A huge, absolutely amazing mural in downtown San Diego’s East Village has been painted right next to the Quartyard. The mural is in support of wildlife conservation efforts, and is titled Empowering Hope. The artists are Carly Ealey and Christopher Konecki.
According to the promoted Key Conservation website, one can download their Key App to hook up with and support various global conservation organizations, who are working to save animals from extinction. It appears the project is presently a work in progress and more funding is needed.
If you’d like to check it all out, you can visit the Key Conservation website here.
UPDATE!
I took a photo when the amazing mural was finished…
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Have you seen the cool Trevor Hoffman mural painted on the rear wall of Hansen Surfboards in Encinitas?
I finally did!
Ground Floor Murals painted this San Diego Padres mural last November.
So far, I’ve photographed their Tony Gwynn, Fernando Tatis, Jr., Manny Machado and Yu Darvish murals. Click the links to see the photos and learn more about these talented artists. Their awesome Padres baseball player murals are located all around San Diego!
For many years, Trevor Hoffman held the all-time pitching saves record in Major League Baseball. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.
Go Pads!
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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!
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For some reason, I’ve always paused when passing Studio 13 in Balboa Park’s Spanish Village Art Center.
Perhaps it’s the word Ebullience above the front door. More likely it was the organic, seemingly infinite art that blossomed all around the place.
Over the years, I had spoken a few times to ceramic artist Sylvia Mejia, who worked in Studio 13. The first time she showed me the labyrinth she’d painted on the patio in front. The next time she showed me inside. What I found was indescribably powerful. If you’d like to see those photographs, click here.
Well, lately I’d noticed the door is shut, nobody home. And today I saw Studio 13 had been vacated. She’s moved on, I was told.
But I got one more smile. Because in the parking lot to the side of her old studio, next the Balboa Park Miniature Railroad’s fence, like an ancient living guard, one of her wonderful, whimsical sculptures still stands.
UPDATE!
Days later, I noticed the sculpture had been moved to another spot across the parking lot. It fits right in with that tree and surrounding greenery!
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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!
Some very colorful abstract art was spray painted last month on a long wall beside the Massachusetts Avenue trolley station parking lot. The artist is Maxx Moses, whose distinctive work can be found all over San Diego.
The first time I glimpsed this mural I was riding the Orange Line. With sudden surprise and excitement, I jumped off.
I love the murals of Maxx Moses, they are so jammed with creativity and imagination. They often show technology fused with ancient culture, producing unique images of humanity that make you simply stand and stare with wonder. His artwork is simultaneously weird and familiar. All of it is filled with heart.
(Perhaps you recall seeing photos of another phenomenal mural he helped to create at the 62nd Street/Encanto trolley station, which just is a short ride up the Orange Line. If you haven’t, they are here!)
To view more cool art by Maxx Moses, check out his Instagram page here!
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
The Triton Legend is made visible at UC San Diego in the form of a fountain sculpture. Triton with his trident and conch is located at the bottom of stairs on the south side of Price Center.
I passed the Triton Fountain during a recent walk and took these photographs.
The fine bronze sculpture of UCSD’s mascot was installed in 2008. It was created by artist Manuelita Brown, an alumna of the university.
I’ve photographed two other great sculptures by Manuelita Brown. One, titled Encinitas Child, you can see here. The second small sculpture titled I’ll Fly Away is here.
Triton in Greek mythology is a merman and demigod, the son of Poseidon.
A plaque near the fountain, which was off when I walked past, reads:
The Triton Legend
In Greek mythology, Triton is known as the trumpeter of the deep and son of Poseidon, god of the sea. He is represented as a merman having the upper body of a human and tail of a fish. Like Poseidon, he carries a three prong spear called a trident. However, Triton’s special attribute is the conch shell, which he blows like a trumpet to calm or raise the seas. When blown loudly, its sound is so fearsome, Triton’s rivals imagine it to be the roar of a mighty beast and take flight.
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Two amazing murals by well known regional artists can be found in a new public plaza located in San Diego’s East Village neighborhood.
The murals, designed by artists Rafael Lopez of San Diego and Joel Sotelo of Tijuana, decorate opposing walls in the amphitheater-like space between the UCSD Downtown Center building and the 34-story The Merian apartment tower. Walk north up the sidewalk from the corner of Market Street and Park Boulevard and you’ll find it.
