Tag: artists

Tree murals appear on Bay to Park Paseo!

Colorful murals depicting a variety of beautiful trees in Balboa Park have been installed at the north end of San Diego’s art-filled Bay to Park Paseo!

The colorful vinyl murals can be viewed on a Park Boulevard fence, just south of the bridge that spans Interstate 5. The murals welcome motorists to an amazing park that is overflowing with natural beauty.

An original description of the 1.7 mile Bay to Park Paseo, which runs from San Diego Bay up to Balboa Park, can be found here. A couple of the temporary art projects still aren’t completed, but those who walk along the Paseo will enjoy about a dozen finished installations.

This particular installation is presented by the Balboa Park Committee of 100 and Urban Interventions. The trees were photographed in Balboa Park by artist Perry Vasquez.

The Bay to Park Paseo is a unique walking experience created in conjunction with San Diego/Tijuana’s selection as World Design Capital. The idea is to eventually create a permanent Paseo–an inviting walkway from downtown San Diego to Balboa Park–filled with great public art. I definitely support this idea!

If you’d like to see photographs of the very first guided walk up the Bay to Park Paseo earlier this year, click here!

Do you like to walk? Free guided tours of the Bay to Park Paseo can be enjoyed on the first and third Saturday of each month through November 2024. The tours meet in the front of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront and end in Balboa Park at Presidents Way, not far from these tree murals.

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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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Betty Boop arrives in San Diego!

Betty Boop has arrived in San Diego! The iconic cartoon character is now making her home at the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park!

Last week the one-of-a-kind exhibition Becoming Betty Boop opened at the Comic-Con Museum. Thanks to a collaboration with Fleischer Studios, museum visitors can explore a large gallery filled with historic artwork and cultural artifacts found nowhere else.

Visitors can learn about the evolution of strongly independent and flirty, jazzy flapper Betty Boop, from her debut in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes in 1930 to modern characterizations. After nearly a century it seems her popularity has only grown. BOOP! The Musical will debut on Broadway in 2025!

Those who are curious about the history of cartoons will see how animators created the Betty Boop short films using a rotoscope, which had been invented by the Fleischer brothers using an old film projector, car parts and a wooden plank! They’ll learn that in the early 1930s, the creation of a six or seven minute cartoon involved about 90 artists and took about two months!

Visitors will also learn how Betty Boop was voiced by half a dozen women over the years, and that Lillian Friedman, who worked at Fleischer Studios, was the very first American female commercial animator.

Exhibition visitors can watch several fun cartoons in the museum auditorium, and those with a creative urge can learn how to draw Betty Boop!

Boop–oop–a–doop!

If you plan to attend Comic-Con this year, make time to check out Becoming Betty Boop, one of many great exhibitions now showing at the Comic-Con Museum!

Mae Questel (voice actress) and Max Fleischer (animator), with characters Betty Boop and Bimbo!

Mae Questel has the voice most associated with Betty Boop. She also provided voices for cartoon characters Olive Oyl, Casper the Friendly Ghost–and even Popeye! She voiced Betty Boop in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Betty Boop for President, 1932.

Lillian Friedman made history as the very first female professional animator.

A more modern take on Betty Boop. These two dresses were designed by global fashion designer Zac Posen. Pantone has officially designated Betty Boop Red.

Sparkly costume worn by actress Jasmine Amy Rogers, playing Betty Boop in the musical BOOP! at Chicago’s CIBC Theatre.

An Evening with Betty, by Myron Waldman.

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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 strangely a-peeling face in Little Italy!

Yes, a play on words!

This mural in Little Italy, whose paint is gradually peeling away, is strangely appealing to my eye. The beautifully conceived face has obtained more texture–and beneath the blue and violet painted color there’s a layer that appears in hue like natural skin.

The mural was painted by Kelcey Fisher (@kfishla) about a year and a half ago. You can see it on a parking lot wall at LUCE on Kettner, just south of the now closed Little Italy’s Loading Dock bar and event venue.

