of these large sculptures. They are based upon Japanese kokeshi, and his fun, symbolic pieces represent all sorts of characters from literature and history. He showed me a female Atlas, Don Quixote (with two small horses), Prometheus, Pandora, Jonah and Leviathan, and Joan of Arc. The humorous, collage-like skins were originally lunchboxes, signs, cans and other bits of colorful aluminum.
Another cool piece he showed me appears to be a combination of the Shroud of Turin, a horizontal religious shrine, and that wacky game Operation. Human anatomy is partitioned. Old age is contemplated. Bones fill box-like compartments. Colorful foam dots and dashes spell out a message in Morse code around the perimeter. The word BEAUTIFUL appears beneath the skull. (If you decipher the Morse code message, please leave a comment!)
And so I found myself standing in the middle of a fantasy world turning my eyes every which way. Rampant creativity jammed every wall, crammed every corner, was stacked high upon the floor. I could have happily lingered in that extraordinary studio all day long.
Thanks to James Watts for showing me around his artistic playground! There’s a special, little-known nook in the heart of San Diego, where one man’s imagination produces great treasures, and now I recognize the door!
James Watts near some artwork in progress. The wood blocks will fill the interior of a hunchbacked Quasimodo. I was told a bell might be placed atop the literary character’s head!On the left a female Atlas holds up the world. To the right Don Quixote appears ready to tilt at windmills.Many nudes also decorate the walls of the art gallery. They are done in various styles, reflecting famous painters of the past.James Watts opens up a brain pan to reveal . . . a brain!So much amazing, cool artwork that I could barely take it all in.Like a playground for a creator whose imagination seems to have no limits.I was told this abstract piece represents that brave person who stood in front of the tanks at Tiananmen Square.A playful piece that has emerged from the artist’s contemplation of aging. Those colorful dots and dashes form a mysterious Morse code message!
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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!
Today I enjoyed one of my favorite places. I took a slow walk through the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park.
Beauty is cultivated and revered in this very special garden.
It’s almost like heaven–so close to perfection.
After strolling along the clear stream in the Lower Garden, I headed up out of the canyon and paused for a few moments in the Exhibit Hall. I sat on a bench, near a window overlooking the Dry Stone Garden. Several participants in an afternoon Japanese Tea Ceremony were quietly practicing.
Refinement and elegance.
Deeper meaning.
A joy for life.
So close to perfection.
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This afternoon I also enjoyed a visit to Balboa Park’s lush Botanical Building. When I got home, I used my computer to convert photographs of plants and flowers into colorful oil paintings!
Small sea creatures made of ceramic swim about a tile mosaic bench at a bus station in Solana Beach.
Check out these colorful benches at a Solana Beach bus station on Pacific Coast Highway!
Passengers waiting for a North County Transit BREEZE bus at this station are surrounded by all sorts of sea creatures in the form of ceramic tiles. You can find the public art just north of Lomas Santa Fe Drive, on the west side of the Solana Beach train station. Bicyclists heading down Solana Beach’s Coastal Rail Trail can also pause to enjoy the artwork.
The fun mosaics, decorating 11 concrete benches, were created by artist Michelle Griffoul.
Here are photos from several benches that you might enjoy!
Two of eleven concrete benches decorated with images of marine life on Pacific Coast Highway, just north of Lomas Santa Fe Drive.A colorful fish, shell and seahorse among small blue tiles.Sit here and you can ride a dolphin that is swimming among abundant sea life.More fun public artwork at a Solana Beach bus station.Butterflies! It appears that not all of the images concern aquatic life.More fish in their watery element.More beautiful artwork at the bus station.A bike rider rolls past public art. This station is part of the Coastal Rail Trail in San Diego’s North County.So much sea life it seems we’re somewhere out in the nearby Pacific Ocean.A small school of beautiful fish swimming in blue tiles.Enjoy The Path.The sun is shining atop this bench.I’ve spotted a whale!
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Bold spray paint street art in a Logan Heights alley features the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!
Several long alleys in Logan Heights have been spray painted with super cool street art. I visited one alley recently that contains awesome images of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
This particular “Alley Gallery” can be found north of Commercial Street and west of 32nd Street. The colors are bold and the artwork is fantastic. Walking down the alley is almost like turning the pages of a TMNT comic book or graphic novel.
(I learned on a later visit to Logan Heights that this cool art is the creation of a community group called the San Diego Art Team!)
Enjoy these fun photos!
Leonardo, leader of the Ninja Turtles, stands alert beside some bold, colorful graffiti.Michelangelo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is surrounded by enemies.Donatello appears to be ready for action in an alley mural in Logan Heights.An ordinary turtle wandering through the sewers is caught in some strange glowing green ooze. This innocent, unassuming reptile is almost certainly destined to mutate into a humorous humanoid martial artist!Splinter, the rat sensei, is hanging out on a wall between more cool graffiti.Raphael emerges from a spray painted city. This particular turtle does not appear to be amused.
