EarthFair was held in San Diego’s Balboa Park to celebrate Earth Day.
Late this morning I took a walk through this year’s EarthFair. You might have seen my blog last year, when I posted photographs from the gigantic event. Every year EarthFair attracts tens of thousands of enthusiastic San Diegans to Balboa Park to celebrate Earth Day. It’s billed as the largest free annual environmental fair in the world, and that sounds true to me! It’s huge!
Many of the over 300 exhibitors throughout Balboa Park can be seen at the event every year, and last year I featured many in photos. So I figured this year I’d focus slightly more on close up images. Super colorful art on signs, shirts, gifts and canvases provided many opportunities for my camera. I also saw a lot of smiles!
Cool graphic on official EarthFair shirt. The annual Balboa Park event attracted a huge crowd as usual!One of many handmade signs with environmental messages… love the Earth. Plant a tree.Bright sunflowers on table of urban farming advocates.Super smile promoting the Cacaofest, which celebrates the cultures behind the chocolate! I’m there!Solar-powered rotating globe held in a sculpted human hand.Creating art out of perfectly good food saved from dumpsters. I blogged about these guys last year!
Donate Don’t Dump is a project undertaken by Rob Greenfield. Check out my blog from last year, if you’d like!
A powerful smile from the artist behind Nuts and Beans are Powerful Proteins!Protecting animals was one major theme at EarthFair.This cool guy is Dr. Wilderness. He had a family magic show. Great outfit!This cheerful Dad and daughter musical duo was raising money to help build school gardens.A flower and a smile. I learned how copper gives slimy snails an electrical shock!A happy blue whale out of water.Lots of tie-dye could be seen throughout Balboa Park.Many crafts, clothes and goods for sale featured lush color and spiritual imagery from Eastern religious traditions.A super cool painting of Mr. Padre, Tony Gwynn, created by artist Michael Rosenblatt.
Is this painting of local baseball legend Tony Gwynn awesome, or what? It has a Facebook page!
Lots of hand-crafted musical instruments were for sale.Some guys carry flags in preparation for a small Earth Day parade through Balboa Park.Sam Garcia, Jr. paints a canvas. Several talented artists were at work for all to see.Creative kids (or adults) could color these huge panels however they pleased!Large panels on display featured fantastic artwork, many images with a 1960s feel.This human skull really caught my attention!Beautiful wild animals in an exotic nature scene.What’s your sign? This panel showed activist signs photographed during the 25 years of EarthFair.This very nice Quaker lady advocates vegetarianism.Kids’ art shown at The Project Lennon table. This organization promotes peace and positive outlets for urban youth.Various vegan and vegetarian groups had different booths and some humorous signs.I wonder what the animal rights folks would think of this? Animals used to fight poverty and hunger!Which one of these is the real animal? That happy parrot on top!Sign states that every year 30,000 species go extinct.I saw lots of banners with peace signs and rainbow colors.This butterfly was flitting about in the San Diego spring breeze.Food was also a major topic, and appeared in unusual works of art.This totem pole was made of recycled materials!A table in the kids activity area promoted imagination and creativity.Harry Eubanks of Rivers Eden paints cool art on old bits of wooden fencing.Fun art from recycled everyday items in the Repair and Reuse tent.The art of peace by Da Vinci, Warhol, Picasso, Van Gogh and other famous artists.Arts and crafts were for sale in a large vendor area on the grass near Park Boulevard.Lion dances would take place later in the day!Volunteer today! Plant a butterfly garden in Balboa Park! Do it!Art was encouraged everywhere I turned. I enjoyed taking a walk through the 2015 EarthFair!
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Sun shines on dynamic mural at Golden Hill Market and Liquor in Sherman Heights.
Here are two boldly painted murals in Sherman Heights, a neighborhood just east of downtown San Diego. I photographed the first mural at 21st Street and Market Street several few days ago. I took my first picture of the second mural last May as I watched the local All-American Soap Box Derby on hilly 25th Street. Since then, the painted boards seem to have been removed from the market wall, and shifted a bit to the left behind a tree. You can see shadows in the two more recent photos.
According to my research, both of these distinctive works of street art were created under the direction of local artist Mario Torero. His passionate artwork, often depicting political themes and civil rights activists, can also be seen at Chicano Park in Barrio Logan, Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park, and elsewhere around San Diego.
Young residents of Sherman Heights painted this wall in 1980, with help from local artist Mario Torero.Aztec imagery is a colorful part of the artwork.The 35 year old mural is vivid, having been restored several times due to graffiti.Words above people read Barrio Sherman Mural Unidos.Lively images cover pipes, meter box and a door.Latino-themed mural shows respect for education.K St. Market on 25th Street with mural designed by local artist Mario Torero.Face enveloped by color shows confident character.The Barrio is a Garden was painted on wood in 2010 in Sherman Heights.Brightly painted street bench on 25th Avenue in Sherman Heights.
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A little diving in San Diego grocery store dumpsters yielded lots of good food.
A unique event took place today. It was extremely unusual, fun and enlightening.
