This amazing bronze sculpture can be found in front of the National City Fire Department Headquarters Station 34, at the corner of D Avenue and 16th Street. It was commissioned in 2007 and created by local artist Richard Becker. It’s called Ring of Fire.
Fire stations around San Diego County often feature great public art. This might be one of my favorites!
I love the dog to one side!
Here’s a Facebook page that shows photographs of the sculpture being created.
I see, from this online history of the National City Fire Department, that in 2003 an old fire station located here was demolished and rebuilt, creating a station that was larger and more modern, and that in 2007 (same year as the sculpture) they launched their Paramedic Program.
Richard Becker has created amazing sculptures throughout our region. Enjoy photographs of four examples by clicking here and here and here and here.
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There’s a tasty, mouth-watering exhibition ready to be devoured at the La Jolla Riford Library. Step into the Community Room and bring your appetite for art!
The Culinary Arts offers a buffet of paintings by 15 local artists that celebrates food!
As the library’s exhibition website states, you’ll find captivating oil paintings of everything from Cheeseburgers to Triple Decker Ice Cream Cones to delectable Beignets!
The visual feast comes to an end on May 18, 2025.
Fortunately, if you’re still hungry, all of these delectable pieces are for sale. By purchasing a painting or two, these treats can become takeout and brought home for your future enjoyment!
Yummy samples…
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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.
The San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park has plans to substantially expand. The proposed renovation of the West Wing celebrates the centennial of the museum in 2026.
A physical model of an early design concept for this new West Wing extension can be viewed today inside the museum. The design was conceived by the prestigious international architectural firm Foster + Partners, and the model is part of an exhibition that shows their other work around the world.
I got a look at the model yesterday and took some photos so you might visualize how Balboa Park might appear in the future. Obviously, this is important to everyone in San Diego.
Like other Foster + Partners projects, the design will create an experience that is spacious and full of natural light. The proposed expansion will add 37,000 square feet of gallery space, including an immersive digital space. There will also be a community engagement pavilion that will provide interactive space for artists and visitors alike.
As you can see, this large expansion will replace today’s sculpture court and garden.
Personally, I’m not really sure what to think of it.
I like the general idea, but how will this new structure fit in with the surrounding, entirely different Spanish Colonial Revival architecture? It will stand across Plaza de Panama from the much smaller Timken Museum, which also has a more sleek, modern appearance, perhaps creating a visual counter-balance.
The very first thing that struck me is how small the historic San Diego Museum of Art appears beside their wide, taller expansion. No other buildings are shown in the model such as the nearby House of Charm, but I imagine it, too, will appear small in comparison.
My main concern is how this fairly tall new structure might obscure or partially obscure views of Balboa Park’s iconic California Tower, which is arguably the most beloved sight in all of San Diego. The expansion will almost certainly hide the California Tower from people who are in the north part of the Plaza de Panama.
It also appears the design work at the sculpture court and garden by renowned modernist Malcolm Leland will disappear. You can see photographs of that in one of my past blog posts by clicking here.
Well, what do you think?
If you visit the model in the museum, there’s a nearby video that helps you better visualize how this expansion will appear, and an opportunity to leave your own comment.
Here’s a photo I took a few years ago from a short distance up El Prado. You can see the present-day sculpture court with its columns and banners to the right of the California Building’s dome.
The proposed expansion, to my eye, appears to be about three times the height of the sculpture court. So imagine that. The California Tower should remain visible down El Prado, fortunately.
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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.
Meet two super cool San Diego artists! That’s Susie Zol on the left and Denise Cerro on the right. Both were having a blast today creating art, laughing, enjoying life and talking to visitors in Gallery 21 in Balboa Park’s Spanish Village Art Center!
Susie Zol is an abstract artist whose website is here. Denise Cerro likes to make mixed media art and her website is here.
They were having so much fun when I walked into the gallery and radiating such energy that I couldn’t help smiling myself! And then it got even better as they demonstrated what they were up to!
Here’s Susie at work…
That’s Denise in the next photo…
She showed me how to make art using a gelli plate (gel printing plate). It’s sort of works like a slightly squishy printing press.
Okay, I hope I understood this all correctly.
Ink is applied to the gelli plate…
Now she’s putting an inked leafy branch onto the inked gelli plate…
Pressing down on heavy stock paper to make a gelli print…
There it is!
And by using thin material and making a second impression on the residual ink, a ghost print is created!
The ghost prints can be layered, creating a composite image with complexity and depth. In Denise’s mixed media pieces, she’ll often glue on works of ceramic or collage material. The entire effect is amazing.
All I can say is, head over to Gallery 21 by May 18th and see loads of incredible art for yourself.
I almost forgot! The artists are doing daily demonstrations at 1 pm, too!
