There’s a tiny parking nook on Adams Avenue in Normal Heights where new murals often appear. The nook lies between Adams Avenue Tattoo and Bosforo, a Turkish restaurant. (Bosforo’s building used to be home of El Zarape Mexican Cantina).
Over many years I’ve photographed these ever-changing murals. Most or all of the art has been painted, I believe, by graffiti artists Hasler (@hasler_88) and Sharky (@bigchill8825).
Last weekend, as I enjoyed the Adams Avenue Street Fair, I noticed two new murals in this nook. It had been about a year since I last peered into it.
I’m fairly sure the same artists created both of these. Check it out!
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San Diego artist James Watts (@jewattso), whose fantastic studio is located downtown, is a creative dynamo. Even as he continues to work on his 100 Paintings project, he has begun to produce 100 Scrolls!
His scrolls are painted on fabric and utilize wood sticks he’s found, cut to size and sanded smooth. Unroll the scrolls and you’ll likely find something mysterious, symbolic, humorous or wise. (Possibly all four!) The art of James Watts often concerns aspects of mythology, religion or literature.
The scroll in my first photograph refers to two other works he has created, the Portal to Heaven and the Gates of Hell. Apple and cloud are accompanied by the words: It was not always like this. Seems everything changed with one bite of the forbidden fruit.
The next scroll in unrolled:
If only they knew.
The next scroll, filled with writing, was used by the artist for practice:
…we laughed and cried Oh what a night Who is to know the reason, the whys, the whats, the meaning of it all. To Love is to Love well…
As you can see, some images are created using sumi-e, which is Japanese ink painting.
We are all Broken. We must mend Ourselves.
What is understood Does not need to Be Explained.
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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.
An amazing free event that attracted creative talent from around our region was held in Chula Vista today. FilAm CreatorCon 2025 brought together lots of Filipino-American artists and their fans!
I was surprised by the huge popularity of this annual convention. It was my first time.
The interior of the Chula Vista Library was filled with artist tables overflowing with fantastic artwork: posters, prints, comic books, graphic novels, stickers, jewelry–you name it!
Several community rooms hosted panels or screenings; a fundraising art auction was open to all; and outside, on the library patio, there was plenty of food and even musical entertainment. Neighborhood families came out to the fun event, kids were active and exploring, and smiling artists were busy showcasing and selling their artwork.
What a great experience!
I loved the positive creative energy! I even recognized some of the artists or their great work!
I started out on the patio…
I saw the following information poster.
Bridge the Gap is a nonprofit organization based in San Diego dedicated to celebrating and preserving Filipino-American representation and heritage.
In the spring they have a Creative Summit which supports the next generation of Filipino creatives.
Now I’m inside the main Chula Vista Library.
Look! It’s super nice artist Mary Jhun!
You’ve seen many examples of her distinctive art on Cool San Diego Sights. Click here and here and here and here.
Some of her work:
Here’s another cool artist and illustrator: Robert Rodriguez (@robz_drawings).
Some of his great stuff…
Watch out! Godzilla is energizing his dorsal spines!
This is Raina Ramos (@thrillustrated). She likes to create dog portraits and other cool stuff, like Star Wars art!
Ron Rubio (@rubiobroscartoonstudio), Director, Animator, and producer of smiles!
He has worked on King of the Hill and The Cleveland Show! His brother who has worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and for Pixar and others was present, too.
Little Yellow Jeepney author Jocelyn Francisco, Ph.D. was at the con, too! Literacy is more important than ever.
The FilAm CreatorCon panel From Roots to Resonance: Crafting Filipino Stories with Universal Appeal was fully attended.
Look at all the people at FilAm CreatorCon in Chula Vista!
Big respect!
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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.
People heading down National Avenue in Barrio Logan might be stunned to see this amazing work of art in the parking lot of Barrett Engineered Pumps. It’s an old tree stump carved into the likeness of mythical Quetzalcoatl!
The sculpted wooden Quetzalcoatl (an important deity in Aztec culture whose name translates to Feathered Serpent) was created by Cesar Castañeda. You can watch a YouTube video that follows the artist’s five month project back in 2012. The documentary is titled The Rise of Quetzalcoatl. Find it by clicking here!
Quetzalcoatl was carved by hand from an enormous stump that was salvaged from a fallen tree. The tree had fallen in Balboa Park beside State Route 163.
(I once observed a tall eucalyptus tumbling onto the 163 during a violent wind storm years ago. It seemed to descend in slow motion, narrowly missing an oncoming car. I wonder if this was the same tree?)
I learned from a friendly worker at Barrett Engineered Pumps, where Quetzalcoatl now resides on a trailer, that this very cool sculpture is for sale! I didn’t ask the price, but if you’re interested you should probably swing by and check it out!
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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 brand new performance stage is being built in Balboa Park!
The stage, when finished, will occupy a corner of the San Diego Sculptors Guild outdoor courtyard, in Spanish Village Art Center!
Funny how history can repeat. Many years ago an outdoor stage occupied the same courtyard.
During a historical tour of the neighboring artist studios, I learned that today’s Studio 36 Sculptors Guild was an outdoor theatre in the early years of Spanish Village. The front was a lobby and ticket booth. Writers, actors and set designers would act out plays on the inner patio.
