Tag: abstract art

Waltzing Matilda in the morning light!

You don’t need to visit Australia to experience Waltzing Matilda in the morning light. Simply wander along downtown San Diego’s waterfront as the sun rises, and check out this sculpture at the new Research and Development District (RaDD)!

The sculpture, as you might have guessed, is titled Waltzing Matilda. It was created in 2014 by artist Alice Aycock.

When I photographed this newly installed public art back in February, there was no accompanying plaque with information. At the time, I thought the wavy, folded layers made it look like a head of lettuce! Long-time reader Paul commented it appears like a shell.

As you can see, a plaque did finally appear describing the playful sculpture. Waltzing Matilda references the expressive qualities of wind and water, its flowing form reminiscent of nature’s own characteristics. This monumental fiberglass sculpture defies gravity and explores movement, transformation, and perception in art…

According to Wikipedia, Alice Aycock was an early artist in the land art movement in the 1970s, and has created many large-scale metal sculptures around the world. Aycock’s drawings and sculptures of architectural and mechanical fantasies combine logic, imagination, magical thinking and science… Learn more about her work here.

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Art gallery at the Rancho Bernardo Library!

If you love art and have a chance to visit the Rancho Bernardo Library, make sure to head up the stairs or elevator. A long hallway on the second floor doubles as an art gallery!

On view in this gallery through the end of September are colorful works by award-winning San Diego artists Terry Anderson and Marlene Levitt. The two artists paint acrylic abstracts on the same canvas at the same time!

According to the artists’ website, their Temáre abstract paintings evoke an emotion of color and contrast...

As my photographs demonstrate, their bold, dynamic art really grabs your attention! Need some home decor? I noticed these pieces at the library are also for sale.

Are you a local or regional artist with work you’d like to exhibit in a branch of the San Diego Public Library? Check out SDPL’s Visual Arts Program and fill out an application by clicking here!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Hand Drawn Sculpture by artist Ken Kelleher.

It looks like a huge, three-dimensional blue squiggle, doesn’t it?

This twisty sculpture, by artist Ken Kelleher, is called Hand Drawn Sculpture. It’s located at the new Research and Development District (RaDD) complex on downtown San Diego’s waterfront.

Among RaDD’s five buildings, one can glimpse all sorts of public art: both sculptures and murals. I took some photos of the art that wasn’t fenced off during construction earlier this year, but I knew next to nothing about any of it.

Well, plaques have appeared near some artworks that are currently accessible to the public. Interesting information is provided about both art and artist.

I took these photographs this morning.

The abstract Hand Drawn Sculpture, according to its plaque, was created in 2023. It blurs the lines between two and three-dimensional art forms by merging the fluid, gestural lines of drawing with the tangible presence of sculpture…

Pretend the blue lines have no depth and were drawn on flat paper. Seen from different angles, the sculpture assumes different forms.

What do you see?

Very cool!

Look for more photos and descriptions of public art at RaDD in future blog posts!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Beautiful art outside La Jolla Community Center!

Very beautiful artwork can be seen just outside the entrance of the La Jolla Community Center. Tile panels on either side of the front door and tile work on a nearby bench depict La Jolla’s stunning coastal scenery.

I took these photographs during a walk a couple weekends ago when the center happened to be closed. I’m very curious who the artist might be.

I believe the work was done back in 2012–part of a larger building renovation. If you know more about this wonderful art outside the community center’s entrance, please leave a comment below!

Enjoy these photos, which I edited slightly using increased contrast and sharpness to bring out the colors and details.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Cool new murals at Grossmont trolley station!

Two very cool new murals were recently painted at the Grossmont Transit Center in La Mesa. One mural, titled Float On, faces the trolley tracks, and the other, titled Succession, can be found on the opposite side of the same wall, facing nearby bus stops.

Check out these photos!

Both murals were created by San Diego graffiti artist Maxx Moses. He has already painted colorful art at several other trolley stations along the Orange Line: the Encanto station, 47th Street, Euclid Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue.

These two new murals at the Grossmont Transit Center are the latest additions to the Color the Corridor project of Metropolitan Transit System (MTS).

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Bold disruption at Oceanside Museum of Art!

Visitors to the Oceanside Museum of Art might have their view of the world suddenly disrupted! Nearly fifty paintings by Southern California artists challenge the way we view familiar things. The exhibition is titled More Disruption: Representational Art in Flux.

