Tag: artists

Stargazer at SDSU celebrates Kumeyaay culture.

Stargazer is the title of a sculpture located in San Diego State University’s Campanile Mall, not far from the Koester Memorial Sundial. Which seems appropriate. Our sun is the nearest star.

The sculpture was created by artist Johnny Bear Contreras, who is a tribal member of the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians in northeastern San Diego County. Through his award-winning art he is dedicated to keeping the Kumeyaay heritage alive and thriving. The Kumeyaay people have lived throughout the San Diego region for many thousands of years.

On the Stargazer plaque, Johnny Bear Contreras speaks the words: “Come listen with us, there are stories to be heard. Come and gaze at the stars with me, they are always there.” The word Stargazer, in the Kumeyaay language, is Uwiiu kwellyap kurr.

The public art is part of the SDSU Kumeyaay Living Land Acknowledgment project, which seeks to instill a deeper appreciation and celebration of Kumeyaay history, art and culture.

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How the Old Town blacksmiths make a leaf.

Those working inside Old Town San Diego State Historic Park’s blacksmith shop forge all sort of interesting objects: nails, knives, different decorative objects… The other day I and several other visitors learned how leaves like the ones you see above are made!

Old Town’s friendly blacksmiths are always happy to provide demonstrations of what they do. Hopefully my understanding and simplistic description is fairly accurate…

When heated iron turns orange yellow, the perfect temperature is achieved. The metal you are working becomes plastic and shapeable. Too hot, and you will “burn” the metal, making it useless for the purposes of forging.

The following photograph shows the progression of a new leaf.

You begin with the rod-like piece that you see on the right. Next, to its left, you can see how a mass was produced by the smith’s hammer at one end of the iron piece. Next, sharp edges are rounded and the mass is flattened and formed until it assumes the shape of a leaf.

Leaf veins are produced with a chisel-like instrument with a straight edge (see my first photo). A stroke or two with the blacksmith’s hammer and voila!

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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.

Treasure Hunt mural at Kobey’s Swap Meet!

Have you seen the Treasure Hunt mural just outside the main entrance of Kobey’s Swap Meet? Not only is the fun artwork full of life, but it operates as a visual puzzle!

Monte Kobey started Kobey’s Swap Meet way back in 1976. Who in San Diego hasn’t swung by the old sports arena parking lot on a weekend looking for treasures and bargains? Next time you go, take a close look at this mural and you might find various objects of interest!

Clever eyes might detect a corn dog; toy car, boom box, treasure chest, roller skate, Kobey’s Hummer, five Kobey’s K’s; a pig; paint brush; six cats; a surfer; and . . . Waldo! My photographs don’t cover the entire mural, so you’ll have to swing by the swap meet for a thorough look.

Searching these photos right now, I see a small image of Jim Coffee and his street organ Misty! Are there any people in the mural that you recognize? Leave a comment!

Artist signatures indicate this very fun mural was created by Mackie Mason (@aquaboogieart) and Jasmin Marlene Mendoza (@jasmin_seeks).

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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.

Art gallery at the Rancho Bernardo Library!

If you love art and have a chance to visit the Rancho Bernardo Library, make sure to head up the stairs or elevator. A long hallway on the second floor doubles as an art gallery!

On view in this gallery through the end of September are colorful works by award-winning San Diego artists Terry Anderson and Marlene Levitt. The two artists paint acrylic abstracts on the same canvas at the same time!

According to the artists’ website, their Temáre abstract paintings evoke an emotion of color and contrast...

As my photographs demonstrate, their bold, dynamic art really grabs your attention! Need some home decor? I noticed these pieces at the library are also for sale.

Are you a local or regional artist with work you’d like to exhibit in a branch of the San Diego Public Library? Check out SDPL’s Visual Arts Program and fill out an application by clicking 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.

San Diego artist invites you into his Portal to Heaven!

San Diego artist James E. Watts will be hosting an art show inside his downtown studio this coming Sunday, September 22, 2024. Visitors will have the opportunity to be transported by his wonderful Portal to Heaven!

I swung by his studio this morning and was able to sneak a look at his completed Portal to Heaven project myself.

An astonishing wall appears like a puzzle piece sky full of clouds. Each of the 105 hand sewn clouds, he explains, gather and radiate orgone life energy like a battery! Stand at the heavenly portal and feel its energy!

I blogged about this ambitious project last December. You can read more about it here.

After James showed me the amazing Portal to Heaven, I turned about and saw how he’s creating bunches of apples. They’re in groups of five. He calls them all together the Gates of Hell!

The apples are of different sizes, just as sins are. Would you take a bite of these apples? Perhaps a little one?

James Watts’ studio never ceases to amaze me. Creativity fills it wall to wall, and every time I visit it seems there’s a new, fantastic project.

James loves ideas, theories, philosophy, literature . . . different ways of seeing this world. With his art he inspires, teaches. He explained during our talk today that he’s a teacher without a classroom.

You’ll note he also has a big smile.

Next he showed me what he called a sense board. This particular work of art, which is titled Six Senses, actively interacts with a person using sound, smell, touch, taste, sight and intuition! Should you attend his art show next Sunday, perhaps you can try it out!

Interested, yet?

James E. Watts will host the 100 Clouds 100 Apples art show this coming Sunday, from 12 to 8 pm. His studio is located in the heart of downtown at 1046 Seventh Avenue.