As paint continues to flake away, the remaining beauty will sadly vanish.

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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.

Beautiful new mural at Lemon Grove Library!

This very beautiful new mural was painted in April near the main entrance to the Lemon Grove Library. It’s titled Today for Tomorrow.

Positive messages conveyed by the mural include a love for family, the natural environment and reading. The extraordinary mural is the product of a partnership between the ArtReach Mural Program and the Lemon Grove Public Library. The lead mural artist was Mexican-American artist and designer Josué Baltézar.

A handout available inside the library explains: The ArtReach Mural Program Team led over 50 community members in design ideation and painting through out design-input workshops and Community Paint Day…This piece highlights the library as an uplifting and beautiful community space, welcoming and accepting of all people. Books are featured predominantly to mark the importance of learning, reading, curiosity, and imagination. The focal point of the lemon tree represents the community of Lemon Grove while also signifying growth and new beginnings. The figures placed in the books show that we all have our own stories to tell and create while also touching on family resilience, hope, kindness, caregiving and neighborhood unity…

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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.

Meaningful art at Encinitas Fire Station.

I found two instances of meaningful art as I walked past Encinitas Fire Department Station One today.

The first work of art I noticed was a mosaic in the sidewalk beside the station building. It memorializes New York fire fighters who lost their lives during the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The number 343 represents the number of New York Fire Department members that perished in the terrorist attacks.

I assume the mosaic was dedicated five years later, on 9-11-2006. If you know more about this mosaic, please leave a comment.

The second work of art is on the fire station itself, near its entrance. The beautifully carved wood panel depicts curling ocean surf and a rare Torrey Pine tree.

The panel reminds us that wonders surround us, and how every wonder is worth protecting.

I spied a small plaque at the edge of wood panel, dated 2022. It indicates the creators are Tijuana artist Jose Antonio Alcantar and Encinitas Fire Engineer Jake Fodor.

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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.

Fantasy world inside Doug Snider’s studio!

Those who enjoy a visit to Balboa Park in San Diego really should wander over to Spanish Village Art Center. Every artist studio is filled with magic. It’s hard to choose, but perhaps my personal favorite studio is number 15, the home of Doug Snider.

Doug Snider is an accomplished ceramics artist whose public art can be seen around the world and could be enjoyed in your own home. His colorful creations are utterly fantastic–there are weird amphibious and reptilian creatures, and exotic masks and eyeballs and tentacles and beaks that fill the walls and shelves of his studio in every direction. A sunny outdoor working area in the rear of the studio is home to even more creativity, including a big, happy, chameleon-like bench that would be perfect in your backyard!

Have you’ve seen his public art benches in Coronado’s Tidelands Park and National City’s Pepper Park? If not, you can view photographs of those four wacky, fun benches here and here!

When I visited Studio 15 the other day, another studio artist was hard at work. I asked if I could take photos. She said yes!

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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.

Public art inside the Del Mar Plaza.

Great works of art greet shoppers and diners inside Del Mar Plaza. Wander about and you’re bound to stumble upon surprising artwork, in the form of a sculpture, mosaic or mural!

These pieces are part of the Public Art Collection at Del Mar Plaza. I discovered them in no particular order…

I found this mural in a quiet hidden area. I saw no information concerning it.

Level Head by artist Tony Cragg, 2006, Bronze. Tony Cragg is a British sculptor. His works are held in many leading museums.

A beautiful swirling mosaic extends on the ground from Level Head through a nearby passageway.

Beautiful mosaic looks like water.

LEVER II by artist Anthony Gormley, 2012, Cast Iron. Anthony Gormley is a British sculptor. This is an example of his “digital-cubism” where the human form is rendered in many different postures.

It does appear like a lever!

OPUS #1 by artist Maidy Morhous, 2019, Bronze. I’ve photographed other pieces by local artist Maidy Morhous around Del Mar.

OPUS #1 from a different angle.

A beautiful tree mural grows in Del Mar Plaza. By artist Kelsey Montague.

