San Diego Loyal SC soccer player Collin Martin has been honored with a mural in Hillcrest’s colorful Art Alley. The midfielder is proudly kicking it among other alley murals, which you can find by clicking here.
I spotted this new mural during a bus ride down University Avenue east of Fourth Avenue, and I had to jump off at the next stop for a photograph. Turns out the mural was completed just a day or two ago!
The talented young artists behind this cool street art call themselves Ground Floor Murals. You’ve possibly seen their many awesome San Diego Padres murals all around the city!
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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 Twitter!
Five years ago, back in March 2018, my camera captured hundreds of colorful photographs around San Diego. Festivals, street art, nature walks and exhibitions provided a very wide variety of subjects.
The big event in late March was the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s 2018 OPEN HOUSE. The public was invited to tour and learn about notable buildings all around the city. I took full advantage of the opportunity!
Oh, and Rex the Lion debuted during an exciting ceremony at the San Diego Zoo, too!
If you’d like to revisit some of those past blog posts, lots of links are coming up!
Click the following links for many colorful memories!
A brilliant exhibition can now be enjoyed in the 9th Floor Art Gallery at San Diego’s Central Library. The exhibition is called Lost in Translation: A Game of Telephone!
You know the game called Telephone? It’s that verbal game where somebody conveys a message to a second person, who then the conveys the message to a third person, and so forth, on and on, until the message becomes so changed that it bears little resemblance to the original.
Well, imagine Telephone being played with written words and visual art!
The several “messages” in this unusual art exhibition morph strangely and unexpectedly.
Sequential threads can be viewed on the gallery walls. Each thread begins with a poetic passage written by a local writer. Those words are then interpreted by a local artist, whose resultant creation is then interpreted by another writer, whose words are then interpreted by another artist . . .
Cool idea, right?
I found it interesting that some of the threads maintained a certain amount of cohesion when it came to the conveyed message. But other threads mutated wildly, with subjects and themes lurching in completely different directions!
This is one very unique exhibition that you really have to see for yourself!
Check it out before April 15, 2023.
The following is part of one thread…
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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 Twitter!
Spring is less than three weeks away. And signs of the coming season are “springing” up in San Diego’s amazing Balboa Park!
I walked through the park today and took a variety of photographs…
Lawn bowlers were out on a sunny day.San Diego sunshine on the iconic California Tower and California Building’s dome.A tour group takes advantage of a spring-like day in Balboa Park.Under a Baseball Sky at the Old Globe? Yes! Spring Training has begun!Some flowers are already blooming in the Alcazar Garden.The Cherry Blossom Festival is coming to the Japanese Friendship Garden in a couple weeks.Cherry trees are beginning to bloom in the Japanese Friendship Garden’s lush Lower Garden.This 1932 Morgan Super Sports would be the perfect ride on a warm Spring day. Meanwhile, it’s on display at the San Diego Automotive Museum.Blossoms have appeared at the San Diego Potters’ Guild in Spanish Village Art Center!Blossoms have also appeared in Spanish Village’s Studio 26, flowing from the paintbrush of friendly artist Edward Juarez!And fresh flowers have appeared in some hand blown glass in Spanish Village!Last, but certainly not least, I learned huge news will be coming this Spring from the San Diego Natural History Museum. But I’ve been sworn to secrecy! Stay tuned!
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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 Twitter!
An absolutely amazing 270-foot mural has been completed in San Diego’s diverse City Heights neighborhood!
The colorful mural, titled Unity in the Community, has been painted along the long wall at the south end of Teralta Neighborhood Park.
This epic mural was begun by San Diego graffiti artist Sake, then very beautifully finished by artists Melody De Los Cobos (@chicanalilly) and GMONIK (@gmonikart)!
Melody explains her experience painting the mural:
The mural has been 6 or 7 years in the making. I only joined the project the last 6 months. In that time we ran into many challenges. The biggest was about a month in. I had a stroke while painting the end section of the wall in early October. In trying to find why I had a stroke so young, doctors found also a hole in my heart. So after a few procedures I was able to get back to the wall. I was out about 3 weeks. It could have been much much worst but I’m grateful to be alive and am able to walk and talk… While I was out, GMONIK had to move forward with the mural which in turn put a lot of pressure on him. In the end, we completed the mural December 23rd, 2022.
This mural, as you can see, is extra special.
Today I walked through Teralta Neighborhood Park and took these photographs. I began on the left end of the long mural and worked my way right.
There are many outstanding murals all around San Diego, but in my opinion this ranks right up there as one of the very best. And one of the most inspirational!
