Yesterday I arrived in Ramona in the morning, a couple hours before the start of the Ramona Country Fair.
I parked near the McDonald’s on 16th Street and walked east up Main Street to around 4th Street, watching for the many H.E.A.R.T. murals that have been painted in Ramona’s downtown. I found many and will be sharing those photographs before too long!
I also spotted a beautiful sculpture and an interesting historical building, but I’m not posting those photos quite yet, either.
Today I’d like to share photographs of painted street art that decorates electrical boxes along and near Main Street! You can find artist names in a couple of the images.
I probably missed other colorful boxes, but you might enjoy the ones I found!
As you might guess, this street art was next to Ramona’s public library. Book titles on the painted shelves reflect unique aspects of this rural community.
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I arrived at the Ramona Country Fair about half an hour before it opened on Sunday, so I continued walking beyond the fairground and explored the nearby Ramona Pony Baseball Fields.
As I wandered among various structures next to the ball fields, I discovered this fun artwork depicting baseball players in action.
At first glance the art might seem simple or generic, but upon closer inspection each small work has really great personality!
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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!
There’s an outdoor sculpture garden in San Diego that very few know about. It’s called the Azalea Park Water Conservation Garden. You can find this special place in Azalea Park, a neighborhood in south City Heights, at the east end of Azalea Community Park.
Last weekend I was given a tour of the sculptures by local artist Jim Bliesner and members of the Azalea Park Mosaic League!
As you can see in my photos, all of the garden’s imaginative artwork is made of recycled materials. What I really loved is the pieces were all created by people who live in the neighborhood!
Come wander with me through this peaceful garden, down several dirt paths through native drought tolerant vegetation, and let’s see what we might discover…
A tall sculpture attracts those who are nearby. Curious eyes will discover something special.
PEACE BEACON
INSTALLED ON JUNE 12, 2016
IN HONOR OF THE VICTIMS OF THE SHOOTING THAT OCCURRED ON THIS DATE IN ORLANDO, FL.
Donated to the Azalea Park neighborhood, where people of all faiths, cultures, and ethnicities proudly live together as one community. May we shine as a beacon to the rest of the country.
Artist: Vicki Leon, 2016
Installation team: Vicki Leon, Bonnie Brooks, Jennifer Lindsey, Brent Lindsey, Aiya Lindsey, Aiden Lindsey. Title by Aiden Lindsey (10 years old).
City Heights artist Jim Bliesner stands by his fun sculpture Joy Ride. It’s made of colorfully painted car hoods!A dreamcatcher made of recycled metal objects.A bull made of old car mufflers.
“The Bull”
By Karim Carlock
Welded by Jose Orozco
I.W.U. Local 229
All the sculptures in the Azalea Park Water Conservation Garden are wonderful. Take a look at this!
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I’m sure somebody out there knows the story behind the above art. Even after extensive searches on the internet, it’s a mystery to me!
Two identical artworks are mounted on the north and south side of San Diego’s 1938 County Administration Building. Whenever I walk near the building, I look up at these medallion-like discs and try to figure out what is depicted.
This morning I finally took zoom photos. Now that I can scrutinize the design up close, I’m still baffled. The anchor suggests the design has a maritime theme.
If I had to guess, the art combines a 1930’s era flying boat splashing down on nearby San Diego Bay with the sail of a Chinese junk. The latter type of fishing boat was commonly seen on the bay in the early days of San Diego.
Or I might be completely wrong!
The best source I can find that describes the County Administration Building’s external ornamentation is a San Diego County government publication titled Bridging the Centuries: The Jewel on the Bay. Read it here. Check out page 20. Everything on the building’s exterior is described . . . all except this mystery artwork!
It appears to me this colorful disc might have some sort of mechanical action. Why is there a lever of some type projecting from the sun? Does the plane tilt upward as if taking off?
Please leave a comment if you are knowledgeable. I’m sure many are curious!
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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!
In the past year or two a bunch of colorful murals have been painted inside and outside the old Western Steel & Metals building in Barrio Logan.
The abandoned building is located off National Avenue, near the corner of 26th Street and Sicard Street. I believe its parking lot has been the location of La Pulga Flea Market. I haven’t gone, so I can’t say for certain. All I know is that during my most recent walk through Barrio Logan I spotted all this artwork and took photos!
There are many different signatures on these murals, and I see they belong to some of San Diego’s most prominent graffiti artists. Whether most of them were spray painted during a particular event, I don’t know.
If you know more about these murals, please leave a comment!
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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!
In November 2013 an incredible thing happened. Over a hundred volunteers from several neighborhoods in City Heights–Castle, Swan Canyon, Fairmount Village and Azalea Park–came together to transform a dangerous, trash-filled vacant lot into a beautiful community gathering place.
In a matter of only a few days, the Manzanita Gathering Place, which you can see in the following photographs, was born.
I was introduced to the Manzanita Gathering Place in the northeast corner of Azalea Park last weekend and was absolutely amazed. The tranquil, rustic, art-filled spot, overlooking Manzanita Canyon, made me feel as if I’d traveled faraway, to the top of a mountain crowned with ancient magic.
Four columns around a stone sitting area are covered with mosaics. About 1500 square feet of mosaic art! The columns represent the four elements: earth, air, water and fire. They also represent the hearts of the many hands that made them–community members from four adjoining urban neighborhoods.
I was told the Manzanita Gathering Place is the perfect place to watch a sunset. I did see the Ocean Discovery Institute across the canyon below. Students often walk from there into the canyon to learn about nature.