Rob Greenfield is an activist working to persuade grocery stores to donate expired foods to local food banks and hunger relief charities like Feeding America. His effort is called Donate Don’t Dump. To raise awareness, he has created unusual, colorful works of art in various cities, using perfectly good food he’s found while dumpster diving.
As part of my walk today, I took a few pics of Rob and his friends creating a fantastic bit of artwork on the grass in San Diego’s Balboa Park.
He told me that some grocery chains are better than others at donating their expired foods. He explained food retailers have nothing to fear from lawsuits should someone sicken from food poisoning, because of the federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act. $165 billion dollars of food is wasted each year, enough to fill two Rose Bowl stadiums every single day, according to Rob!
Once the art had been admired, bystanders were invited to eat! The food was great!
Wasted food includes vegetables, baked goods and expired packaged items.Rob Greenfield checks salvaged food to be assembled into activist art in Balboa Park.Rob Greenfield explains his goals on a bench, with Casa del Prado arches in the background.Laying out the food articles into an elaborate, very colorful design has begun!A crowd watches near the Botanical Building as the artistic food creation nears completion.Rob Greenfield explains that more needs to be done to save perfectly good food.
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Cool mechanical shark on parking lot wall behind Undisputed Fitness Center in East Village.
A super cool street mural was recently painted in downtown San Diego’s East Village. I checked it out this morning!
Located on a parking lot wall behind Undisputed Fitness, at the corner of 16th Street and K Street, this large work of art really catches your attention and draws you in for a closer examination!
The image of a mechanical shark, operated from the inside by some sinister-looking people, was painted by Sheffield-based muralist Phlegm. I’ve never seen his work before, but apparently he often depicts similarly weird scenes, described as half-childlike, half-menacing. This particular mural was created as an act of “artivism” for PangeaSeed, an international environmental organization whose mission is to help preserve sharks and other marine species, through art and education. Sharks are being maimed and killed in large numbers for their fins, which are cut off the still-living animals and used to make shark fin soup and traditional medical cures in China.
Street artist Phlegm painted this unusual shark for PangeaSeed’s Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans.Shadowy, mysterious people secretly operate the black and white mechanical shark.Phlegm often paints masked figures controlling odd contraptions in this illustrative style.
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This afternoon I enjoyed watching a good portion of San Diego’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade. Every January, MLK’s dream of racial equality is celebrated downtown in one of the largest parades of its kind in the United States. The parade route runs down Harbor Drive on San Diego’s waterfront.
I got a whole lot of photos. Please feel free to share and enjoy them!
Crowd gathers for annual San Diego MLK parade.MLK Parade kicks off with many local politicians.A cool police car fitted with hydraulics.A vintage fire truck rolls down Harbor Drive.This cute little dog is a member of law enforcement.Watching the parade from the announcer platform.Goodies are handed out by an MLK Parade participant.Candidate for San Diego Mayor, David Alvarez.A huge Homeland Security armored vehicle.Border Patrol agents on all-terrain vehicles.Coast Guard patrol boat towed along parade route.Patriotic colors precede bagpipes.Attending to sound board beside the announcers.People watch parade from hotel balconies across the street.Here comes the Gadsden Elementary School marching band.Tuba players march in the San Diego MLK parade.Gecko celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. birthday.Crowd enthused by a great parade performance.A dance routine on Harbor Drive.Kids perform a fun routine for MLK Parade onlookers.Looking very elegant.The UCSD band passes by.Young kids have difficulty with SDSU letters.SDSU Aztec Warrior at MLK Parade in San Diego.Veterans for Peace parade a drone.Members of a lodge parade on by to loud cheers.Marchers honor the Martin Luther King Jr. dream.Colorful dancers from the House of Panama.Drummers perform with pride on parade route.Poster on side of truck shows historic MLK speech.Some guys having fun in yellow mini cars.Inflatable float from USS Midway Museum.Children determined to achieve great things.Another fun performance by kids for the parade announcers.Banner holders stand up for human dignity.Music and youthful energy on parade.Folks in back of a truck celebrate MLK and his dream.King and Queen of San Diego MLK Parade.A beautiful parade queen waves to the large crowd.Pooches with American flag bandanas.Mr. Black San Diego greets the crowd.Inspirational messages head down the Embarcadero.Students from City College are agents of change.A smiling beauty perched high atop a parade float.MLK impersonator recreates famous speech at Lincoln Memorial.
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This afternoon, during my Sunday walk, I was surprised to see the Rainbow Warrior, the well-known ship of the activist group Greenpeace, docked down on the Embarcadero. It seems they were visiting San Diego, and loads of people were streaming onto the ship for tours. I had my camera with me so I snapped some pics.
This first photo shows the bow of the ship. A banner proclaims Free The Arctic.
Look at all the folks in line! I saw lots of young idealists with clipboards and older hipsters in line. Several signs and displays were set up on the walkway promoting the Greenpeace mission.
Strung between the masts was a transparent banner reading OCEAN SAFE TUNA NOW. It was so large that it was visible several blocks away.
Cool San Diego Sights! 