Flux is defined as the action or process of flowing. Flowing implies change, movement. These paintings are full of dynamism, drawing the viewer in with bold strokes and color, exciting curiosity with abstraction that can be strangely fluid.

The surprising art reveals unexpected contrasts and inner mystery. In the age of social media, where images flash by on a phone with the flick of a finger, these paintings might cause one to stand for a minute and consider.

The pieces chosen for display were selected from over 1,700 entries. As one sign explains: The concept for this juried exhibition was to present outstanding paintings by Southern California artists that showed signs of being disrupted, either formally or thematically. Disruption, in this framework, means that the forces of contemporary life and existence somehow altered or affected the way the work was created and challenged the norms of representation…

A very friendly museum docent struck up a conversation with me and shared some of her favorite pieces. She was amazed that one of the pieces, exuding youthful hipness, was painted by an 80-year-old artist. But that’s the limitless potential of human creativity!

By disrupting familiar things, reshaping what we know, our minds and hands can bring to existence anything that we imagine. We can change this old world–enlarge it–even make life more meaningful.

More Disruption: Representational Art in Flux will be on view at the Oceanside Museum of Art through September 15, 2024.

I can tell you this art is certainly not dull! My photographs provide a few examples.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Very unusual outdoor art in San Ysidro!

Take a look at this interesting outdoor art installation in San Ysidro! It’s part of an exhibition titled MIRAGE: el orden de los factores y los riesgos de la ilusión.

The unusual tower-like structure stands in an open space next to San Ysidro’s Cultural Corridor, a short walk behind The Front Arte y Cultura community cultural center. It’s the same space where San Ysidro celebrates Día de los Muertos every year.

The Mexican born visual artist behind the exhibition is Marcos Ramírez Erre. The rest of his MIRAGE can be viewed inside The Front, which happened to be closed when I walked by last weekend.

What do the different levels of this peculiar “tower” represent? (I wouldn’t mind lounging near the top under those shades!)

As the web page describing the installation explains: the art explores the geopolitical and symbolic landscape of the Mexico-U.S. border, characterized by architectural, masculine, industrial, monumental, and anti-monumental elements.

It seems to me the open structure, with its ladders, huge cylinders and different platforms, would be a fine stage for an outdoor theatrical performance!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Four Seasons slowly turning in Bankers Hill.

A kinetic metal sculpture in Bankers Hill turns with the wind. It’s titled Four Seasons.

The abstract public art, created by San Diego based artist Amos Robinson in 2007, stands in front of the office building at 1855 First Avenue.

Four Seasons slowly revolved as I paused near it a few weeks ago. (I was walking down the sidewalk back toward downtown after touring the very cool Hawthorne Historic Inn.)

Another unexpected discovery!

And look what I spied outside one corner of the same office building… An apple!

(Appears that someone has large, very strong teeth!)

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Pegasus sculpture takes flight in El Cajon!

An extraordinary sculpture by renowned artist James Hubbell can be enjoyed near the center of downtown El Cajon. His interpretation of mythical flying horse Pegasus stands in the succulent and cactus garden at the Olaf Wieghorst Museum!

I took a tour of the museum today, viewing the fine art of internationally recognized painter of western scenes Olaf Wieghorst, who lived for a time in El Cajon.

As we strolled through the museum’s lush garden, I was surprised to see this wonderful sculpture by James Hubbell, another beloved artist. Hubbell’s studio is located in the nearby mountains.

If you love outstanding art (or the Old West or amazing gardens) you must pay a visit to the free Olaf Wieghorst Museum. I’ll be blogging much more about this surprising museum in the next few days!

The sculpture Pegasus near the rustic home of Old West artist Olaf Wieghorst. His house can toured at the Olaf Wieghorst Museum.

Pegasus, by James Hubbell, was a gift of the East County Chapter of the Fine Arts Society of San Diego.

An abstract bronze Pegasus flies gracefully in downtown El Cajon.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Colorful mural at SALT in Oceanside!

This wonderful mural depicting life, sunshine and landmarks in Oceanside can be found at the SALT Apartments at 311 N. Cleveland Street. It was created by well-known abstract artist Lee Calderon.

I see the Oceanside Pier, a surfer, the harbor lighthouse, and Mission San Luis Rey. And many bright, vibrant colors!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!