Tag: balboa park

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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Young students perform on Spreckels Organ!

Wow! Did you hear the three young organ students in Balboa Park today?

American Guild of Organists Scholarship students from local San Diego schools received loud applause after playing difficult pieces on the Spreckels Organ.

Each young person strode onto the stage with poise, sat down at the imposing console and immediately dived into the music. They made playing a very complicated instrument look effortless. Each student has been training on organ for years.

The first young man was Yuhan Jackson, 11 years old, in 5th grade at Hawthorne Elementary School. He triumphantly played pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach and Gordon Young.

Next up came Elijah Prada, who brilliantly played complicated pieces by the same two composers. He’s 13 years old, a seventh grade student currently studying at the San Diego Piano Academy.

Then 17 year old Jonah Molina took the Spreckels Organ Pavilion stage. A student who attends Mission Bay High School, he also played pieces by Gordon Young and Johann Sebastian Bach. He was really great, too!

All three received gleaming trophies as the special Sunday organ concert concluded!

The concert was both excellent and inspirational. Organ students in San Diego are fortunate to have many outstanding local organists as mentors and teachers, including world-famous San Diego Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez!

Three more AGO Scholarship students will be performing next Sunday, June 9, 2024, at 2 pm. They’ll also play the majestic Spreckels Organ.

Do you love fine music? Do you want to cheer on very talented youth? Be there!

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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.

Beauty at the Cactus and Succulent Show.

The amazing beauty intrinsic to nature was highlighted this weekend at the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Show and Sale in Balboa Park.

I moseyed down the aisles in Room 101 of the Casa del Prado, gazing at prize-winning specimens of very different cacti and succulents.

Some of the entries had flowers. Some were tiny, like gems. Many of the plants tickled the eye with perfect symmetry or an interesting geometric shape. Others appeared oddly misshapen.

If you missed this year’s summer show, make sure to check it out next year. Until then, enjoy a few photographs…

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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.

San Diego Cactus and Succulent event this weekend!

The San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society’s big annual Summer Show and Sale takes place this weekend!

Vendors and members of the society were setting up at the Casa del Prado in Balboa Park this afternoon. In addition to cacti and succulents, visitors this Saturday and Sunday can check out gardening information, art, crafts, and perhaps purchase something beautiful for their home!

I happened to be walking through the Casa del Prado’s outdoor courtyard when I saw the long tables full of potted plants that will be for sale. I then peeked into Room 101 where the show will take place.

To see the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society’s web page concerning their 2024 Summer Show and Sale, click here!

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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.

Powerful, true words for Memorial Day.

I hope somebody recorded them–those words spoken today by First Sergeant, US Army, Brian Bennett. They were eloquent. They were true.

After eating a hot dog in the San Diego sunshine, I sat listening to Brian’s speech during the Memorial Day event at Balboa Park’s International Cottages. He was the first of five distinguished speakers. They had served in the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard. All of the speakers were excellent.

Brian is a teacher at Mount Miguel High School. He confessed that he began to prepare his speech the way many of his students do their homework–by using AI. We in the audience laughed.

Brian, however, found that AI’s predictable answer about the meaning of Memorial Day wasn’t quite right. True–the holiday is about duty, dedication, courage and ultimate sacrifice—but the computed answer wasn’t complete.

A true understanding of Memorial Day, explained Brian, involves long years of service and often difficult experience. It’s only then that one can fully understand the great and meaningful sacrifice made by those who’ve fallen in service to their country. Ideals easily spoken of become real.

Ultimately, he explained, Memorial Day is about love.

Love for those in your life who are precious. Love for a country whose founding documents grant us a life of freedom. And love for those who’ve come before, sacrificing so that we may live this life.

Yes, I thought, a life where people from all walks can freely gather together and speak or listen to powerful words without fear.

I hope my few, poor words did Brian’s great speech justice.

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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.

Natural History Museum’s nature trail opens!

The construction fences are down! The San Diego Natural History Museum’s new outdoor native garden has opened, and there’s a trail that follows the newly planted greenery around the museum!

