Tag: art

Mysterious eye stares from San Diego rooftop!

Colorful murals have been painted on a rooftop structure above Pinch Pottery Studio in San Diego’s downtown East Village.

Stylized hummingbird and hearts artwork can be seen from E Street, if you raise your eyes to look for it. I love how a strange, mysterious eye seems to be staring back at you from what appears to be a barred window!

Another mural depicting a pink Volkswagen Beetle on the east side of the rooftop structure can be seen from Tenth Avenue, if you look above Pokez Mexican Restaurant.

This artwork’s style appears familiar, but I’m not certain who created these faded murals. If you know, leave a comment!

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Award-winning artist Clay Harris exhibits in Balboa Park!

The work of award-winning digital artist Clay Harris will be on exhibit for the next two weeks in San Diego.

Clay’s stunning artwork can be viewed beginning tomorrow (Tuesday, February 25, 2025) in Gallery 21, at the Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park. The exhibition is titled Images from the mind of a Mind Voyager! It will run through March 10.

I stumbled upon Clay today as he was setting up the exhibition. He’s the coolest guy you could ever hope to meet.

After checking out his fantastic images of birds, turtles and other marine life, I paused to learn about his art. The high quality digital art is printed on aluminum, and the process creates an uncanny sense of depth. The pieces I observed shine as if light is being reflected from water.

Clay Harris over the years has had his art displayed at many festivals and in many galleries. So many people have asked that he create large pieces for their homes.

I encourage everyone to head down to Balboa Park and check out this special exhibition. And meet an award-winning artist who will make you smile!

Some examples:

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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.

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Cool boardsports murals in North County!

Check out these two cool boardsports murals in San Diego’s North County!

(What are boardsports? Outdoor activities–such as surfing and skateboarding–that use a board as the primary equipment.)

My first few photos show the large mural painted on the front of Status Skateshop in Carlsbad. The artwork was created by Nicholas Danger (@nicholasdanger) in 2022. Yes, skateboarding culture can be a bit wild and crazy!

If you’d like to see a little more of Nicholas Danger, you might enjoy this blog post from almost five years ago.

Next, in Oceanside there’s a collage-like mural that includes both surfing and skateboarding imagery. View it on the side of a building at South Coast Highway and Washington Avenue.

Businesses that make this building home include The James Brand and Insight Tattoo.

I don’t know who created this very colorful mural. If you have any info, please leave a comment…

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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.

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Three cool murals in South Oceanside!

You might enjoy checking out these photographs of three cool murals in South Oceanside. I saw them about a month ago when I walked up South Coast Highway.

The first celebrates “South O” with a view of the Oceanside Pier (to the north) at sunset. The mural is painted on a side of the building at 1821 S. Coast Highway. The artist is Taylor Gallegos (@taylorgallegosart).

The next mural is tagged #ThePearlofSouthO. It’s another Oceanside Pier at sunset–but more abstract. You can find this work of art at 1745 S. Coast Highway.

Finally, anyone traveling along South Coast Highway has undoubtedly observed the next mural at Sea Hive Marketplace. The address is 1555 S. Coast Highway. It states: Greetings from Oceanside USA!

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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.

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Dreamscapes of nature’s wonders in San Diego!

Walk through Galleries 14/15 at the San Diego Museum of Art and you might think you’re strolling through a bright dream–a dream of intense beauty that is both real and unreal.

Ruud van Empel: Theatre is an exhibition that opened a little over a week ago at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park.

Ruud van Empel is a Dutch photographer and visual artist who makes spectacular digital collages like the ones you see in my photos. He finds beautiful plant forms in nature–in forests, marshes, deserts, and wherever he travels–then digitally combines them into images that look both alien and familiar. To me, the images are of a paradise. He’ll introduce the human form into some of the creations.

When you visit this exhibit, make sure to watch the short film, which describes Ruud van Empel’s creative process. I’m envious. He gets to journey through some of our world’s most amazing natural places while simultaneously creating dreamlike worlds of his own.

If you’d like to view his beautiful worlds, step into the two free combined Galleries 14 and 15. You can access the galleries near the entrance to the courtyard Panama 66 restaurant, located on the west side of Plaza de Panama and the museum. Simply walk through the door that leads to the public restrooms. Ask someone working at Panama 66 if you’re not sure where to go!

Ruud van Empel: Theatre will be on view through July 27, 2025.

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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.

Feel free to share this!

Organization helps comic book artists in San Diego!

Do you live in San Diego? Are you a comic book artist who’d like to collaborate and grow with others who share your interests? There’s a cool organization you should check out!

The CASD Collective (Comicbook Artists of San Diego) is a group of people who’ve come together to build a local community of comic book artists to foster artistic growth and to showcase their artwork.

I met one of their smiling members at this weekend’s Black Comix Day event in Balboa Park, inside the WorldBeat Cultural Center.

That’s cartoonist and writer Lyssette Williams smiling in the above photo, and some of her artwork below!

Members of CASD Collective attend cons, pop culture festivals and San Diego events promoting each others’ work. I remember seeing them at the North Park Book Fair, Fangaea Con, and at a Free Comic Book Day event in Kearny Mesa a couple years ago!

Here’s a photo of one member at Free Comic Book Day!

Members also come together to produce zines and anthologies. Perhaps you’ve seen their work at San Diego Zine Fest.

Do you want to be a successful comic book artist but don’t know how to proceed? Join others on the fun journey!

