Beautiful works of art on display at the Glass Show and Sale in Spanish Village.
Glass art never ceases to fascinate me.
Pieces of shining glasswork often appear like gems that have been mined from a place deep in the artist’s heart, then melted, shaped and recrystallized, as if upon a fiery potter’s wheel.
This weekend the Glass Show and Sale is being held on the patio of Balboa Park’s Spanish Village. The twice-a-year event is the production of the Art Glass Guild in Studio 25.
I took some photos today and met a few of the gifted artists.
If you love beautiful things and happen to be in San Diego, head over before the weekend ends!
The first five photographs you see here show glasswork created by Patricia G. Yockey, who also happens to be very nice.
I like how colorful and cheerful these pieces are at one artist’s table.This photo and the next show kilnformed art glass produced by Rick Knight Designs. The tray is made of glass strips that are shifted and fused back together.
These magical lampworked beads are by Cornelia Jarst. They can be used for different types of jewelry and accessories.
Glass pumpkins in time for Halloween and Thanksgiving!The artist told me this amazing glass piece took a long, long time to make.
This cool glass robot and the next two photos are small pieces of hand etched “dichroic glasswear” made by ChrisStell CreativeArts.A fun, colorful face.
These clocks–some made with circuit boards from discarded computers–are the fused glass creations of The Glass Giraffe, Carol Korfin, artist.
Many beautiful works of glass art can be seen and purchased this weekend in Balboa Park at the always wonderful Spanish Village!
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Visitors to the Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park walk through a sunlit paradise of color and creativity.
Over the past five years, I’ve blogged about Spanish Village Art Center many times, on Cool San Diego Sights and on my other website Beautiful Balboa Park. Spanish Village is one of my go-to places when I need to feel optimistic, free and alive.
Whenever I stroll around the many art studios, I feel like I’ve entered a kaleidoscope of living color and creativity. It’s a wonderful place to visit if you want to be inspired.
Lovers of art in San Diego need to swing on by. You’ll find yourself lingering. And smiling.
Sign lists 2018 events, including special shows and sales, in Spanish Village Art Studios in Balboa Park.Patio tiles leading visitors to the front door of Studio 26 seem like a Yellow Brick Road of many colors.Surprising colors grow in four pots.The rear of the Uni-two-corn by sculptor Kim Ogburn, which functions as a seat for two.A dreamlike canvas in front of Studio 31 in Spanish Village.Someone admires a glass vase created by the friendly glassblowers in Studio 19.Beautiful cacti in a planter near the front door of Studio 18.An amazing flower outside the San Diego Mineral and Gem Society building in Spanish Village.Colorful cats have gathered on the patio in front of Studio 16 in Spanish Village.The local artists in Studio 14 specialize in Kaleidoscopes, Egg Art and Handmade Art.A painter creates new artwork outside the window of the Southwestern Artists’ Association Gallery in Studio 23.Mary-Ella Bowles in Studio 6 created this fun Fairy House out of a gigantic hollow gourd!A colorful frog is standing on a big leaf outside Studio 10.
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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!
Chrysanthemum Lacquer Box, Nancy Lorenz, 2017. Inspired by a lacquered wood box in the San Diego Museum of Art’s collection.
Have you ever dreamt of dipping a brush into bright molten silver or gold, to paint and swirl that precious shine all over a canvas? This vision comes to life at the San Diego Museum of Art in their current exhibition Nancy Lorenz: Moon Gold.
Nancy Lorenz uses silver and gold leaf, mother-of-pearl and lacquer on large canvases of board, cardboard and jute to achieve the effect I just described. She calls these gestural applications of water-gilded gesso Pours. Some of her abstract creations appear like gleaming treasure raining down from sun-glowing clouds, through and into strangely Earth-like places. Others appear to be swirled with bright, pure heavenly essence. Moonbeams seem to emanate from her dreamlike Silver Water Screen.
Other pieces, including several fantastic boxes, look like they’ve been frosted with pure, sumptuous, smoothly dripping gold!
The exquisite gilding and lacquer work of Nancy Lorenz, who lived in Tokyo for a span of years, is influenced by Japanese decorative arts. Every line and fine detail seems perfectly placed. The refined brilliance of her unique artwork is extraordinary.
Nancy Lorenz: Moon Gold is a treasure for greedy eyes. So go and see it at the San Diego Museum of Art before the exhibition ends on September 3, 2018.