Today I was told performances of every type will be welcomed at this newly constructed stage. One member of the San Diego Sculptors Guild, Justin Hammond, is part of a band that will play here! The band’s name is Auva Xuln (@auvaxuln).
What a super cool venue!
Imagine wildly creative sculptures all around, like a fantastic, silent audience!
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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.
For many years, a fantastic elephant mural has decorated the side of the Crest Cafe in Hillcrest. Last year, another mural was painted at the restaurant. The beautiful artwork can be seen at the front entrance.
San Diego based artist Austin Gosswiller painted the colorful flowers, birds and butterfly last year.
I took photos the other day…
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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.
How often do you see artwork made by visitors to a fine art museum–displayed prominently at that museum?
Should you visit the Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park, that’s what you’ll find!
Composed of squares decorated by visitors to the museum, Make the Sun Shine is displayed in the Timken’s elegant Central Gallery.
Marisol Rendón, the museum’s resident artist this summer, furnished the golden circles, and the public, using markers, stamps and pens, created the surrounding rays. People took their inspiration from the many masterpieces that fill the museum galleries.
I was told Make the Sun Shine will be on view for a few more weeks.
The amazing Timken Museum of Art is always free to the public. It might be small, but it’s loaded with Old Master masterpieces. In fact, it’s the only museum in San Diego with a Rembrandt in its permanent collection.
Look how beautiful these shining suns are!
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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.
Visitors inside the world-famous San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park should look up. Not only will they see amazing aircraft exhibits suspended from the ceiling, but they might notice a very long mural painted along the museum’s circular inner wall.
The March of Transportation mural was created in 1936 for the California Pacific International Exposition. At over 9,300 square feet, it’s the largest mural of its kind found in North and South America.
Because so many cool aviation displays are jammed into the museum, I found it difficult to photograph large segments of the mural. But I’ve captured several glimpses, so you can get the idea of how the art appears.
A couple years ago I photographed the very end of the mural, which depicts futuristic forms of transportation (as conceived almost a hundred years ago). You can see those photos here.
Several murals decorated the Ford Building during the California Pacific Exposition in 1935. After the Exposition, the Ford Motor Company deeded the building to the City of San Diego for use as the “Great Hall of Transportation.” In preparation for the 1936 Exposition, this large mural was commissioned to express the theme–“The March of Transportation.”
The 1936 “Great Hall of Transportation” exhibits included vehicles of all ages, from reed boats, to the locomotive, to the concepts of air and space travel. The mural, 18 feet high, continues along the inner circular wall for 468 feet…
Master Artist Juan Larrinaga served as the Art Director for the 1935 and 1936 Expositions. He was assisted by New York illustrator, Charles B. Falls, and artists P.T. Blackburn, Mahlan Blane and Nicolas Reveles. Larrinaga labored long hours to produced the drawings from the artist assistants to fill in. More than 40 persons eventually contributed their talent and energy to the completion of the mural.
After years of deterioration, the building began a restoration in 1977. In 1979 the mural, too, was restored.
While this artwork depicts world history, it is also an important part of San Diego’s uniquely rich history.
Do these works of art represent the “real” world? Are they entirely fantastic?
Surreal pieces now on display in the San Diego Central Library’s art gallery might seem strangely familiar–but why and how?
The free exhibition is titled Uncharted Elsewhere. Stimulating pieces created by nine regional artists transport the viewer into uncharted territory located somewhere in the human mind.
I visited the Central Library’s 9th floor Judith Harris Art Gallery this afternoon and was wowed by the creativity of artists who have a special gift. Through sculpture, textile, painting and works on paper, they make curious people stand a very long while and wonder.
Are those eggs? Are those faces? Are those webs? Is that plant life? Are those landforms? What are these weird, oddly familiar things?
How did these fantastic visions come into existence? And what in our complex world is possible or real?
How, I wondered, might these visions relate to my own experiences in life?
The artists themselves, in their descriptions, explain how, through abstraction, they aim to produce enigmatic, mysteriously organic environments. Their works induce introspection, and perhaps enlightenment.
If you like weird, imaginative works of art, you’ll love Uncharted Elsewhere. For me, it’s one of the most engaging exhibitions I’ve experienced in this gallery.
You can check the artwork out for yourself through January 4, 2026. Learn more about the exhibition, the artists and the gallery hours by clicking here!
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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.
San Diego artist Christopher Konecki was working on painting the new Merrill Madness mural in downtown this morning. The artwork will depict Padres baseball star Jackson Merrill, and will greet fans coming west down Market Street at Eighth Avenue.
The grassroots, fan-funded mural is a collaboration that includes the Merrill Madness Foundation and artist team Christopher Konecki (@konecki_art) and Carly Ealey (@carlyealey). Amazing murals by these artists appear throughout the city. You might recall how they painted two cool Padres murals in North Park. See those photos here and here.
Chris told me this is the fourth day of working on the Merrill Madness mural. It’s huge: four stories high! The mural should be done in a couple of weeks or so.
I’ll provide an update when the artwork is completed.
Looks like it’s gonna be awesome!
UPDATE!
Three days later, much progress has been made!
ANOTHER UPDATE!
And in another three days…
AND FOUR DAYS AFTER THAT…
ONE MORE UPDATE!
It was finally completed!
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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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 