Native plants, flowers and trees now abound, but since the garden is just getting started, most plants are small and the landscape appears a bit bare. Once everything is grown, the garden should be much more beautiful!

Right now there’s plastic fencing along the pathway, protecting the new plantings from careless visitors and dogs. It appears to be temporary.

Informative signs can be read along the looping trail, and smaller signs indicate the native species planted nearby. There’s a boulder-filled sitting area and short side trail, too, on the museum’s north side–you know, the side with the enormous Moreton Bay Fig.

The “Nat’s Nature Trail” features various themed segments. As you walk around the Natural History Museum building, you encounter Pollinator Paradise, Spiny Sidewalk, Boulder Garden, Discovery Path, Wildlife Walkway, First People’s Garden, and Container Corner.

What a great addition to an already amazing Balboa Park!

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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.

Spring colors in the hidden Zoro Garden.

If you don’t venture down into Balboa Park’s mostly hidden Zoro Garden, you won’t experience its colorful spring flowers that are now in bloom.

I headed to Balboa Park for a special Memorial Day program today, but I had a couple of hours to wander around. I’m so glad I caught a small glimpse of this color as I walked along El Prado. I couldn’t resist turning down a path that descends into the park’s sunken stone grotto garden.

Look at all the flowers! And another hidden surprise!

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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.

The joyful Africa Day in Balboa Park!

Today was Africa Day at the International Cottages in Balboa Park! The event was presented by the House of USA.

The joyful program celebrated African culture with storytelling, drumming, song, dance and more. The nations of Ghana, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Liberia, Uganda and Kenya were represented, with the 48th anniversary of San Diego’s sister city relationship with Tema, Ghana a special highlight.

When I arrived in the early afternoon the event was already underway. I was privileged to listen to a tale about the “upside-down” baobab tree from Linda Brown of the Black Storytellers of San Diego, then watch youthful dancers from the House of Somalia. Somalia is the first African nation with an official membership in Balboa Park’s International Cottages. Other nations are taking steps to join, as well!

The lawn at the International Cottages featured a table concerning San Diego sister city Tema, Ghana. It was filled with crafts and beautiful cultural artifacts.

Another table showed how the Rotary Club of El Cajon Sunset has worked to improve the life of villagers in Kenya by planting gardens and trees and training farmers, by building a community center with the help of paid youth, and by supplying wheel chairs, water tanks and other useful items.

I also learned how the organization My Chosen Vessels is uplifting Maasai communities in Kenya by delivering clean water through an indigenous women-led water bottling enterprise. Sales of jewelry hand made by Maasai women would benefit those communities, as well.

What I loved most was dancing that was joined by many in the audience. I believe it was an energetic dance that is popular in Ghana. Without hesitation, many joyfully dancing people came up onto the stage!

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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.

Artistic Discovery at San Diego History Center!

An exhibition of student art recently debuted at the San Diego History Center. This outstanding artwork caught my eye today during my visit to Balboa Park!

High school students from California’s 50th Congressional District submitted these fine pieces to the An Artistic Discovery nationwide visual art competition. Winners are recognized in their district and in Washington, DC, where winning works are displayed in the Capitol Building.

I enjoyed each and every one of these pieces, and you might, too, should you step into the ever-wonderful San Diego History Center!

Here are several examples…

Self Comparison, Emily Lu, Grade 11.

Niente, Victoria Baltzer, Grade 12.

Lady of Shalott, Joshua Alper, Grade 12.

Life in the Mountains, Jazon Zhang, Grade 11.

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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.

High praise for a High School Orchestra!

Congratulations go to the Scripps Ranch High School Orchestra! World-renowned musician, San Diego Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez offered high praise for their performance this afternoon at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.

The students excited a large audience with their booming rendition of the Camille Saint-Saëns composition Finale, from Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Opus 78 “With Organ.” Raul was surprised that such a challenging piece could be conquered by young musicians!

Russell Shedd, Conductor of the Scripps Ranch High School Orchestra was thrilled, and visibly moved. He’d dreamed of performing this amazing piece of music for twenty years!

Bravo!

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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.