A collaboration of community organizers, government, artists, business owners, schools and diverse neighborhood residents, the Manzanita Gathering Place was a Pomegranate Project. According to the Pomegranate Center’s website, the organization helps “communities design and build art-filled gathering places. In sometimes as little as four months from first community meeting to completion of the gathering place, hundreds of volunteers would give thousands of hours planning, designing and building their park. Between 1990 and 2017, Pomegranate Center created some 60 such projects in multiple cities, states, and countries…”
The Manzanita Gathering Place design team consisted of Brennan Hubbell, Ilisa Goldman, Vicki Leon, and mentor Milenko Matanovic, founder of the Pomegranate Center. In 2015 this truly amazing project received a Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects.
A very beautiful nearby mural was painted in 2018 by San Diego artists Gloria Muriel and Alexander Banach…
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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 of the most extraordinary public art in San Diego can be found in Azalea Park, a neighborhood at the south end of City Heights. Walk or drive along the streets of Azalea Park and you’ll discover unexpected mosaics decorating the sides of trashcans and round sidewalk benches.
When you stop to look closely at these mosaics, it becomes evident that a great deal of effort, thought and artistry was involved in their making. The beautiful designs are truly stunning. Look at the coming photographs and see for yourself.
I was surprised to learn that all of these fantastic mosaics were created by a volunteer group of Azalea Park residents! The team of community beautifiers call themselves the Azalea Park Mosaic League!
Led by local artist Vicki Leon, members of the Azalea Park Mosaic League continue to make their neighborhood a more attractive and welcoming place.
A couple days ago I posted photos of their Art’s Popping Up mosaic sculpture on Poplar Street. If you haven’t seen that yet, click here!
Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit Vicki Leon’s art studio in Azalea Park. The following two photographs show beautiful lotus mosaics that will be installed in Little Saigon, and how she is helping friends and neighbors to create their own mosaic street address signs! Check our her website here.
Her work, and the volunteer efforts of the Azalea Park Mosaic League, can inspire us all to make our own neighborhoods more beautiful!
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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!
This afternoon a famous painting displayed in the Timken Museum of Art was turned to chalk! I witnessed part of the transformation myself, right in front of the museum in Balboa Park!
The Timken Museum’s summer weekend Creation Station event continued today. Part of the fun was a chalk art recreation of the 1557 painting Parable of the Sower, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Anybody walking through the Plaza de Panama could watch the chalk artist at work. If you want to compare the chalk art I photographed with the actual oil painting, click here!
The outdoor Creation Station’s amazing chalk art flows from the talented hands of @sidewalk_chalk_dad.
Unfortunately, I didn’t walk by after the artwork was completed. Use your imagination!
You can see another chalk art recreation of a painting in the Timken’s fine art collection by clicking here!
That smiling guy covered with chalk? The artist, of course!
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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!
Everyone got a free ride on the Balboa Park Carousel today! That’s because it’s National Carousel Day!
Lots of excited kids and families were waiting for their ride on the historic carousel when I walked by. Every year on National Carousel Day people head to Balboa Park just for the special occasion!
The wonderful old carousel was built in 1910 by Herschell-Spillman Co. in North Tonawanda, New York. It ran for a few years in Luna Park, Los Angeles, then was moved to Coronado’s Tent City in 1913. In 1922 it was transported to Balboa Park where the Fleet Science Center is today. Finally it was moved to its present location near the San Diego Zoo in 1968.
Whenever I pause by the whirling carousel, I enjoy looking at the amazing carved animals, the carnival-like lights and mirrors, and the nostalgic art painted on passing panels. And I love listening to stirring music from the original band organ. I also gaze into a display case that contains historical information and artifacts concerning this special merry-go-round!
I’ve included two photos of the carousel being built back in 1910. Creating the carved animals required true artistry.
When beloved author Ray Bradbury turned a carousel into a time machine, I think he was onto something. Because whenever I ride one, I find that I’m a young boy again.
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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!
That’s because Art’s Popping Up is the name of a welcoming mosaic sculpture in the median of Poplar Street, at the entrance to Azalea Park, a friendly community in south City Heights!
I enjoyed an inspiring tour around Azalea Park yesterday and will be blogging about lots of amazing artwork.
The bright mosaics on the four sides of Art’s Popping Up were created in 2018 by members of the community. The lead artist, Vicki Leon, has a nearby studio. A team of friends and neighbors, who go by the name Azalea Park Mosaic League, not only helped to create this fantastic sculpture, but with the help of Vicki Leon they’ve produced numerous mosaics throughout Azalea Park.
Several tiles on one side of Art’s Popping Up explain: “This mosaic celebrates art emerging from within our neighborhood. It follows the theme of the Pop Street mosaics on Poplar Street…Framed artworks pop out of an Art Nouveau background, a style of art inspired by the curved lines of plants and flowers, used here to reference Azalea Park’s botanical theme and natural canyons…The continuous rainbow of color is created from hand-cut stained glass and represents our unity and diversity…”
At the top of the tall sculpture are four words selected during meetings of community members. They are: Community, Diversity, Unity and Creativity.
I love how the rainbow of color seems to splash, curl and spurt upward along the four sides of Art’s Popping Up. The mosaic shines brilliantly in the San Diego sunshine as it greets residents going to and from their homes.
Two awesome members of the Azalea Park Mosaic League smile for a photograph of Art’s Popping Up!Azalea Park is bounded by Manzanita Canyon and Hollywood Canyon. Trails from residential streets provide easy access to nature. Images of hiking, plants and other natural elements that have been sandblasted on colorful ceramic tiles add meaning to the community mosaic.
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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!
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