Here’s a fun pic of an artistic Halloween display seen on a random shop wall in Seaport Village. I don’t recall the name of the store. The colorful arrangement of crafty witches, owls and pumpkins is a feast for the eyes!
I notice this morning that temperatures outside are cooling. Autumn is in the air and Halloween is around the corner!
One of the best things about Seaport Village is its historic carousel. I like to buy a hot dog or onion rings from the nearby food court, or an ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s, then sit down at a shady table and watch families and kids flock to the merry-go-round. It’s also pleasant to take in a bit of live music from local artists who perform near the carousel on weekends.
This fun Looff carousel was built in 1895 and features over fifty colorful animals including a dragon, a giraffe, a teddy bear, a lion, and two horse-drawn chariots. Master wood carver Charles Looff is famous for inventing the uniquely flamboyant Coney Island style of carousels. In his lifetime he produced many popular carousels, amusements parks, roller coasters and Ferris wheels. Very cool!
Horse decorates exterior of Seaport Village carousel.Signs details long history of this Looff carousel.The fun merry-go-round is a big favorite of young and old alike.People enjoy a perfect day near the Seaport Village carousel.
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Flowers that are several feet across are growing in downtown San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood. They’ve grown out of an artist’s paintbrush and onto a wall!
Check out another photo from the amazing, colorful mural I recently walked past and enjoyed. It’s a shame this public art is set back a bit from First Avenue and not immediately obvious to those driving past. To experience it best, you have to pull into a gas station’s parking lot.
This dolphin is swimming right next to those flowers!
Here are more photographs of that cool mural from the previous blog post. There’s a whole school of colorful fish in full view beside that gas station!
More brightly painted fish on a parking lot wall.The nearby gas station must be underwater!A bright orange fish swims through downtown San Diego.
A shark has been spotted next to a gas station’s parking lot!
A gigantic shark was recently spotted swimming in the blue water next to a San Diego gas station’s parking lot! Here’s the photographic proof!
Okay, what you see is actually a very cool mural. And the shark is just a small portion of it. This awesome mural on a long wall by the gas station contains a bunch of surprising, colorful images! Check out the blue gravel path at the foot of the wall, enhancing the underwater effect!
Wondering where this public art can be found? In Little Italy, just north of downtown. Head up First Avenue and look to the left just before Elm Street. You can’t miss it!
This dolphin was also spotted next to the gas station!This seal doesn’t seem to mind the nearby shark.
This is a part of a very long mural decorating the north side of Interstate 8 in Mission Valley. It’s called Kids being Kids.
I took this photograph from across Camino de la Reina, not far from the Union Tribune building. I got a bunch of pics, but this is the only one that captures the artwork’s color and energy. Perhaps I’ll try again some other day.
UPDATE!
I took some more pics…
Beach balls bounce beside a busy San Diego freeway.Flying with arms wide across a lively public mural.Girl jumps on beloved mural beside Interstate 8.It seems that kids will simply be kids.Little girl is a delightful image in public art.Two young friends are one element in a fun mural.
Here’s a much better look at the obelisk in question. (See my last blog post.) It thrusts out of the ground right in front of Horton Plaza, marking the underground entrance to the Lyceum Theater. Animals of the water, land and air, fashioned out of colorful tiles, frolic together in a mosaic beneath a smiling crescent moon!
This playful work of art and the beautiful architecture of the building behind it is just a small hint of the fun that awaits visitors inside the Horton Plaza shopping mall!
Looking down at the obelisk and underground entrance to Lyceum Theater.A closer view of artistic fish on the Horton Plaza obelisk.
In downtown San Diego, on Kettner and A Street not far from Little Italy and the Santa Fe Depot, you might spot this old advertisement painted on a building wall. It promotes Dr. Pepper and Hires Root Beer. According to some googling I’ve done, the colorful artwork was revealed when an adjacent building was demolished. Looks to me like this building was a soda bottling plant years ago.
View of faded Hires Root Beer ad from across street.
This large mural on the Arte Building on Sixth Avenue has become iconic in downtown San Diego. It was painted in 1989 by artists Kathleen King and Paul Naton and conveys a strong pro-multicultural message. Time has somewhat faded the once bold mural, but it still catches the attention of those venturing through the heart of the city.
America’s Finest City mural in downtown San Diego.
Street art flourishes on the sidewalks of San Diego. Many electrical transformers and utility boxes have been creatively painted to represent colorful scenes both real and imagined. Most have a primitive or folk art vibe. I’ll snap lots of photos for this blog!
Here’s a box downtown at Sixth Avenue and Elm Street that features an airplane and space shuttle zooming above clouds between planet Earth, the Sun and the Moon. At least, that’s what it looks like to me!