Exquisitely beautiful art shines at the Nancy Lorenz: Moon Gold exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art.Moon Gold Mountain, Nancy Lorenz, 2018. Moon gold leaf, clay, cardboard, on wood panel.Gold Flying Apsaras, Nancy Lorenz, 2017. Gold leaf, mother-of-pearl inlay, black lacquer, clay, gesso, on wood panel.Lemon Gold Sunlight with Rain, Nancy Lorenz, 2017. Lemon gold leaf, silver leaf, clay, cardboard, on wood panel.A section of Rock Garden Room, Nancy Lorenz, 2004. Silver leaf, mother-of-pearl inlay, pigment, gesso, shellac, on 12 wood panels.Silver Sea and Sky, Nancy Lorenz, 2017. Silver leaf, mother-of-pearl inlay, lacquer, on wood panel.
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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!
La Jolla Cove, Alfred Mitchell, oil on canvas, circa 1950.
Today, with great thanks to my docent friend, I enjoyed several exhibits at the San Diego Museum of Art. The first exhibit, and perhaps my personal favorite, was a small collection of landscape paintings by Alfred R. Mitchell.
Silent Light: Alfred Mitchell features deeply beautiful work by an artist who spent most of his life in San Diego. Along with several other local artists who obtained national stature, including Maurice Braun, Arthur Fries, Charles Reiffel and Donal Hord, he was a founding member of the Contemporary Artists of San Diego. He also helped to create the La Jolla Art Association in 1918 and the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego in 1925. The latter institution is known today as the San Diego Museum of Art!
Here are photos of four pieces that I particularly like. My poor old camera doesn’t do them justice. Each painting is infused with light and indescribably rich color. Each seems a perfect memory–a brief moment in the life of this world made timeless.
You might recognize these particular four locations. They are all by the ocean in La Jolla. It’s a place of great natural beauty where I love to walk.
Silent Light: Alfred Mitchell can be enjoyed through August 19, 2018. If you’ve fallen in love with the landscapes of San Diego, you’ll be awed by these extraordinary paintings.
Cliffs South of La Jolla Shores, Alfred Mitchell, oil on board, circa 1930.Bathing, Alfred Mitchell, oil on board, undated.La Jolla Coast Walk, Alfred Mitchell, oil on board, undated.
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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!
Colorful fish swims through a wall at Petco Park near the Sun Diego Beach.
Here’s a collection of random art that I’ve observed while walking around San Diego. Some of these photos are recent; others have been languishing for a year or two unused in my computer.
Enjoy!
Four mermaids painted on tile in an outdoor shop in Old Town.A deer dressed in a polo shirt. Humorous street art in Golden Hill.A silly pelican painted on a utility box on Mission Boulevard in South Mission Beach.IMAGINE painted on a box in downtown San Diego.Imaginative, plant-like street art downtown.Beautiful tile mosaic with Virgin Mary at its center on a wall in North Park.A boy and a bird on an electrical box downtown.I spied this small unusual work of art leaning up against a garbage can downtown.A branching tree enlivens a transformer box in Golden Hill.A whale, shark, dolphin, ray and other sea life painted by many hands on a community mural in Ocean Beach.
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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!
With the appearance of this year’s Comic-Con trolley wraps, many people I speak to are starting to get excited.
Now that I’m thinking about Comic-Con, too, it has occurred to me that over the years my blog has featured lots of photos concerning one of the absolute biggest franchises in pop culture: Star Wars!
I’ve rounded up a bunch of links that would be fun to check out. You’ll find unique photos of Star Wars artwork, models, cosplay, and even some humorous Star Wars street art!
A small army of life-size Japanese kokeshi fill the James E. Watts Studio in downtown San Diego.
I had an utterly amazing experience today.
I was walking through downtown San Diego, along Seventh Avenue, when I noticed a small table saw out on the sidewalk. It was set up in front of an unmarked door–one that I’ve passed many times over the years. When I peered through the open door my eyes nearly popped out of my head!
Through that mysterious door I saw a wonderland!
A friendly person told me that I might step inside. That very cool, funny and interesting guy was James E. Watts, a local artist who has been creating unique works of imagination for decades in San Diego. His pieces have appeared in a variety of exhibitions and at important museums, including both the San Diego Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
Why the table saw? James Watts was just beginning a new sculpture of Quasimodo, and wooden blocks would be used to form the interior structure. Thin aluminum sheets nailed to the surface would produce the sculpture’s skin.
As you can see from the above photograph, his studio is dominated by a series of these large sculptures. They are based upon Japanese kokeshi, and his fun, symbolic pieces represent all sorts of characters from literature and history. He showed me a female Atlas, Don Quixote (with two small horses), Prometheus, Pandora, Jonah and Leviathan, and Joan of Arc. The humorous, collage-like skins were originally lunchboxes, signs, cans and other bits of colorful aluminum.