This welcoming new plaza is so remarkable that it earned a San Diego Architectural Foundation Orchid Award!
For many months I’ve been waiting for a construction site fence to come down, and it finally did, allowing entrance to the new plaza.
If you’d like to read more about this unique public plaza’s inspiration, design and construction, here’s a great article.
My first photos are of the Rafael Lopez mural, titled Iluminación, which was painted by Gran Prestoz. It was completed a couple of summers ago, but not accessible to the public.
Lopez is widely known for his award-winning illustrations in numerous acclaimed children’s books. He has even designed several United States postage stamps!
The next photos are of the mural on the plaza’s east side, by artist Joel Sotelo. The mural’s title is Pulsar Ultra-Marino. According to a plaque I found, “Sotelo’s colorful mural is based on the idea of wonder, from the micro to the macro, from the beauty of nature to the revelations of science.”
(Doing a little research, I was surprised to find out that Joel Sotelo helped conceive of the Tweet Street linear city park with its artistic birdhouses. Tweet Street on Cortez Hill is only a few steps from where I live!)
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Every night, fire appears in front of the Solana Beach Fire Department. The mysterious wall of glowing embers near the fire station might surprise motorists driving down Lomas Santa Fe Drive.
I walked past Firewall during the day and took these photos.
The simulated wall of embers, that lights up after dark, is a very unique piece of public art that debuted in 2019. It’s by artist Betsy Schulz.
In addition to the red, yellow and orange glass embers, there are beautiful fused-glass mosaic panels facing the sidewalk and street.
Amazing mosaics created by Betsy Schulz appear all over San Diego County. During my walks I’ve photographed many.
This public art sculpture and its small surrounding garden were created with the help of Van Dyke Landscape Architects, and the Solana Beach Civic and Historical Society and Garden Club.
I added contrast to some of these photos to bring out color in the mosaics.
Take a look!
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Logan Avenue in Barrio Logan is a magnet for San Diego artists, and for lovers of street art. Walk down the sidewalk and there’s a good chance you’ll discover new artwork you hadn’t seen before.
The last time I walked along Logan Avenue, during the afternoon of the Las Posadas event, I came across an amazing mural a bit northwest of Sampson Street. It depicts four legendary Barrio Logan artists: Chunky Sanchez, Victor Ochoa, Carmen Kahlo and Yolanda Lopez.
The artwork was painted in late October and early November 2021 by Ground Floor Murals, Chloe and eyegato.
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Does anybody know the history of this old mural in Escondido? It decorates the east side of the Conrad Prebys Escondido Branch of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego.
During a walk through Escondido last weekend, I photographed this colorful mural from the distant sidewalk. It appears to be a mosaic made of small tiles. Youth are depicted reading, playing basketball, and engaged in other activity. The artwork is dated 1976. Tiles spell out two clear signatures: A. Dluhos and T. Pardue.
After some internet searching, I believe the first artist is Andre Dluhos, and the second is Terry Pardue. I’m pretty sure about the second name, because I read this article.
Andre Dluhos was born in 1940 in eastern Czechoslovakia and moved to the United States in 1969.
If anyone out there knows anything about this nearly half century old mural, please leave a comment.
It would be fascinating to learn more about it, and the artists, too!
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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!
If you’d like to fill your eyes with extraordinary public artwork, head to the Solana Beach Library. That’s where you’ll find the Solana Beach Library Mosaic Mural.
This awesome, absolutely gorgeous mosaic consists of ten panels. According to a descriptive plaque, each panel represents a category of information found in the Dewey Decimal System, which is used to sort books on library shelves.
The Library Mosaic Mural was designed and created by Solana Beach artist Christie Beniston in 2010, based on illustrations by Rafael Lopez.
The ten main Dewey Decimal classes, in numerical order, are: computer science, information and general works; philosophy and psychology; religion; social sciences; language; pure science; technology; arts and recreation; literature; and history and geography.
As a young man I worked as a page at another North County library, pushing a small cart through peaceful rooms filing away returned books. Libraries will always be special to me.
This artwork is so vivid and alive I had to gaze at it a long while. I wanted to venture inside the library, but it was closed at the moment.
Then my restless feet urged me forward. I continued my walk through a world filled with innumerable wonders. A world like an infinite pile of books waiting to be shelved.
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
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