Are you an experienced artist looking for more friends and collaborators? This might be the place for you!

If CASD Collective sounds interesting, take a look at their website by clicking here!

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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.

Feel free to share this!

Artists celebrated in San Diego at Black Comix Day!

Have you been to Black Comix Day in San Diego yet? It’s a super cool Black History Month pop culture event that is similar to San Diego Comic-Con, but it focuses on creators of African Descent.

Black Comix Day 2025 brings comic book artists, writers, independent publishers and fans together in Balboa Park at the WorldBeat Cultural Center. There are dozens of amazing exhibitors. See the event website here.

Black Comix Day is free to the public and taking place all this weekend. I swung by to check it out on Saturday–you really should go on Sunday! There’s so much to see, collectibles to find, and fun discoveries to make. Most importantly, perhaps, it’s an opportunity to support visionary, independent creators, many of whom call Southern California home.

I had a blast. I recognized some friendly faces from last year’s event. There were many new exhibitors, too.

I encourage my readers to head on down Sunday, February 16, between 10 am and 6 pm. This pop culture extravaganza is free, but you might like to purchase a few comic books, graphic novels, posters, t-shirts or other cool collectibles!

There’s also a great selection of ethnic food inside the WorldBeat Center, too, so bring an appetite!

Some photographs to provide a flavor…

I was told that Harriet Tubman: Demon Slayer will be an upcoming show on Hulu!

How cool is that!

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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.

Feel free to share this!

Beautiful butterfly arrives at San Diego Museum of Art!

A large, very beautiful butterfly has fluttered into the San Diego Museum of Art’s library. It has spread its welcoming wings on the floor, inviting children to take a seat during the SDMA’s monthly Storytime in the Library!

This sculptural multi-piece rug, if I can call it that, arrived at the museum a couple weeks ago. It made its official debut today. I just happened to see a sign pointing the way!

The interdisciplinary Chicana artist artist who created this amazing fabric artwork is Katie Ruiz. Ring a bell? She’s the artist behind the Pompom Project. I blogged about one of her installations at Civic Center Plaza back in 2023. You can see those photographs by clicking here.

This new many-colored butterfly is a cozy place for kids to sit while listening to readings of fun art-inspired children’s books. It sort of feels like sitting in a (p)lush, flowery garden. You can see a video of its creation on the San Diego Museum of Art’s Instagram by clicking here.

Do you have children who’d like to enjoy Storytime in the Library. It’s free, every second Thursday of each month. Readings are at 10:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.

The San Diego Museum of Art’s library can be found by walking through the museum’s sculpture court and Panama 66. Look around–you will find it! You’ll also find the big, beautiful butterfly that now makes the art library home!

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

A refreshing sip of fine art at UC San Diego!

Very unusual public art stands near the center of the UC San Diego’s large La Jolla campus. While this surprising work of art might splash your nose, it’s not in your face. What I mean by that is: while you’re bent over enjoying a cool drink, you might not know that the fountain is a work of fine art by an important artist. There’s no sign or plaque indicating such.

This untitled work of public art—an exact replica in granite of commercial metal fountains typically found in schools, business offices and government buildings–is part of UC San Diego’s Stuart Collection of art. It was created in 1991 by internationally recognized conceptual artist Michael Asher.

Michael Asher believed that an artwork’s encompassing environment determines how we perceive it. As his Wikipedia biography explains: Asher’s work takes the form of “subtle yet deliberate interventions – additions, subtractions or alterations – in particular environments.” His pieces were always site-specific; they were always temporary, and whatever was made or moved for them was destroyed or put back after the exhibitions. This untitled work at UC San Diego is his first permanent public outdoor work in the United States.

I took a refreshing sip from the fountain during my last visit to UCSD. To my right stood a flagpole, and beyond that a historical marker indicating the campus is located on the old site of Camp Calvin B. Matthews, a rifle and artillery training base of the United States Marine Corps. (See my blog post concerning the historical marker by clicking here.) Asher placed the drinking fountain at this precise spot, directly opposite the historical monument, after a lot of deliberation.

There’s more to this “mysterious” work of art than you might suppose. Please read all about it by visiting the Stuart Collection website here.

This very special drinking fountain can be found south of the Price Center, in grassy, park-like UCSD Town Square.

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Oceanside post office mural painted by Hollywood actress!

This wonderful Air Mail mural inside Oceanside’s historic post office was painted in 1937 during the New Deal. The public art was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. It was painted by Elise Seeds.

Many might not realize it, but the artist, Elise Seeds, was also a Hollywood actress!

As the Living New Deal website explains: Elise Seeds, also known as Alyse Cavanna, was a film actress, dancer, comedienne, and vegetarian as well as a painter. She was a well known artist back in the day. Here’s her bio on the askART website.

Elise Cavanna (her acting name) was W.C. Fields’ comic partner in the Ziegfield Follies. She’s mostly remembered for her role as a patient in the 1932 W.C. Fields slapstick comedy The Dentist. This website explains: As Fields attempts to pull her tooth, she recoils in pain and wraps her legs around Fields, getting her feet stuck in his pockets as he pulls her around the room. You can watch the movie on YouTube here. She appears around the 12 minute mark in a hilarious but ultimately suggestive scene that ended up being censored.

Elise Seeds led a full life and pursued many eclectic interests. She was certainly a genius. Simply take a look at her amazing Oceanside mural!

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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.

Thank you for sharing!