Tag: artists

Gerardo Meza street art in Hillcrest and Bankers Hill!

The distinctive street art of Gerardo Meza (@mezarte) has been showing up in both Hillcrest and Bankers Hill!

I’ve noticed several electrical boxes painted in the last year in the two neighborhoods by the prolific artist. His colorful street art can be observed in communities all around San Diego.

Should you walk through San Ysidro just north of the Mexican border, you’ll find many examples of his work. Gerardo Meza is Chairman of the Border Public Arts Committee. Among other accomplishments, he’s also Coordinator of Art Box San Diego and Cofounder of the San Diego Art Society.

Gerardo’s artwork with its Mexican flavor is unmistakable. It can be weird, distorted, humorous, frightening, sexy, hip, mythological, ironic… It’s very original and definitely attracts your attention!

My first four photographs are of two boxes in Hillcrest…

And here come photos of two boxes in Bankers Hill…

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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.

A very colorful, unique mural on Bankers Hill!

I spied this very colorful mural in Bankers Hill on the north side of West Hair Salon on Fifth Avenue. It appears to uniquely combine elements of Día de los Muertos calavera face painting and Pride rainbow imagery!

The artist signature is that of Genaro Garcia (@artegennaro).

I took this photograph over a parked car the other day, but you can see most of the artwork.

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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.

A local artist has Umbridled Ambition!

I was walking today outside Comic-Con 2024 when I noticed an artist hanging out with some of his artwork near the San Diego Convention Center. His name is Phil, he’s a local, and his great digital art is in the anime style.

Umbridled Ambition is the name he uses to showcase and sell his art, as you can see from his Instagram page here.

Phil was sketching out another piece on his tablet as Comic-Con goers streamed past. When I paused by his table to look at his digital art, he graciously allowed me to take these photos!

Check it out!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

A comics Mini Con to be held in San Diego!

A comic art Mini Con will be coming to San Diego on August 24th, 2024. The free event will be held at Southern California Comics at 8280 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., #124, from 11 am to 5 pm.

Featured artists will be Jevin Loop, Kevin Tran, Phillip Quick, Action Figure God and Zander6comix. This morning at San Diego Comic-Con, Zander himself told me about this cool local comic event. We’ve met on a couple of occasions in the past while I’ve blogged about events around San Diego.

Come support great comic talent and have a fun time. Burgers and Fries will be on hand, too!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Rare movie props, original art at Comic-Con Museum!

An iconic prop: the famous phaser used by William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek television show.

A very special exhibit is on display during San Diego Comic-Con week. You’ll find it at the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park. Famous one-of-a-kind movie and television props, original artwork and collectibles can be viewed before they are auctioned off this coming Sunday, July 28, 2024!

Comic-Con Museum Presents: TCM | Julien’s Auctions 2024 Spotlight Series: Harry Potter and Other Heroes will excite fans of the Harry Potter movies, Batman movies, and X-Men movies. In addition, two historic, one-of-a-kind objects in the museum gallery will delight those who love the original Star Trek television series!

Visitors to the museum will see a whole roomful of props and artwork, all of which could belong to you at the end of this week! (The auction of the Star Trek props, including William Shatner’s phaser and communicator, will be held separately later this year.)

To learn more, check out the Comic-Con Museum’s website by clicking here! It explains: Highlights of the auction include an array of iconic costumes, production material, and beyond from various productions of the Harry Potter film franchise; Marvel’s greatest superheroes and their most high-octane pieces will hit the auction block featuring original storyboard illustrations by storyboard artist Gabriel Hardman from the X-Men blockbuster X2; and from DC Comics’ Batman Begins, items wielded by Christian Bale, such as a stunt grapple gun prop and batarang prop. Plus, Other Surprises Crash the Party!

I took a few photos of the exhibit for you to enjoy. Head up to Balboa Park and see everything for yourself before the online auction in the museum’s auditorium on Sunday!

The Comic-Con Museum in San Diego’s beautiful Balboa Park.

An original Hogwarts invitation envelope from the production of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

An original knight’s head prop from the production of the chess game scene in the film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Marker ink on card drawing on Batman by artist Bob Kane, the character’s co-creator. The Superman drawing is signed by co-creator Joe Shuster.

An original grapple gun prop used by Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the Christopher Nolan film Batman Begins.

Original production storyboard from X2: X-Men United, by artist Gabriel Hardman.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

More creativity, outdoor fun before Comic-Con!

What the heck is that green thing? It’s part of another fun, surprising offsite being created outside the San Diego Convention Center before Comic-Con 2024!

What I love about walking around before Comic-Con is the mushrooming creativity. Sure, the offsite activations, building and trolley wraps, and carnival rides are all about marketing movies, television shows, video games and whatnot–but it is creativity that brings delight to the buying public. Art and storytelling are an essential part of it all.

So it’s now Sunday afternoon before Comic-Con 2024. Several days to go before the pop culture convention officially opens. I’ve already posted lots of photos the past few days. But more stuff keeps materializing!

Local artist Shirish Villaseñor has begun painting the windows of the Starbucks at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront. It’s a SpongeBob SquarePants theme celebrating the cartoon’s 25th anniversary! (She has some big community mural projects coming up in San Diego which I hope to cover in the next couple months.)

The smile of a friendly artist!

The FX offsite and building wrap are getting ready. Like most Comic-Con offsites, it opens on Thursday.

Hulu’s Animayhem has returned in 2024. They’ll have a huge offsite behind the convention center.

I’m pretty sure you can’t slide inside this huge green pipe.

