Tag: art

The Economy of the Absurd at Museum of Us!

A sculpture was recently installed at the Museum of Us in Balboa Park. You can see the new artwork when crossing the Cabrillo Bridge, about to enter the west archway of the California Quadrangle. Look up toward the second floor’s outdoor balcony!

The sculpture is titled The Economy of the Absurd. It was created by Marcos Ramírez ERRE, an artist from the Tijuana and San Diego region who has created large-scale public works since the 1990s. It’s part of the newly opened Museum of Us exhibition Race: Power, Resistance & Change.

The museum’s About the Exhibit page explains: The exhibition Race: Power, Resistance & Change shares stories of how the construction of race has shaped laws, institutions, and daily life in San Diego and the broader multinational region.

As a plaque on the balcony near The Economy of the Absurd explains: This sculpture is composed of hand tools, assembled into a rising form within a steel frame that resembles the local U.S. Mexico border wall.

A number of other plaques are also located on the balcony, including one featuring the poem Refund by past San Diego Poet Laureate Paola Capó-Garcia. It is all part of the overall exhibition.

When I spied the new sculpture yesterday while walking through Balboa Park, I had to go check it out!

Here I am proceeding out onto the Museum of Us balcony…

(Photographs of views from the balcony before installation of this exhibit can be found by clicking here.)

Visitors are encouraged to contribute to a digital map. The map is of cultural centers and programs across San Diego’s diverse communities. You can participate by clicking here!

Imagine my excitement when I found that one of the plaques, concerning the public mural in Lemon Grove of the “Lemon Grove Incident,” features two photographs that I took for Cool San Diego Sights and a mention of my website!

Finally, here’s the short poem Refund…

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Possibilities in Silk exhibition in Balboa Park!

Several days ago, an exhibition of silk art opened in Balboa Park.

Possibilities in Silk, presented by the San Diego Silk Guild, now occupies Gallery 21 of the Spanish Village Art Center!

The gallery is filled with so many different types of silk art, I was truly surprised when I visited today. I saw wall hangings, quilted pieces, wearables, silk collages… All very colorful!

There are over 35 members of the San Diego Silk Guild (a chapter of Silk Painters International), so it isn’t surprising that many forms and styles of silk art are on display. Most pieces can also be purchased.

One of the friendly artists, Natalie Ilarraza, was present this afternoon and provided an explanation of different silk painting techniques. Step inside the gallery and prepare to be wowed!

The free exhibition continues in Gallery 21 through November 30th, 2025. Hours are 11 am to 4 pm.

A few examples:

Cherry Blossom, by Jeanette Amen. Gutta resist and acid dyes on 18 mm habotai silk.
Garden Wall, by Karen Malin. Botanical print on silk, quilted, silk covered buttons.
Betty Boom, by Karen Anderson. Silk dyes on 8 mm habotai silk.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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Another beautiful mural in Oceanside!

I spotted this beautiful mural during my last walk in Oceanside. It decorates a wall on San Diego Street, between Lemon Street and Dubuque Street, about a block away from Balderamma Park.

The side of the wall that faces an alley depicts the Virgin of Guadalupe among prickly pear and other cacti. It also appears to be a neighborhood shrine. People have left fresh flowers.

The other side, facing San Diego Street, has been painted with colorful scenes, so full of life.

I couldn’t ascertain who the artist is. If you have any information, 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.

Feel free to share!

Soaring birds Crossing Paths in Coronado!

If you happen to glimpse two birds soaring in the sky above Coronado, take a closer look. You might have spotted Crossing Paths, a tall, shining kinetic sculpture!

This beautiful public art can be found between the Hotel del Coronado and the Coronado Shores condominium buildings, standing next to the beachside boardwalk.

Crossing Paths was created by artist Amos Robinson and is now part of the City of Coronado Public Art Collection. It was installed in 2022.

The wind freely turns the arms of the sculpture, redirecting the flight of two silvery birds.

To discover more sculptures around San Diego by artist Amos Robinson, click here and here and here and 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!

Creativity, humor, love at Balboa Park craft sale.

The City of San Diego’s annual Agewell Craft Sale was held this weekend in Balboa Park. Local artists came together at the Casa del Prado to sell unique crafts they’d made by hand.

I noticed a good crowd of people perusing the crafts today with only an hour to go in the sale. I enjoyed looking at the amazing crafts–every sort, including very original creations–which filled artist tables inside and outside the Casa del Prado. I saw lots of potential holiday gifts.

In addition, kids were making art in an activity corner and filling a North Pole postal box, there was a raffle, and entertainment by The Ukes of Hazard musical ukulele group was making everyone smile.

Okay, I especially liked some super funny crafts made by artist Leslie Wagoner. You can see a couple of her hilarious creations in my first two photographs, above and below.

