Tag: artwork

High school art showcased at Comic-Con Museum!

High school students from around San Diego created art that is now showcased in a special exhibition at the Comic-Con Museum. Visual Storytellers: Honors Show 2026 features diverse work nominated by teachers as examples of artistic excellence and meaningful storytelling.

Participating high schools in the San Diego Unified School District are: Canyons Hills, Crawford, La Jolla, Lincoln, LMEC, Mira Mesa, Morse, Patrick Henry, Point Loma, Scripps Ranch and SDSCPA.

Congratulations to everyone whose great artwork was selected!

The exhibition can be viewed along the walls of what used to be a cafeteria back when the Federal Building housed the Hall of Champions. There’s two dimensional and three dimensional art to experience.

If you need a snack or drink while walking through Balboa Park, you can enter this area next to the museum entrance and make use of the vending machines. Check out some cool Star Wars posters on the opposite wall, too!

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Balboa Park art exhibit celebrates Logan Heights.

This weekend you have one last chance to experience a very special exhibition of art in Balboa Park. Members of the San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild are exhibiting work that celebrates the history and culture of Logan Heights and other neighborhoods along Imperial Avenue east of downtown San Diego.

One Day in the Life on Imperial is the title of the exhibition, now on display in Gallery 21 of Balboa Park’s Village Arts Center (still known widely as Spanish Village).

Last month, at the TULAROSA gallery, I visited the first version of this exhibition. It has greatly expanded and moved since then, and many more diverse artworks are now collected together for visitors to enjoy!

The art you’ll encounter shows what life is like along historic Imperial Avenue. Families and shopkeepers, happiness and struggles–every aspect of a community is the subject matter of local artists who walked the street, absorbing all they experienced. Many of the resulting pieces are energetic and colorful.

One Day in the Live on Imperial continues through Monday, April 20th, 2026. If you’re heading to Balboa Park this weekend, you ought to swing by!

A few examples…

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Award-winning quilt in Balboa Park Visitors Center!

Next time you enter the Balboa Park Visitors Center, move to the left side of the front counter and look up. You’ll see an amazing quilt on the wall!

The quilt, titled THE BOTANICAL GARDENS OF BALBOA PARK, depicts the Botanical Building and Lily Pond. It’s so detailed and exquisite that it won a prestigious national award. It took First Place in the Group Quilts category at the American Quilter’s Society 32nd National QuiltWeek competition in 2016! Here’s the AQS website with all the winners.

Who created this fantastic work of art? The eight members of San Diego quilting group Bobbin Buddies! The quilt was made to celebrate Balboa Park’s centennial.

The award-winning quilt would go on to be included in the Brigham City Museum’s 46th International Quilt Invitational Exhibit in 2018.

This webpage describes how the beautiful quilt was created, and how it was purchased by the Balboa Park Conservancy and has been on display in its Visitors Center. (Today the Visitors Center is operated by Forever Balboa Park.)

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Shelbi Bennett to exhibit at Brokers Gallery.

Perhaps, like me, you’ve wondered about the art gallery located next to San Diego’s downtown Fifth Avenue trolley station. Sometimes I’ll peer curiously at the windows when I walk past.

Today the door was wide open!

Inside, what did I find? Singer/songwriter/artist Shelbi Bennett and some of her beautiful artwork, which is being installed in the gallery for an exhibition that opens on April 1, 2026!

Brokers Building Art Gallery is the name of the place. According to its website, the gallery traces its roots to a grassroots artist collective that has existed in San Diego for over 40 years. Originally housed in the historic Brokers Building at Fourth Avenue and Market Street in the Gaslamp Quarter, the gallery functioned as a rare, artist-run cultural space embedded directly within the city’s commercial core.

I learned the Brokers Gallery as it exists today hosts many events, including the monthly Open Mic Night, culture nights, live music, and rotating art exhibitions. Check out their event page by clicking here.

It was a pleasure to briefly meet Shelbi Bennett, who I recognized from her past performance on KUSI television. Fine works of art she has created were going up on the gallery wall!

If you’d like to visit her Instagram page, here it is!

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Art contest, exhibit for San Diego seniors!

Are you a senior in San Diego who loves creating art? Do you know a senior who fits that description? Heads up!

Seniors age 60 or better are invited to enter the AgeWell Services Art Contest & Exhibit!

AgeWell is a program of the City of San Diego. Their services can be enjoyed at several community centers, including the Balboa Park Senior Lounge.

The Senior Lounge is where I saw this art contest notice today. (Thank you Mark for pointing it out on the bulletin board!)

Entries will be accepted May 1 to May 11, 2026 at the locations indicated on the notice. You can enlarge my photograph to read it. A public Art Exhibit including the contest entries will be on display at Park de la Cruz from May 18 to June 22.

For more info you can call AgeWell Services at 619-525-8247. Or email cool guy Skyler at SLemire@sandiego.gov!

Keep on creating!

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Unique printmaking art exhibit in Oceanside!