A big Mural Dedication and Celebration event is coming up on March 25th at 1:00 pm in Teralta Neighborhood Park. Speakers will give the history of this mural and explain how the City Heights community contributed to its creation. The neighborhood’s diversity and progress will also be celebrated!
Check it out!
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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 Twitter!
A beautiful work of metal art now stands in the City Heights Tierra Central sculpture garden. It was created by local artist Spenser Little (@spenserlittleart). The sculpture honors Jim Bliesner, Visionary Community Advocate.
Jim Bliesner was a driving force behind the creation of Tierra Central, an outdoor event space on University Avenue, just east of Interstate 15. For 40 years he’s worked for the betterment of his community, from planting trees to starting a local newspaper. He’s a founding member of the City Heights Community Development Corporation.
Jim is both activist and artist. His works of public art can be seen around City Heights and our Southern California region. You might recall some past blog posts featuring his work. Here and here and here!
I was so surprised and gratified to see this amazing new sculpture honoring such a wonderful person and inspiration to many!
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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 Twitter!
Colorful mural painted on side of 7-Eleven on Beyer Boulevard, not far from a trolley station.No al Racismo! No to Racism! By @Yvette_RomanLarge agricultural mural on the side of La Bodeguita Food Store.Cat street art under a starry, starry night. By @d_barron26 in 2022.
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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 Twitter!
The 25th Annual Fungus Fair of the San Diego Mycological Society was held today in Balboa Park. I’ve checked out this event in past years, but I’d never seen such enormous crowds before. The popularity of mushrooms in San Diego appears to have greatly . . . mushroomed!
Not only was Room 101 of the Casa del Prado jammed with people gazing at informative exhibits, but numerous vendors were displaying mushroom art and crafts and edible concoctions in the building’s outdoor courtyard.
I wandered about amazed by all the varieties and apparent benefits of fungi. Mycophiles in attendance could learn how to grow and forage mushrooms. Curious people like me could learn about the characteristics, medicinal uses and dangers of different types.
Check out some fun fungus photography!
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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 Twitter!
One of San Diego’s iconic landmarks is the statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo near the end of Point Loma, at Cabrillo National Monument.
Over the years there has been a controversy concerning Cabrillo’s place of birth: Portugal or Spain? I covered that in my previous blog post.
The original statue of Cabrillo in the park, by Portuguese sculptor Alvaro DeBree, was commissioned by the Portuguese government. After years of exposure to the weather, that first statue was relocated to Ensenada.
Portuguese sculptor Joas Chartes Almeida carved an exact replica of the original statue out of a more resistant stone, and it was installed in at Cabrillo National Monument in 1988.
During my last trip to Cabrillo National Monument, a ranger inside the Visitor Center showed me a National Park Service document that provides a Brief History of the Original Cabrillo Statue:
In 1949, some 36 years after its establishment as a memorial to Juan Cabrillo, a statue of Cabrillo was finally installed at the monument. The statue had been commissioned by the Portuguese government in 1935 as a gift to the state of California and was to be exhibited in the Portuguese exhibit at the San Francisco Exposition of 1940. The work of Alvaro De Bree, a young Portuguese sculptor, the 14-foot-high, seven-ton statue was not exhibited at the fair as intended, but was instead stored in a private garage in San Francisco. Following a considerable amount of effort, the city of San Diego secured the statue, and it was installed at the Naval Training Center facing Ballast Point. The official dedication of the site took place on September 28, 1942, the 400th anniversary of Cabrillo’s landing.
In 1947, the San Diego Historical Society proposed that the statue be moved to the Cabrillo National Monument. The Chief of the Museum Bureau in Washington, after examining photographs judged the work to be “a satisfactory piece of memorial sculpture” and declared that it appeared suitable “from an artistic standpoint.” The Park Service accepted the statue with the stipulation that the city fund the costs for a base for the statue and for moving it to the monument.
The dedication ceremony took place on September 28, 1949. The Mayor of San Diego, Harley E. Knox, formally presented the statue to the National Park Service and Dr. Manuel Rocheta, chancellor of the Portuguese Embassy in Washington, D.C., delivered an address.
The 1988 replica of the original statue at Cabrillo National Monument.
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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 Twitter!
This dreamy, surreal mural was painted in 2017 at Pappy’s Market in Oceanside. Visible from the corner of Surfrider Way and Cleveland Street, the artwork, spilling its weirdness, spirituality and symbolism, decorates the south side of the building.
The artist is Elna (@eln4), who is half of the Brothers of Light duo.
The two artists’ distinctive murals have been painted internationally, but primarily in Israel, where they grew up.
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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 Twitter!
Cool San Diego Sights! 