Creativity and fun everywhere you turn…

Adult visitors were invited to create art, too!

Lastly, one kindly artist was selling beautiful crafts in order to raise funds in support of Nazareth Orphanage in Tecate, Mexico. The orphanage is home to young boys and girls whose parents are unable to care for them.

For over twenty years, Father Brian Kelly, a Navy Chaplain stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, has led volunteer efforts in support of Nazareth Orphanage.

If you’d like to read about this and perhaps provide a donation, click 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!

Zoo animals memorialized in San Diego mural.

This beautiful mural was completed earlier this year in San Diego’s downtown East Village neighborhood. It memorializes three San Diego Zoo animals that passed away in 2025. It was painted by Ground Floor Murals.

I had a nearby errand this afternoon, so I swung by to see it. You can view the mural near the corner of Market Street and 16th Street, behind the Brikho Fuels gas station, on the south side of the Ace Uniforms building.

The zoo animals remembered are Kalluk the polar bear, Nicky the Masai giraffe, and Maka the Western lowland gorilla.

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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!

Junior Seau mural in his home town Oceanside.

A beautiful mural in Oceanside’s Balderrama Park remembers and celebrates home town football hero Junior Seau.

The legendary NFL linebacker attended Oceanside High School and spent most of his life a resident in San Diego’s North County.

He played with the San Diego Chargers for 13 seasons, helping to lead them to Super Bowl XXIX. His play seemed superhuman. He would become one of the most popular Chargers players of all time.

Junior was active in the community, plus a surfer and restaurateur. He was loved by everybody.

His untimely death was so tragic, believed to be caused by repetitive head trauma while playing the game.

The Oceanside mural, painted by Ground Floor Murals, captures the beautiful soul of Junior Seau.

Another fantastic mural depicting Junior Seau can be viewed in San Diego on El Cajon Boulevard. It was painted by the same artists.

You can see those photographs 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!

Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Barrio Logan!

A printed banner duplicate of a very famous mural by Mexican painter Diego Rivera can be seen in San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood. Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon at Alameda Central Park) decorates the exterior of the M & R Transmission building at 1775 National Avenue.

The original mural, painted by the artist between 1946 and 1947, can be viewed at the Museo Mural Diego Rivera in Mexico City.

The mural depicts famous people and events in the history of Mexico, passing through the Alameda Central park in Mexico City. It features many historical figures, including Hernán Cortés, Benito Juárez, and Frida Kahlo. The central figure is La Catrina, a skeleton figure symbolizing the connection between life and death.

I took these photos a few weeks ago, when I walked through Barrio Logan.

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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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Renaissance portraits bring poetry to the Timken!

A new exhibition has opened at the Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park. It’s titled Poetic Portraits: Allegory and Identity in 16th Century Europe. Read all about it here.

Visitors to the museum have the opportunity to see the work of notable Renaissance artists, including Sofonisba Anguissola, whose painting  Portrait of Giovanni Battista Caselli, on loan from the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, is being displayed in the United States for the first time.

Lovers of fine art and art history will certainly enjoy this exhibition. They’ll also treasure the excellent booklet concerning the artists that is freely handed out at the front desk. It explains how both allegory (symbolism) and identity (descriptive details) combine in the painting of these portraits. This results in a poetic blending of abstract ideals and visual reality.

To most of us here in the 21st century, the people in the portraits are complete strangers. (A few aren’t even positively identified by experts.) But one can see how, compared to flatter, blander pre-Renaissance art, these portraits have assumed a more definite personality.

Gazing at each portrait, I found myself wondering: what had the subject’s true personality been like? The eyes and facial expressions might provide a hint.

The world-class Timken Museum of Art is always free to the public. The exhibition continues through March 29, 2026.

Check out the museum’s website for everything you need to know 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!

Many amazing murals at Balderrama Park in Oceanside!

If you enjoy viewing beautiful outdoor murals, you’ll be astounded by those in Oceanside at Joe Balderrama Park. Over 45 murals decorate structures throughout the public park, including the Balderrama Recreation Center and Chavez Community Resource Center!

The murals, completed late last year, primarily celebrate the Hispanic and Indigenous heritages of many who live in the neighborhood. Diverse other backgrounds and ethnicities are included, too. Bold cultural imagery is intermingled with messages of hope.

The lead artist was renowned muralist Joanne Tawfilis. A couple dozen local artists and many local school children contributed to the massive project!

Here’s a good article about the Balderrama Park murals’ origin and dedication.

I walked around the park last weekend and was totally wowed. Take a look at these photographs! The collection of bold murals might not be on the immense scale of San Diego’s world-famous Chicano Park, but the experience is similar in many respects.

I proceeded with my camera in a counter-clockwise direction. I’m afraid I missed one mural on the tennis courts fence because someone was seated directly in front of it and I didn’t want to intrude.

Here we go…

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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!