The subject matter for art is infinite, and sometimes it seems like the different paths for creating art are beyond count. That is certainly the case in a current exhibition at the Oceanside Museum of Art. Matrix multiplied: hybrid approaches to printmaking demonstrates that amazing art can be produced by utilizing multiple printmaking techniques.

Eighteen artists are featured in the exhibition. Many of their pieces incorporate different techniques, ranging from traditional handmade printing methods to digital technology. They are truly unique!

No particular theme is depicted among the pieces. You’ll see abstracts, portraits, landscapes . . . art books, hangings, sculptures . . . all produced in ways you might not have imagined. The exhibition is a celebration of artistic skill and creativity!

Go check it out through August 2, 2026!

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Clay comes alive at San Diego Sculptors Guild!

It seems every time I visit the San Diego Sculptors Guild in Balboa Park, I find artist Justin Hammond bringing clay to life. He was at work again yesterday!

Justin is a multi-talented artist who loves to create art that tells a story. The clay he was shaping is part of one amazing story.

The figures you see in these photos he calls Elata. The sprite-like creatures with flowers sprouting from their heads are born as the blossoms of a tree. The tree has grown from a seed: a woman carried away by a flood, burying her.

Each beautiful little Elata creature results from a single memory of the deceased woman.

The story created by Justin develops, until the Elata themselves become memory collectors. It’s a brilliant and original idea that would make an amazing movie. Imagine these fantastic clay figures in a Laika stop-motion animated film, like Coraline or ParaNorman!

In addition to a lot of great artwork, Justin Hammond has created short YouTube videos using clay models. You can see much of it on his website by clicking here!

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Chinese brush painting event in Balboa Park!

An exhibition and sale of Chinese brush paintings continues tomorrow, Sunday, March 1, 2026 in Balboa Park. To view some very beautiful artwork, step into Room 101 of the Casa del Prado between 11 am and 4 pm.

The event features original Chinese brush paintings by members of the Lung Hsiang chapter of the American Artists of Chinese Brush Painting. Admission is free. Most of the pieces on display are for sale.

Visitors get to meet the artists, view a painting demonstration, and even try their own hand at brush painting! If you’re looking for gifts, you’ll find framed and matted paintings, and hand painted cards and crafts.

I visited the exhibition today and am pleased to share a few photos.

When I asked one artist the difference between traditional Chinese brush painting and Japanese brush painting, I was told the Chinese style has more “pop” and more chi, or vital energy. To me, generally speaking, the Chinese style seems a little more bold and colorful than Japanese brush painting, which appears more delicate and impressionistic.

All that I saw was exquisite and very beautiful.

2026 is the Year of the Horse!

For curious eyes, there’s much to discover. I was shown the historical evolution of the Chinese pictograph for horse. The three strokes represent a horse’s mane and legs.

Visitors can learn how to paint it!

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All Shall Be Well at Athenaeum Art Center!

Do you love art? Have you ever visited the Athenaeum Art Center in Logan Heights? You should!

The Athenaeum Art Center is located inside the Bread and Salt building at 1955 Julian Avenue. The art center includes the Catherine and Robert Palmer Gallery, a secondary classroom gallery, and an extensive, very impressive print studio (which I’ll blog about shortly). The main gallery is currently hosting the exhibit Jonathan Paul Parker: All Shall Be Well.

San Diego artist Jonathan Paul Parker‘s first solo exhibition features drawings and painted works that are mostly on paper. His abstract pieces are colorful, complex and dreamlike. They are informed by his involvement in experimental film and improvisational music.

I visited the gallery today.

The images appeared to me like confused dream-shards a sleeper tries to assemble and retain in memory shortly after waking. Or perhaps they’re a sort of visual stream of consciousness–fragments of thought, feeling or memory that take strange form, rising mysteriously to the mind’s eye from a person’s inner being.

The exhibition webpage states: Using color, gesture, and rhythm, [Jonathan] works in a state of focused openness that allows intuitive and archetypal forms to surface. His process draws on the idea of active imagination, where inner images and impulses rise to awareness and shape the direction of the work.

Visit the free exhibition and discover how this unique art speaks to you!

You have a little over a week. Jonathan Paul Parker: All Shall Be Well can be enjoyed through March 7, 2026.

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Double Bill art exhibition in La Jolla!

Lovers of art in San Diego are in for a treat. Head down to the Wisteria Cottage Gallery in La Jolla and you can admire the work of two celebrated local artists who taught at UC San Diego.

Double Bill: The Art of Manny Farber and Patricia Patterson contains numerous fine works by this husband and wife team who made their home in Leucadia.

Paintings large and small, beautiful sketches, historical photographs, and books the pair published are all on display.

Both artists liked to create images of simple, familiar things. Family life and home are frequent subjects. The images are friendly and warm. If I could reach into two dimensions, I’d happily take the depicted scenes and objects into my hands and make them my own.

You’ll notice when you visit the gallery that Patricia often paints people and moments in life. Manny often creates collage-like images of ordinary objects. To viewers who love living, they can all make a powerful connection.

Here’s the exhibition webpage.

Double Bill: The Art of Manny Farber and Patricia Patterson will be open free to the public through February 1, 2026.

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