The Mad Hatter in street art at one end of a Logan Heights alley.
That alley in Logan Heights where I discovered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles street art is home to even more spray paint characters and graffiti. Bold images reflect life in a sometimes tough urban setting.
I read that a public art project in Logan Heights targeted several neighborhood alleys, so I assume these images were part of that effort. As I walked along, I spotted many different artist names.
(On a later visit to the neighborhood I learned the community group that created all this cool art is called the San Diego Art Team!)
Lewis Carroll characters have been spray painted alongside graffiti in Logan Heights.The blue Caterpillar on a mushroom smoking a hookah is from Alice in Wonderland.A section of bold urban art on a long wall.A wicked-looking character seems to be spray painting the graffiti next to him.Another section of colorful graffiti.Somos Todos Pistoleros above a pyramid in The Alley Gallery.A bird-like character drinking from a green bottle.A character with sunglasses and headphones holds a boombox with fang-like teeth.Elaborate urban artwork completely covers a long alley wall in Logan Heights.That looks like one mean cockroach!
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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!
I can’t believe how quickly the years pass by. It feels 2017 San Diego Comic-Con happened only yesterday!
Just for fun, I’ve been reviewing my blog posts from last year. It was amazing. So much fantastic stuff going on. Running like a crazy person around downtown taking hundreds of photos almost wore me out, but what an incredible, unforgettable experience!
Would you like to revisit some of the cool cosplay and fun activities outside Comic-Con in 2017?
Click the following links to see lots and lots of photos!
The first trolley wrap for 2018 San Diego Comic-Con features two Syfy shows–Krypton and HAPPY!
More than a month to go until 2018 San Diego Comic-Con and trolleys are already getting wrapped! A record 40 or more trolley cars will feature Comic-Con graphics this year, according to MTS!
I spotted the very first wrap this morning at the Little Italy station! Here are my quick photos!
It appears Syfy will be returning to San Diego Comic-Con in a big way in 2018. The wrap promotes two of their shows: Krypton and HAPPY! Both series have been renewed for a second season.
I noticed that Syfy’s slogan from last year–It’s a Fan Thing–is being referenced once again. On this trolley the words read: It’s a Fan Made Thing.
The Krypton art was created by Moritat, a comic book creator who has done some work for DC.
The HAPPY! trolley art was created by a fan named Alyssa Veysey. You can see her personal DeviantArt page, including the HAPPY! trolley artwork, here.
Because I live in downtown San Diego, I plan to take hundreds of photos during Comic-Con, as I’ve done the past few years!
Stay tuned!
A closer photo of the Krypton trolley graphic.The other half of the trolley car features imaginary characters from the highly original fantasy-comedy-crime show HAPPY!A three-headed dog named Raspberry!It’s a blue, flying unicorn named Happy!
UPDATE!
A couple days later, and I’ve spotted a second San Diego Comic-Con trolley wrap that promotes the two Syfy shows The Magicians and Wynonna Earp.
I got some photos!
A cool Syfy wrap on a San Diego Comic-Con trolley. It’s a fan made thing. Find your fan thing!A Comic-Con trolley wrap that promotes The Magicians on Syfy.Another photo of the graphics for The Magicians.The other half of the San Diego Trolley car promotes the Syfy show Wynonna Earp.The characters of Wynonna Earp are portrayed on playing cards.
UPDATE!
Here’s another Syfy trolley car I’ve spotted! This one promotes the shows Nightflyers and Deadly Class!
Nightflyers graphics on a 2018 San Diego Comic-Con Syfy trolley wrap.A second photo of the Nightflyers trolley graphics.Deadly Class, another show on Syfy, is promoted on another half of the trolley car.Deadly Class on Syfy is being promoted on a San Diego trolley car with cool fan art.Second photo of the Deadly Class San Diego Comic-Con trolley wrap!
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This blog now features thousands of photos around San Diego! Are you curious? There’s lots of cool stuff to check out!
Here’s the Cool San Diego Sights main page, where you can read the most current blog posts. If you’re using a phone or small mobile device, click those three parallel lines up at the top–that opens up my website’s sidebar, where you’ll see the most popular posts, a search box, and more!
To enjoy future posts, you can also “like” Cool San Diego Sights on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.
This evening, just before sunset, I stood on the Embarcadero and watched more than one hundred sunlit sailboats race across the north part of San Diego Bay.
From May 21 through August 1, the Cortez Racing Association, in partnership with the Silver Gate Yacht Club (which is based on Shelter Island), puts on Wednesday races called the San Diego Bay Beer Can Series.
As the sailboats began across the water, and late sunlight slanted over Point Loma, the colorful sails were so bright they seemed like a dream. The race was too distant for my camera to take sharp photos–so I have increased the contrast to make the images even more dreamy!
In case you’re curious, those two active aircraft carriers you see in my photos are docked at Naval Air Station North Island. They are the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) and USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70).
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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!
Art that creates an infinite reflection and contemplates the scale and structure of space and time. The two-way mirror is titled Down the Rabbit Hole (CMS Detector) by artist Adam Belt.
Do you enjoy unusual art?
There’s a cool exhibition now showing at the San Diego Central Library’s ninth floor Art Gallery called A Method for Reaching Extreme Altitudes. On display is the work of eight local artists: Adam Belt, Matthew Bradley, Sheena Rae Dowling, Andrew McGranahan, Arzu Ozkal, Cheryl Sorg, Jones von Jonestein, and Melissa Walter.
Some of the artwork is quite cosmic and trippy, while other pieces take a curious look at science fiction and our popular culture’s obsession with space travel, UFOs and extraterrestrial visitation.
If the exhibition’s name seems familiar, that’s because A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes was the title of a 1919 monograph by Robert H. Goddard, the founding father of modern rocketry.
After examining this artwork one might wonder: Exactly how did Goddard come up with plans to build a rocket? Was he actually a visitor from outer space? Is it possible? Maybe?
The fun exhibition will continue through September 16, 2018!
Inside the Art Gallery of the San Diego Central Library, where an exhibition explores A Method for Reaching Extreme Altitudes.Visitors view artwork that concerns space travel and its effect on modern life, culture and human imagination.Artist Melissa Walter, science illustrator for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, explores the threat of orbital debris by casting geometric shadows.This multimedia installation by Jones von Jonestein is titled The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, after a novel by science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein.The collage-like artwork pokes gentle fun at the assertion the moon landing was a hoax, and that governments conspire to suppress evidence of extraterrestrials.Amateurs! A dog on the sound stage! A cameraman’s reflection! Wind on the moon!Space art depicting vast clouds of glowing dust and gas. The One that Got Away, by artist Sheena Rae Dowling.One of several collages exhibited by artist Andrew McGranahan. His retro-futurism embraces both utopian and dystopian imagery.A cool digital print by artist Arzu Ozkal. She explores how humans are guests in a living universe of microbes.A flying saucer above a Lucky supermarket! Artist Matthew Bradley has fun with popular imagination in the Space Age.Bright UFOs painted in the night sky above the United States Capitol dome!
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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!
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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This blog now features thousands of photos around San Diego! Are you curious? There’s lots of cool stuff to check out!
Here’s the Cool San Diego Sights main page, where you can read the most current blog posts. If you’re using a phone or small mobile device, click those three parallel lines up at the top–that opens up my website’s sidebar, where you’ll see the most popular posts, a search box, and more!
To enjoy future posts, you can also “like” Cool San Diego Sights on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.
Cool San Diego Sights! 