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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!
A street mural in San Diego that features many famous faces. Martin Luther King, Jr. is joined by others who have worked to advance civil rights.
A long mural at the corner of 32nd Street and Imperial Avenue celebrates many of history’s most recognized civil rights leaders. Among them are those who have fought to empower the poor, advocates for democracy, human equality and social justice, and peacemakers.
Originally painted in 1986 to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., the mural was restored and augmented in 2002 by internationally renowned muralist and activist Mario Torero with the help of the local community. The mural now includes faces from around the world, as you can see in these photographs.
The colorful mural spans two walls near the border of two neighborhoods east of downtown San Diego: Logan Heights and Stockton. The images have again faded with time, but the idealism represented remains timeless and powerful.
The face of Cesar Chavez.The face of the Dalai Lama.The face of Óscar Romero.The face of Corazon Aquino.The face of Desmond Tutu.The face of Nelson Mandela.The face of Mother Teresa.The face of Chief Joseph.The face of Mahatma Gandhi.
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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!
A couple walks along Broadway in downtown San Diego.
This long, lazy weekend I’ve been sifting through my computer, searching for fun photos that I haven’t used yet. I discovered a few that I’d like to share.
These photographs are in no particular order. All were taken in the vicinity of downtown. I snapped them during recent walks down from Cortez Hill, where I live.
You might see why I love San Diego.
Several buildings in East Village are reflected in the glass windows of the headquarters of Sempra Energy.Looking up at the fantastic dome of downtown’s Central Library.People enjoy the grassy hill in the Park at the Park, near the statue of baseball hitting legend Tony Gwynn.A banner hanging on a lamppost near the Gaslamp Quarter landmark sign shows a fun photo from San Diego history.I’m not sure if this is a fluffy llama or alpaca. It stands guard in front of Inka’s Bar and Grill in the Gaslamp.The Art of Dr. Seuss is now showing at The Chuck Jones Gallery in the Gaslamp.People play in the fun, splashing fountain at Horton Plaza Park.Colorful new banners have recently appeared around Cortez Hill. Very cool!Morning photo of the handsome old World Trade Center building, once home to publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Some guys ride their bikes down Fourth Avenue through Bankers Hill.Bright red bougainvillea on a building’s balcony in Little Italy.Sunlight on the side of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.A few days ago I spotted a couple in Tuna Harbor having their engagement photos taken by the water.Tourist souvenirs on a vendor’s cart on the Embarcadero.The Admiral Hornblower and another boat pass near the bow of the USS Midway Museum, recently deemed the best attraction in California.Enjoying sunny San Diego Bay from the end of Broadway Pier, watching the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s restored Swift Boat pass on by.
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Late light reflects from the Marriott Marquis onto San Diego Bay near Seaport Village.
So far this Memorial Day weekend I’ve enjoyed short walks through several favorite places. I’ve done a lot of sitting, reading, writing, eating ice cream, enjoying sunshine. And I’ve taken photos, of course. I always carry my little camera in hand. So why not?
Here are some random images. The first eight photos are from Friday evening along the Embarcadero. They are followed by photos from Saturday and Sunday.
Another beautiful day at Embarcadero Marina Park North.Evening kites fly in the remaining daylight above Donal Hord’s sculpture Morning.Sunset clouds reflected in the still water of Marriott Marina.Many downtown buildings reflect light magically.A fine late Friday walk by the water to begin the long Memorial Day weekend.A bright moon above tinted clouds.Leonardo Nierman’s sculpture Flame of Friendship catches the sun’s last rays as the lights come on at the San Diego Convention Center.Artist Pete Tillack creates stunning new artwork in front of Michael J Wolf Fine Arts in the Gaslamp Quarter.Three sailboats pass the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) aircraft carrier docked at Naval Air Station North Island.A bunch of happy people on the ferry to Coronado wave at me from beneath the ship’s American flag.Looks like a family enjoyed a tour of the USS Midway Museum during the Memorial Day weekend.Many people were out on enjoying the San Diego sunshine.A restored PCC streetcar of the San Diego Trolley’s Silver Line passes near Kansas City Barbeque. A huge inflatable Uncle Sam is out for the Memorial Day weekend.In Balboa Park, at the International Cottages, a big food festival was underway on Sunday. Yummy smells filled the air.Colorful dancers grace the outdoor stage at the International Cottages.San Diego Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez greets people up on the stage at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion after the Sunday concert.Marine and a new bride head for their stretch limousine in Balboa Park.Street entertainment delights a crowd in Balboa Park’s Plaza de Panama.The WorldBeat Cultural Center had lots of colorful flowers out on the sidewalk beside Park Boulevard.Many flags fly proudly on the Memorial Day weekend near the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center. Including the POW/MIA flag. You Are Not Forgotten.
Today I published two new stories on my website Short Stories by Richard. They’re both very quick reads.
Cool San Diego Sights! 