Jackass and Elephant by artist Barry Flanagan, 1995, Bronze. The renowned Welsh sculpture enjoyed creating humorous, anthropomorphic figures.

Jackass rides an elephant through Del Mar Plaza!

In every direction, Del Mar Plaza is full of fun, unexpected 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.

Gaslamp mural remains from 2019 Comic-Con!

Did you know a cool mural painted five years ago in downtown San Diego for Comic-Con can still be viewed today? Yes!

Back in 2019, I took these photographs of celebrated comic artist Rob Prior painting the above mural halfway up the grand staircase at the Theatre Box movie theater. Today the building at 717 Fifth Avenue in the Gaslamp Quarter is home to Mr. Tempo Sports Bar.

Because of several popular movies, the characters depicted in this pop culture mural were in the limelight five years ago. Climb the stairs today and you can still find Darth Vader and a stormtrooper from Star Wars, Thanos, Black Panther and Deadpool from Marvel Comics, and Wonder Woman from DC Comics.

Comic-Con 2024 will be here before we know it! As I walk around and discover related developments, Cool San Diego Sights will gradually be entering Comic-Con mode! I haven’t seen any Comic-Con trolleys yet, but they should be appearing soon!

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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.

Denise Cerro’s art: My Colors of Home.

I met a super cool artist today in Balboa Park!

Denise Cerro was working on a mixed media piece in Gallery 21, at the Spanish Village Art Center. With a great big smile she was greeting visitors to her solo exhibition My Colors of Home.

I looked at her artwork and immediately loved it. Denise tends to use the same color palette in her works–earthy colors that appeared to me like water, leafy green and the soil beneath our feet. She embraces the same palette in her house, dress and life. They are her colors of home.

To create art she utilizes all sorts of materials–from bits of wallpaper to newspaper and magazine clippings to other interesting found objects. She can find all sorts of odd little treasures at estate sales. The junkiest stuff is often best!

Denise loves to create art filled with flowers. She confided to me that after she produces an abstract piece, she feels compelled to return to flowers.

I learned Denise has her studio at Liberty Station in one of the old barracks. If you like what you see in my blog, you might want to pay a visit. Her website is here.

The exhibition My Colors of Home in Gallery 21 is about to conclude–it runs through tomorrow, June 3. I caught it just in time!

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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 legacy of beauty by James Hubbell.

Beloved artist James Hubbell has passed away. When I heard the very sad news today, I immediately thought of all the beautiful art he has left as a legacy around San Diego.

If you live in or near San Diego, there’s a good chance you’ve seen his public artwork. His sculptures and mosaics can be found from El Cajon to La Mesa to Del Mar to Oceanside to Mission Valley to Coronado to Shelter Island. His Hubbell Studios/Ilan-Lael Foundation compound in Santa Ysabel (which I’ve not visited, but have seen in photos) is an inspired, absolutely unique architectural marvel.

James Hubbell designed and created so many beautifully organic forms–often with the help of his wife, son, artists in residence or volunteers–that I’ll often encounter his work during a walk. To me, each work possesses a spiritual quality.

This world we live in has been greatly enriched because of James Hubbell’s genius and vision.

Here are some photos I’ve taken over the years…

Pearl of the Pacific on Shelter Island.

Pearl of the Pacific.

Pacific Spirit on Shelter Island.

Pacific Portal on Shelter Island.

Pegasus at Olaf Wieghorst Museum in El Cajon.

San Gabriel Arcángel sculpture at Mission San Diego de Alcalá.

Opus in front of Oceanside Museum of Art.

Marker on walkway at SDSU Mission Valley. Coffeeberry (Frangula californica).

Sea Passage in Coronado.

Mosaic on restroom at Briercrest Park in La Mesa.

Fountain at Dr. William C. Herrick Community Health Care Library in La Mesa.

A River of Time at the Del Mar Library.

Art displayed at exhibition James Hubbell: Architecture of Jubilation, now on view at the Central Library Art Gallery.

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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.