Tag: art

Beautiful new Iranian art installed in Balboa Park!

A live art installation that visitors could view during the past few days in Balboa Park has been completed!

The artwork, brought to life by the San Diego Museum of Art and renowned Iranian-born artist Mohammad Barrangi (@mohammad.barrangi), decorates a section of wall outside the museum’s courtyard, near the entrance to Panama 66. As I understand it, this work will remain on display through October.

I took these photos early this evening. You can compare them to photos I took the past two days as the art was being created by clicking here. You’ll also see a smiling photograph of the artist!

During the live installation, Mohammad demonstrated the reverse print transfer process while creating a diptych inspired by Iranian history and visual traditions. You can see a short video of him working on this artwork here.

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Watch a Live Art Installation in Balboa Park!

During the next few days, renowned illustrator and artist Mohammad Barrangi will be performing a live demonstration of the reverse print transfer process as he installs new art in San Diego’s always amazing Balboa Park!

Those walking through the Plaza de Panama near the San Diego Museum of Art’s outdoor courtyard should look for Mohammad and his work in progress. The finished large-scale piece will be a diptych inspired by Iranian history and visual traditions.

The installation precedes this weekend’s Mehregan Fall Fête at the San Diego Museum of Art. The Iranian festival of Mehregan will be celebrated at the museum with a performance of Voices Unveiled, which invites audiences to listen to and feel the stories of two Iranian women as they experience oppression and seek freedom and justice.

Click the above links to learn more!

I’ll try to swing by in the next few days and provide an update here with additional photographs!

UPDATE!

The following day, I walked by in the early evening and took these photos…

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Cool photo memories from October 2018.

Five years ago, during the month of October, so much was going on that Cool San Diego Sights was overflowing with photographs!

Anyone interested in technology, or archaeology, or dance, or sailing, or visual arts, or architecture, or the history of San Diego had many diverse places and events to experience!

Get ready to travel back in time to 2018!

Here come a dozen memories…

Click the following links for many photographs:

Paintings by Kadir Nelson exhibited in San Diego.

Dancers portray the homeless in San Diego.

Photos outside 2018 Maker Faire San Diego!

Unfolding Humanity appears at Maker Faire!

Rowing For the Cure on beautiful Mission Bay.

Photos of Massing of the Colors in San Diego.

Beautiful works of glass art in Balboa Park!

Historical exhibit features archives at City Hall.

Learning about archaeology in San Diego!

Sailing . . . kite boarding . . . racing on the bay!

An amazing Wyland mural cruises into San Diego!

Photos of North Park’s Day of the Dead festival!

A dark, disturbing look at art Beyond Reason.

Frank the Trainman mural Train of Wisdom.

An architectural landmark in University Heights.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Fantastic 3D art inside San Ysidro Library!

Are those holograms? No! The archway just inside the San Ysidro Library’s front door features a cool 3D effect produced by its two lenticular print columns.

This amazing public art, titled Pasaje, debuted in 2019 when the new branch library opened. The artists are brothers Jamex de la Torre and Einar de la Torre.

The San Diego Civic Art Collection website explains: The interior artwork, Pasaje, consists of an archway which serves as both a literal and symbolic entrance to the library. The columns of the archway are wrapped with colorful, illuminated lenticular prints drawing on themes related to San Ysidro, architecture, and the library as a source of knowledge. These densely layered and highly dynamic lenticular images produce the illusion of depth and change when viewed from different angles. Sitting atop the columns is a cantera stone lintel inspired by both Spanish colonial and Mesoamerican architectural motifs.

The San Ysidro Library website further explains: The arch columns feature back-lit lenticular transparencies that exhibit two images in flip format, one showing historical pictures of San Ysidro and the other showing a plethora of images that symbolize curious illustrations in the exploration of books.

Your own eyes have to experience this fantastic optical art!

I found it hard to take good, focused photographs, because the seemingly layered images fade in and out with every slight movement the camera makes. (If you’ve ridden the main elevator at the San Diego Central Library, you’ve probably marveled at similar lenticular artwork by the same artists!)

Hopefully these photos entice you to visit the library in person!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

A closer view of public art at San Ysidro Library.

Picadillo Folklorico

Picadillo Folklorico and El Movimiento are two works of public art decorating the exterior of the San Ysidro Branch Library.

Visitors to the library might crane their necks to gaze up at these two large steel screens, but closely observing the intricate water-jet cut designs in each can be difficult. So I took a few photos that provide a better look at some of the detail.

The artists who created Picadillo Folklorico and El Movimiento are Einar and Jamex de la Torre, “brothers and artistic collaborators who were born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and maintain studios in Baja California and San Diego.”