May 12=Art Journals; May 13=Accordion Books; May 14=Small Series Paintings; May 15=Abstract Faces; May 16=Non-Dominate Hand Art; and May 17=Painting on Loose Paper.
Look at some of their work!
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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.
I met an artist in Balboa Park today who creates beautiful crocheted hats and heartfelt poetry. Her name is Espi Love.
Espi had many different colored hats that she has crocheted, and with her typewriter she was composing poems for passersby. She wrote a poem for me about her hat.
It’s about whimsy, silliness and being unafraid. It concludes: we should all be brave as a playful child
I can definitely identify with silliness!
I hope you might see her next time you’re in Balboa Park. Look for her smile, and expect words of wisdom tapped out from her fingers. You might like one of her whimsical hats, too!
And yes! She has a website with lots of cool stuff! You can order one of her fun “Minky” hats online! Go to her 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.
Park Opera was enjoyed by visitors to San Diego’s beautiful Balboa Park this evening. People on foot, following a map and at times using their smartphones, partook of unique outdoor performances that stimulated the senses in often unusual ways.
Park Opera was composed by Wojtek Blecharz, and produced in San Diego by arts organization PROJECT [BLANK]. As the event website explains: PARK OPERA was commissioned in 2016 by Theater Powszechny in Warsaw, Poland. In 2020, it was reimagined in a forest near Basel, Switzerland as part of the Rümlingen Festival, and was performed again in Austria in 2024 on a tiny island in the middle of a turquoise alpine lake at Carinthischer Sommer Festival.
How does one describe each quiet “Act” encountered while walking through Balboa Park? Subdued. Subtle. Somehow elemental. Stimulating–if you wish it.
Those who follow the map from one Act to the next are considered the protagonists of a personal story. It’s a story that involves concentrated listening and being in the moment. The park’s ambient noise combines with soft instruments and voices, and we become more sensitive and aware of the amazing world that is all around us.
I photographed some of the eleven Acts.
ACT 2: Overture for 4 instruments
ACT 4: Ballet
This was a ballet of sound. Dancing performers whirled small speakers around those passing by. The changing tones seemed natural, perhaps like strange sounds in a wilderness, or dream . . . and weirdly cosmic. One must hear to understand.
ACT 6: Duet
ACT 7: Binoculars for Sound
Different hollow objects act like seashells when held to the ear…
ACT 8: Recitativo
ACT 11: The Gong
Most visitors struck the gong very softly to hear its subtle, resonating sound.
One person struck it with all of their might. Now that was stimulating!
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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.
Followers of Cool San Diego Sights know I love walking all over and taking photos of interesting things, including street art. My most recent walk through Logan Heights resulted in lots of great finds!
These photos were taken along Imperial Avenue, as I walked west from 29th Street to 25th Street. (The first two photos are actually a few steps east of the intersection.)
Enjoy!
I love the following artwork on a building at Imperial Avenue and 29th Street. If you know anything about it, please leave a comment!
Now I’ve reached more works of art painted on a fence. They appear to belong to Varrio Guetto Art Gallery. The eyes are similar to work done by renowned muralist Mario Torero…
As I continue my walk west…
The next cosmic mural features a robot with sunglasses. It’s signed Dentlok Tattoo Arts 2022.
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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.
An exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego features art by students who attend Hoover High School in City Heights. Across the Chaparral includes the work of students in two classes: Advanced Drawing and Painting, and AP English Language.
The students, after viewing and learning about relevant pieces in the museum, were asked to interpret contemporary life in our complex, uniquely dynamic, culturally diverse border region.
Across the Chaparral can be experienced in the museum’s Axline Court, a magical architectural space that I blogged about yesterday. See those photographs here.
Here is some of the student art…
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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.
I finally had a chance to get an unobstructed photo of this John Lennon mural in Pacific Beach. It was painted last summer at 1020 Garnet Avenue, replacing an earlier depiction of John Lennon on the same wall that had been vandalized beyond repair. You can see photographs of that first mural here.
This second John Lennon mural looks great! It was painted by Jon Hamrick. Check out his Instagram page by clicking here. I see he has helped Maxx Moses paint murals around the city. I photographed some of that work here and here!
Read an extensive article about the history of the two John Lennon murals in Pacific Beach 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.
The other day I took photos of a cool mural in Logan Heights that shows legendary boxers Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. It’s painted at the corner of Imperial Avenue and 27th Street.
Ali’s famous quote “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” is written above the boxers. Tyson’s quote “I’m a dreamer. I have to dream and reach for the stars…” appears, too, along with an image of one of his tigers.
I didn’t realize it until I did some searching on the internet, but San Diego’s own Archie Moore boxed Muhammad Ali (when he was known as Cassius Clay) back in 1962. You can read a Wikipedia article about the event 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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 