Lovers of art just might find heaven!

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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.

Painting beautiful street art in Hillcrest!

Many electrical boxes in Hillcrest are being painted this summer with beautiful new street art. I happened upon three artists today working on a box on University Avenue!

I’ve learned this latest explosion of Hillcrest street art is another project of the Hillcrest Business Association. Volunteer artists are adding more life and color to this already dynamic San Diego community!

Upon speaking to the three artists, I learned they’ll be covering this entire box with their beautiful work. And I learned they are helping to restore historic murals in Chicano Park!

Awesome!

Ni La Muerte Nos Separa. Not even death separates us.

A beautiful sun and moon rise together on the side of an electrical box in Hillcrest!

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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.

Man of the Crowd at San Diego Museum of Art.

Extraordinary photographs by preeminent mid-20th century photographer Garry Winogrand are currently on display at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park.

Images of people in the act of being very human line the walls of the museum’s free-to-the-public Galleries 14 and 15. The exhibition is titled Garry Winogrand: Man of the Crowd.

Yes, there are photographs of celebrities and social activism, but images of ordinary people on the street are perhaps more interesting. Moments captured spontaneously in different settings show unexpected contrasts, humor, pathos, and quirks of human nature. These often surprising photos reveal truths about life and living.

Nowadays, in our brave new world of social media and smartphones, most photos seem taken to gain self-centered attention. It’s refreshing to view extraordinary photographs that are dedicated to investigating this captivating world that is all around us.

I took my own photos from a video in the exhibition, where Garry Winogrand provides his thoughts on photography. (That explains the subtitles.)

Garry Winogrand: Man of the Crowd will be on view through January 12, 2025. The free exhibition can be accessed through a door next to Panama 66 that leads to museum restrooms. Look for the following sign:

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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.

An eruption of Blue at the Timken Museum!

It’s like a volcano erupting with the deepest blue! That was my first impression of two large monochromatic blue drawings at the Timken Museum of Art. They are part of this summer’s exhibition In Blue Time by the Timken’s most recent Artist-in-Residence Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio.

Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio is originally from Mexico. While living in Mexico City, she became fascinated by that city’s many murals.

Her large works of art are certainly eye-catching. Perhaps you remember her gigantic COVID mural on the side of the tall Bread and Salt building in Logan Heights, easily seen when driving back to San Diego over the Coronado Bridge. I posted photos of that mural back in 2021 here.

Much of Tatiana’s work has a cloud-like appearance–cloudy and nebulous, like memory. She has stated, per the museum website: “Memory is written once, then rewritten, manipulated, reinvented and recreated. Each time we reach for a memory it becomes something else. Forgetting is the distance from our past, the nebulous blue horizon of a memory standing at the edge allowing us to continuously reshape who we are.“

In the Timken’s temporary Exhibition Gallery, you’ll also find a recent large-scale drawing, created in collaboration with musical composer Stefan Cwik and inspired by the concept of time. It’s in my final photograph.

There are more of her works to see, too, plus you can add to the blueness! A community mural that anyone can help create awaits those who feel inspired. It’s entirely in blue!

In Blue Time is only on view for another two and a half weeks, through September 29, 2024.

The Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park is free and full of masterpieces by old masters. Nowhere else in San Diego will you find a painting by Rembrandt!

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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.

Restoring the Tony Gwynn sculpture at Waterfront Park!

Did you know there’s a sculpture of Tony Gwynn in Waterfront Park, just south of San Diego’s County Administration Building?

The sculpture, created by world-famous artist Niki de Saint Phalle, is titled #19 Baseball Player. The mosaic sculpture debuted nine years ago, and I was there for the ceremony. You can see those photographs by clicking here.

When I walked through Waterfront Park early this morning, I noticed the fun sculpture depicting Mr. Padre holding a baseball bat was being restored.

According to a sign, the work is being done by Lech Juretko. He operates Art Mosaic Inc. in Santee. For eight years he was an assistant to Niki de Saint Phalle, helping to produce 100 of her works!

Lech now works with the Niki Charitable Art Foundation, and has done restoration work on Niki’s fun Nikigator (in front of the Mingei International Museum) and her epic, mind-blowing Queen Califia’s Magical Circle (at Kit Carson Park in Escondido).

To read a great article about Lech meeting Niki and his subsequent experiences, 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.

Hand Drawn Sculpture by artist Ken Kelleher.

It looks like a huge, three-dimensional blue squiggle, doesn’t it?

This twisty sculpture, by artist Ken Kelleher, is called Hand Drawn Sculpture. It’s located at the new Research and Development District (RaDD) complex on downtown San Diego’s waterfront.

Among RaDD’s five buildings, one can glimpse all sorts of public art: both sculptures and murals. I took some photos of the art that wasn’t fenced off during construction earlier this year, but I knew next to nothing about any of it.

Well, plaques have appeared near some artworks that are currently accessible to the public. Interesting information is provided about both art and artist.

I took these photographs this morning.

The abstract Hand Drawn Sculpture, according to its plaque, was created in 2023. It blurs the lines between two and three-dimensional art forms by merging the fluid, gestural lines of drawing with the tangible presence of sculpture…

Pretend the blue lines have no depth and were drawn on flat paper. Seen from different angles, the sculpture assumes different forms.

What do you see?

Very cool!

Look for more photos and descriptions of public art at RaDD in future blog posts!

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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.