Some sort of fun factory.

A big swing ride at the A.V.A. FEST. Woo-hoo!

That cool Star Trek wrap is now 100% complete on the Marriott Marquis.

Crates have arrived for the Dragon Ball offsite. It’s going to be awesome as usual!

A big Dragon Ball wrap is being placed on part of the Marriott Marquis.

The second side of a trolley wrap design that I hadn’t been able to photograph earlier. The Boys.

The big, fun Marvel Contest of Champions Ferris wheel under construction along MLK Promenade.

More spooky Immortal Universe graphics placed on the Hilton Gaslamp.

A wider look.

My goodness! Wrapping the large Hard Rock Hotel all around with SpongeBob graphics takes many days of work.

The Lodge by Paramount+ is starting to look like a lodge.

The transforming power of human creativity.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Classic movie monsters appear outside Comic-Con!

The Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s monster.

A terrifying group of classic movie monsters has appeared outside the San Diego Convention Center for Comic-Con 2024!

Check out today’s photos!

These characters from classic horror films are all considered Universal Monsters–they appeared in Universal Pictures movies from the 1930s to 1950s (if you include Abbott and Costello comedies).

I remember as a kid watching these dark, atmospheric movies for the suspense, chills and occasional thrills. I’m afraid the old Universal classics appear pretty tame by today’s ultra-realistic, slashing, bloody standards.

The Universal Monsters have been painted for fans of Comic-Con, and you can see the artwork on the windows of Sweet Things Frozen Yogurt, located at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront. The artist responsible is Shirish Villaseñor. (By the way, she’s one of the local artists renovating many of the historic murals in world-famous Chicano Park!)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The Invisible Man and the Werewolf.

Dracula.

The Creature From the Black Lagoon.

UPDATE!

Shirish has been adding color to her images as we approach the start of Comic-Con…

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Inside the Chuck Jones pop-up during Comic-Con!

A Comic-Con offsite in downtown San Diego has opened early! The Chuck Jones Pop-Up Gallery is already welcoming pop culture fans a week and a half before Comic-Con 2024 begins!

The Chuck Jones Gallery’s pop-up is always a big attraction during San Diego Comic-Con. You might recall that it has usually been found in the Gaslamp Quarter. But not in 2024!

This year’s location is inside Seaport Village, a short walk up the bayside boardwalk behind the San Diego Convention Center, five minutes past the Marriott Marquis, a few steps from the Seaport Village lighthouse.

I was told that before Comic-Con begins, they will be open seven days a week during ordinary business hours.

During my visit today, I saw lots of Looney Tunes and related artwork, produced by well-known artists including the legendary Chuck Jones. The walls are covered with cool collectibles, from affordable prints to original animation cells. If you love Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Roadrunner, Wile E. Coyote, Taz, Yosemite Sam, Marvin the Martian and the rest of the wacky crew, this is the place for you!

There’s also great DC and Marvel artwork by notable artists, including fan favorite Alex Ross.

In addition, during Comic-Con 2024, fans will have a chance to meet artists at the Chuck Jones Pop-Up Gallery. Here’s the lineup from their website:

Thursday, July 25

Meet & Greet with Chuck Jones artist, Ben Olson live from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Friday, July 26

Meet & Greet Simpsons artist, Stephen Reis from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

​​​​​Saturday, July 27

Meet & Greet with artist, Fabio Napoleoni from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Sunday, July 28

Meet & Greet with artist, Dan Bowden from 6:00 – 9:00 PM

Sounds pretty cool? It definitely is! Take a look at a few examples of the artwork on view and for sale in the Chuck Jones Pop-Up Gallery…

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Blanket Sounds in the San Diego sunshine!

Music lovers gathered at Waterfront Park on San Diego’s Embarcadero this afternoon for a special event. They had come to listen to the second concert of San Diego’s newest arts and music series, Blanket Sounds!

As concert time neared, blankets, beach chairs and umbrellas multiplied by the stage, and the growing audience anticipated performances by DJ Mr. Hek and San Diego’s World Punk Band QUEL BORDEL!

Everyone was welcome at this multicultural and multigenerational community gathering. Kids ran and played on the grass. Families enjoyed picnics.

I lingered for a bit, enjoyed the mellow Sunday afternoon atmosphere, and took these photos. There are two more free Blanket Sounds concerts to go this summer. Find out more here!

The County Administration Building rises under a blue San Diego sky.

Members of QUEL BORDEL! warm up before the concert begins.

Tall ship Star of India on San Diego Bay makes a scenic background.

Rock-like sculpture is an art installation by artist Trevor Amery.

The other side of Trevor Amery’s fascinating sculpture.

Jake Skolnick of local San Diego band QUEL BORDEL! gives a thumbs up!

Kids could color at an activity table.

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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.

Cool murals near El Zarape in Normal Heights.

Yesterday I walked in Normal Heights. As I passed the intersection of 32nd Street and Adams Avenue, I discovered these two cool murals on either side of El Zarape Mexican Cantina.

The first one is very colorful. It contains hearts, flowers, and Day of the Dead imagery, and exclaims Viva San Diego. It was painted by Michelle Ruby, aka MrBBaby. Check out the above photograph.

The second mural appeared in the little parking nook east of El Zarape, where a pair of spray painted murals on two walls change every few years. I believe the artists are Shark and Hasler. (The unique artwork on the opposite wall is also by them.)

Unfortunately, when I happened to walk by, this new mural was semi-concealed by a large pickup truck. I took the following 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.