Starting across Cabrillo Bridge, looking south toward downtown San Diego.
On Sunday I walked slowly through Balboa Park. I began at the Cabrillo Bridge and headed east along El Prado. My wandering feet finally took me down into Florida Canyon.
I discovered many scenes of natural beauty: green canyons, bright trees, yellow hillsides, spring flowers, newly opened roses and even cacti.
Come along…
Near the center of the bridge. Sunlit trees line the median of scenic State Route 163, also known as the Cabrillo Freeway.Looking back along historic Cabrillo Bridge toward the West Mesa of Balboa Park.Near the east end of the bridge, gazing down at the Rube Powell Archery Range.Passing through the California Quadrangle. Palm trees cast shadows on the California Tower.Turning back to photograph the California Tower from the Alcazar Garden.Twisty trunks and shadows near the Timken Museum of Art.Staghorn ferns on one wall of Balboa Park’s Botanical Building.Orchids inside the Botanical Building.More natural beauty inside the Botanical Building.A small yellow flower greets me inside the Casa del Prado. I stumbled upon a sale by the Southern California Plumeria Society.A bloom along El Prado near the Casa de Balboa.Walking along El Prado, just above the Zoro Garden.Like orange flames.Looking backward as I finally approach the east end of El Prado.About to cross over Park Boulevard on the pedestrian bridge, pausing for a moment to look south toward the Fleet Science Center.Strolling among early spring blooms in the Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden.In the rose garden, aiming my camera toward the fountain.Another rose.Another.Gazing east across Florida Canyon. A rainy winter has brought forth lush spring greenery.Now I am moving north, into the Desert Garden.Strange cactus beauty.More beauty.About to head down a winding path into Florida Canyon.A hillside bright with cacti and spring flowers.Nature has painted the hillside.Slanting cacti.The natural beauty in Balboa Park never ends.
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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!
I got off work early today and headed into Balboa Park.
As I wandered through the Botanical Building, my eyes were captivated by brilliant sunlight filtering through the green leaves and surrounding lath. With my small camera I tried to frame patterns of beauty . . .
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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!
People walk through Balboa Park. There is much living to do.
Another fine Sunday afternoon in Balboa Park.
More beauty.
More sunshine.
More smiles.
More heart.
I could take a million photographs during walks through Balboa Park, because there is always something new.
Dancers perform at the International Cottages during the House of Lebanon lawn program.Yummy authentic Lebanese food is devoured on a sunny San Diego day.Exquisite artwork displayed inside the Casa del Prado for the 43rd Annual Sumi-e Ten Japanese Brush Painting Exhibition.Young people take up a brush, learning to transform ink into elegant beauty.The seasonal display in the Botanical Building features pumpkins arranged among plants and flowers.Raúl Prieto Ramírez, San Diego’s Civic Organist, talks to the audience during the free Sunday concert at two o’clock.Peering down into the Lower Garden of the Japanese Friendship Garden from the deck of the Tea Pavilion.Light filters through bamboo at the Japanese Friendship Garden.A painting of Mt. Fuji by Yutaka Murakami. His fantastic artwork is now on display in the Exhibit Hall at the Japanese Friendship Garden.Steel drums add flavor to the Plaza de Balboa near the Bea Evenson Fountain.People eat, talk, find comfort at tables in the Plaza de Panama.Browsing photographs by a local artist at the outdoor Art in the Park.People filter through the dreamy Alcazar Garden.Feeling the holiday spirit by The Old Globe Christmas Tree in Copley Plaza.Enjoying peace and warm sunlight on the grassy West Mesa of Balboa Park.Shining blooms in a tree.A noisy flock of crows was perched in the eucalyptus trees near the San Diego Chess Club and Balboa Park Horseshoe Club.A drum circle in Marston Point. Like the joyful, beating heart of Balboa Park.
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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!
Extraordinary beauty at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park.
I believe the world is fundamentally beautiful. Beauty permeates everything. From atoms to galaxies–and everything in between.
Beauty awaits open eyes wherever we happen to walk. Perhaps you’ve noticed this is an important theme of Cool San Diego Sights.
Yesterday I finished writing a short story that is very dark. It concerns ugliness that arises from human vanity. So now I find myself in a difficult situation.
I’d rather not have a depressing story welcome readers to my website Short Stories by Richard. I want to outshine the darkness with light.
A bright, magical story is now taking form under my pen. But finding the right words to approximate eternal truths can be a puzzle. I’m stuck for the moment, wrestling.
All living things require watering. I know that with fresh eyes and a little patience the story will grow and mature.
Until these two new short stories appear, you might enjoy reading my published works of fiction here.
Endangered, wind-sculpted Torrey pines at Cabrillo National Monument.Radiant beauty along a Little Italy sidewalk.A beautiful fountain by a sidewalk in Bankers Hill. A sculpted boy with watering can.Painted sunflowers grow upon a transformer box in Coronado.Natural beauty discovered in busy downtown San Diego.More beauty at the Japanese Friendship Garden, a welcoming retreat from life’s often stressful walk. I think I might go there today with my small notebook and pen.Moving forward down life’s path, through wild natural beauty atop Mount Laguna.
Visitors to the San Diego Museum of Art enter Gallery 15, where many human figures sculpted by Mexican artist Javier Marín stand horizontally upon a large wall.
Yesterday, during my walk through Balboa Park, I stepped from the Panama 66 outdoor cafe into Gallery 15 of the San Diego Museum of Art . . . and look what I saw!
Upon one large wall stand numerous small sculptures of the human body, created by Victor Javier Marín Gutiérrez, a Mexican artist whose celebrated work has been exhibited internationally.
The organic sculptures stand on the wall in poses of naked expression, casting dynamic shadows that crisscross in every direction. There is anguish and joy and perplexity and care and simple, wonderful being. There is flesh and there is soul. There is that ongoing internal search for human identity.
According to the San Diego Museum of Art’s website: “Javier Marín’s work, above all, is about beauty, a particularly human beauty that reflects what the poet José Emilio Pacheco described as ‘the terrible miracle of being alive.’”
Looking across at the wall containing many small sculpted human forms is like gazing down from above upon the mass of naked humanity. It’s like a Creator gazing down upon his living, breathing, dancing Creation.
This astonishing wall is an example of the Javier Marín sculpted work now on display in the San Diego Museum of Art’s free Galleries 14 and 15.
The exhibition will be officially kicked off with a special event on Thursday, September 27, 2018. Culture & Cocktails: Art of the Body includes a VIP pre-tour with the artist himself.
The exhibition will continue through March 3, 2019.
Javier Marín’s fleshy sculpted forms depict every sort of human expression.Gazing at many representations of our mysterious selves.
UPDATE!
I saw even more amazing Javier Marín art during a later visit to the museum, and here are some photographs!
The first photo showing sculpted elements of the human body intermixed, is of a piece that can be viewed in Gallery 14.
The next two photos, taken in the San Diego Museum of Art’s first floor rotunda, are of several large, truly stunning sculptures that are described: Untitled I, II, VI. Polyester resin and iron wire, 2004.
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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!