Another cool piece he showed me appears to be a combination of the Shroud of Turin, a horizontal religious shrine, and that wacky game Operation. Human anatomy is partitioned. Old age is contemplated. Bones fill box-like compartments. Colorful foam dots and dashes spell out a message in Morse code around the perimeter. The word BEAUTIFUL appears beneath the skull. (If you decipher the Morse code message, please leave a comment!)
And so I found myself standing in the middle of a fantasy world turning my eyes every which way. Rampant creativity jammed every wall, crammed every corner, was stacked high upon the floor. I could have happily lingered in that extraordinary studio all day long.
Thanks to James Watts for showing me around his artistic playground! There’s a special, little-known nook in the heart of San Diego, where one man’s imagination produces great treasures, and now I recognize the door!
James Watts near some artwork in progress. The wood blocks will fill the interior of a hunchbacked Quasimodo. I was told a bell might be placed atop the literary character’s head!On the left a female Atlas holds up the world. To the right Don Quixote appears ready to tilt at windmills.Many nudes also decorate the walls of the art gallery. They are done in various styles, reflecting famous painters of the past.James Watts opens up a brain pan to reveal . . . a brain!So much amazing, cool artwork that I could barely take it all in.Like a playground for a creator whose imagination seems to have no limits.I was told this abstract piece represents that brave person who stood in front of the tanks at Tiananmen Square.A playful piece that has emerged from the artist’s contemplation of aging. Those colorful dots and dashes form a mysterious Morse code message!
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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!
Bold spray paint street art in a Logan Heights alley features the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!
Several long alleys in Logan Heights have been spray painted with super cool street art. I visited one alley recently that contains awesome images of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
This particular “Alley Gallery” can be found north of Commercial Street and west of 32nd Street. The colors are bold and the artwork is fantastic. Walking down the alley is almost like turning the pages of a TMNT comic book or graphic novel.
(I learned on a later visit to Logan Heights that this cool art is the creation of a community group called the San Diego Art Team!)
Enjoy these fun photos!
Leonardo, leader of the Ninja Turtles, stands alert beside some bold, colorful graffiti.Michelangelo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is surrounded by enemies.Donatello appears to be ready for action in an alley mural in Logan Heights.An ordinary turtle wandering through the sewers is caught in some strange glowing green ooze. This innocent, unassuming reptile is almost certainly destined to mutate into a humorous humanoid martial artist!Splinter, the rat sensei, is hanging out on a wall between more cool graffiti.Raphael emerges from a spray painted city. This particular turtle does not appear to be amused.
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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!
People gather around chalk art created on boards for the 2018 Mission Federal ArtWalk in Little Italy.
Here come more cool photos that I promised you!
Half a dozen colorful works of chalk art were displayed at the 2018 Mission Federal ArtWalk in Little Italy. Piazza della Famiglia isn’t the ideal place to create chalk art, so the pieces were rendered on boards.
Every work of art was great! See for yourself!
Gold and Yellow Roses, chalk art by Cecelia Linayao.A colorful chalk art Salvador Dalí, by artist Chris Brake.A chalk art lion representing the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, created by Lorna Prijoles.Young child kisses a happy wrinkled woman. Heartwarming chalk art by Brenda Mora and Jessie Reyes.A striking chalk art face by Meg Canilang.Another superb chalk art piece by young local phenom Lidia Vasquez.Half a dozen beautiful works of chalk art could be seen in Piazza della Famiglia at the 2018 Mission Federal ArtWalk!
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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 highlight of my walk through Balboa Park today was the San Diego Wabi Spring Flower Show. My feet often halted as I passed dozens of exquisite Japanese ikebana flower arrangements. My camera couldn’t stop snapping. As you will see, the beauty was indescribable.
This annual event, which is held for one weekend inside the Casa del Prado, provides a breathtaking exhibition of the traditional Japanese art, as taught by the Ohara School of Ikebana. In addition to the many heavenly flower arrangements, there were demonstrations by local ikebana masters for those who are interested in learning about or practicing this ancient art form.
Many of these photos are close-ups of flower arrangements. I tried my own “hand” at artistic composition.
I’m so envious of the talent displayed at this show. Every careful work of floral art was a poem for the eyes.
The San Diego Wabi Study Group Annual Flower Show, with beautiful ikebana arrangements and demonstrations, was held this weekend in the Casa del Prado in Balboa Park.Many superb examples of exquisite ikebana Japanese flower arrangement pleased the eyes of delighted visitors.
Young eyes observe a demonstration of traditional ikebana flower arrangement. Every work in this ancient art form is like a visual poem.
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 