According to the San Diego Civic Art Collection description, the two pieces were inspired by the Mexican folk art of paper-cutting and traditional Moorish screens.

By examining these close-up photographs, you can discover all sorts of interesting little figures incorporated into each design. Many of the figures appear like ancient pictographs, perhaps representing real or mythical creatures.

All of the elements combine to create the impression, in my own mind, of complex, outwardly expanding life.

What do you see?

(The same two artists created amazing public art inside the San Ysidro Library. I’ll post those photos coming up!)

El Movimiento

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Colorful mural at SALT in Oceanside!

This wonderful mural depicting life, sunshine and landmarks in Oceanside can be found at the SALT Apartments at 311 N. Cleveland Street. It was created by well-known abstract artist Lee Calderon.

I see the Oceanside Pier, a surfer, the harbor lighthouse, and Mission San Luis Rey. And many bright, vibrant colors!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Wildlife street art on electrical boxes.

I spotted this great street art during my recent walk through the new Creekside Park in Mission Valley.

Depicted are wild animals, birds and insects that one can find in San Diego County’s vast backcountry. Mountain and desert habitats appear to be well represented.

I’m not sure who the artist is, but the artwork appears to be fairly new. I didn’t notice a signature.

These electrical boxes are located about halfway along linear Creekside Park, inside the Civita residential development. Look for them where the park’s main path intersects Westside Drive.

If you’d like to see more street art in Civita painted on electrical boxes, click here!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Art from the Great Depression in Oceanside.

A very fine exhibition of American art from around the time of the Great Depression is now on view at the Oceanside Museum of Art.

Art for the People: WPA-Era Paintings from the Dijkstra Collection contains works that were created between the 1920s and the end of World War II. Many pieces by California artists are included, including San Diego’s own Charles Reiffel. The paintings are often dark, with images of poverty, violence and barren places. But there are glimpses of beauty, too, and of life’s striving, and inextinguishable humanity.

According to one sign: “Names for this art have ranged from Regionalism and American Scene Painting to Social Realism and American Expressionism.” I’m by no means an art expert, but I can tell you these diverse works are emotionally stirring. The artists, through the lens of their own experience, sought to capture true things from a difficult period of American history.

Enjoy a visit to the Oceanside Museum of Art no later than November 5, 2023. You’ll see how extraordinary this special exhibition is. It was organized by the Crocker Art Museum, Oceanside Museum of Art, and The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens.

Hooverville on East Tenth Street, Louis Ribak, circa 1940. In the late 1930s, Ribak worked on several murals for the Works Progress Administration.

The Hex Sign, Lancaster County, PA, Ernest Fiene, 1936.

Harlem Cows, Jan Matulka, circa 1924. The depiction of cows evidences the artist’s exposure to Cubism.

A Vale in Death Valley, Helen Forbes, 1939. The artist during the WPA era produced murals for post offices in Susanville, Merced and Monrovia, California.

Worker and Machine, Hugo Gellert, 1928. The artist focused on the struggles of the working class. He was an illustrator for The New Yorker and New York Times.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Herb “The Mechanic” sculpture in Escondido!

Herb “The Mechanic” stands in Escondido by an old-fashioned gas pump gazing out at passing traffic. Herb’s smile is permanent–because it’s made of bronze!

This nostalgic sculpture was a Public Art Project completed in 2007, commissioned by the City of Escondido. The artists are T.J. Dixon and James Nelson. Their extraordinary work seems to be everywhere I walk around San Diego! Find more photographs of sculptures created by T.J. Dixon and James Nelson by clicking here.

Visit the artist website here and see a whole lot more!

Would you like to make an “appointment” with The Mechanic? Drive past 1404 South Escondido Boulevard and keep your eyes open for a friendly smile!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Nautical rope, sea bags, and a sailor’s life.

For much of the 20th century, Naval Training Center San Diego was the place where Navy recruits learned what their new life at sea would be like.

Today, NTC Liberty Station occupies those old Navy buildings and barracks. The popular San Diego destination contains museums, artist studios, shops, offices, restaurants . . . and thought-provoking installations of public art.

A Dime to Call Home is sculptural art that I photographed during my last visit. The unusual art, made of cement, soft clothing and nautical rope, is located near some archways along Liberty Station’s North Promenade. It was created by artist Michele Montjoy of Oceanside, California, and installed in 2019.

A nearby sign explains:

Using sculptural forms reminiscent of sea bags and nautical rope, A Dime to Call Home is a conversation about the shifts of identity, location and routine that recruits encounter when they enter the military, as well as the connection they have to their family, home and previous life.

I took several photographs.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!