Tag: creativity

The Universe mosaic at Coronado High School!

The Universe at Coronado High School is so awesome. I’m speaking of the mosaic archway that shines with our Earth, planets, moons, comets, nebulae, stars and galaxies.

As students move through the cosmos, they are reminded that “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known…”

I saw this incredible, extraordinary work of mosaic art during my visit to the San Diego Writers Festival earlier this month. The Universe was created on the Coronado High School campus in 2009 by student artists, under the direction of award-winning Visual Arts teacher Laura Hill.

“THE UNIVERSE”

WE DEDICATE THE UNIVERSE TO KARL MUELLER WHOSE SUPPORT SHINES ON, LIKE THE MOON, AND THE STARS, AND THE SUN — 2010

STUDENT ARTISTS – THEY’RE OUT OF THIS WORLD

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Jaguars and wolves in Chula Vista!

I discovered two very cool murals during my latest walk through Chula Vista!

The first mural promotes Southwestern College and features the stylized head of a Jaguar–the name of Southwestern’s sports teams. A stack of books, a flask, paintbrushes, a drone, and other objects useful in career education also appear in the mural.

The colorful artwork can be spotted on the side of State Farm Insurance at 460 3rd Avenue. Artist signatures and a year indicate the mural was created by Nick McPherson (Nicholas Danger) and Eddy Berducido (@Beavster) in 2024.

The next mural appears to show wolves. The artwork was painted at the north end of a construction fence in front of Chula Vista’s old, closed Vogue Theater.

You might recall other images previously painted on the same fence: the Padres’ Swinging Friar and Chula Vista’s own celebrity superstar Mario Lopez!

I don’t know who painted these two wolves, or when. Within the past year, if I had to guess. Leave a comment if you know more than me!

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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.

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Billowing Bait comes alive on Shelter Island!

Billowing Bait is a kinetic sculpture on Shelter Island, mounted near the entrance of Nielson Beaumont Marine. I spotted it during a recent walk in Point Loma.

The sculptor is Jon Koehler. His shimmering work of art features over 300 small stainless steel elements that move together but independently with the wind. Created in 2013 according to its webpage (2012 according to the nearby plaque), the sculpture is part of the Port of San Diego Public Art Collection.

The shining sculpture is meant to resemble a school of small bait fish . . . or a billowing spinnaker sail. You can learn more about it here.

If you ever walk past 2420 Shelter Island Drive on a breezy day, pause to watch Billowing Bait come alive!

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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.

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A star lands in Escondido!

What’s that star-like sculpture sitting on the grass near the box office of California Center for the Arts, Escondido?

It’s *!

The cool creation, named * (pronounced star), is a 30 foot diameter great stellated dodecahedron created by Escondido’s own Glass House Arts. According to posts on their Instagram page, * appeared at Burning Man last year! If I understand correctly, the sculpture was called MOOT (Matter Out of Time) back then, and said to be a time machine!

By night, 30 programmable LED floodlights illuminate the fabric sails, transforming the piece into a glowing beacon. I saw * in the daytime during my visit to the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, and thought it was pretty cool as it was!

The sculpture will be on view through May 17, 2025. It celebrates Escondido Arts, Culture & Creativity Month!

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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.

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Everything in Its Place in Escondido.

Self-Portraits with Underwear Pulled Too High, Matthew Freedman, 1995. Acrylic on plaster.

Today a new exhibition opened at the museum of the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. Everything in Its Place: Selections from the Permanent Collection features a surprising variety of pieces.

The museum’s webpage explains how these works explore the shifting relationships between abstraction, the human form, and the environments we inhabit. In other words, the art explores just about everything and anything.

I found myself pausing before certain complex pieces, enthralled. And so many different materials! One unusual sculpture is made almost entirely of glass. There are creations on cardboard and on linen. One piece, created during the museum’s inaugural artist-in-residence program, is a ten-foot wall of open wooden boxes containing found objects–like thoughts or memories in the compartments of one’s mind.

I took photos of a few examples.

There’s humor, too. Look closely at my first photograph!

Untitled, Mark Jackson, 1983. Oil on cardboard.
In the Sun’s Blood, Doris Bittar, 1997. Oil on linen.

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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.

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Free live glassblowing event in Escondido!

Tomorrow, Saturday, April 19, 2025, a free, live glassblowing extravaganza continues at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido! The special event is being held outdoors in the Cal Club Courtyard between noon and 6 pm. Look for the signs! You can check out the event webpage by clicking here.

The two day event began today. I swung by as everything got underway. In addition to a very cool glassblowing demonstration, various San Diego County glass artists have tables with some of their fantastic creations for sale.

The artists have also created a bunch of beautiful glasses (see my final photograph) which are for sale for $25 each. Funds raised through the sale of these stunning glasses (and the sale of beer, too) benefit the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

I sat and watched as expert glassblower James Stone created an elegant wine glass. He has years and years of practice, and you can see the excellence of his work. He’s a friendly guy who likes to explain what he’s doing.

James Stone demonstrates glassblowing work in progress. The glass changes color when it is heated.
An amazing iridescent bowl created by James Stone.
These extraordinary glass cubes were created by Tom Marosz.
These fantastic glass sea shells were created by Mariah Armstrong Conner.

Amazing blacksmithing work was displayed as well! A representative from Vista Forge showed me some cool creations.

Blacksmithing and Glass Art classes can be found here. They’re held on the grounds of the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum in Vista.

Purchase one of these colorful glasses, blown by a local artist, and you benefit the California Center for the Arts, Escondido!

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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.

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Amazing art fills The Water Conservation Garden!

The Water Conservation Garden in Rancho San Diego is a special place. Not only is it a very fine botanical garden, but its nearly 6 acres is filled with amazing works of art!

Among the different educational garden displays, bits of art can be spied. Most notable are the garden’s beautiful mosaics. A few days back I posted a blog about work being performed on the mosaic Tool Wall. See those photographs here.

Now enjoy more of the art that I happened to discover during my recent visit!

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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.

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Beautiful mural at La Mesa’s Collier Park!

This beautiful mural decorates the trash enclosure at Collier Park in La Mesa. I was told by a friendly gentleman at the La Mesa Community Center that the art was painted not too long ago.

I found an article about the mural’s creation. It was a project of ArtReach, completed last year in partnership with the City of La Mesa. More than forty community members helped to paint it!

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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.

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Virgin of Guadalupe miracles fills the Mingei!

In 1531 the Blessed Virgin Mary was said to have appeared miraculously in Mexico. You can read that history here.

Today, images of the Virgin of Guadalupe (a Catholic title of the Virgin Mary) can be seen throughout Mexico, and San Diego, too.

A standard image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, filled with symbolism, hangs in homes and churches. It is painted on murals, on cars and appears in tattoos. The Virgin of Guadalupe seems everywhere.

Not surprisingly, the iconic image also appears on textiles. An important part of the Virgin of Guadalupe story includes her likeness appearing miraculously on the inside of a cloak.

The Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park recently opened a sensational exhibition titled Fashioning an Icon: Virgin of Guadalupe Imagery in Textile Design.

The exhibition features outfits worn by women and men, traditional huipiles (handwoven tunics largely worn by indigenous peoples in Mexico), jackets, shoes and more. Many of the crafted pieces are very colorful, as you can see from my photographs.

Signs throughout the exhibit explain why the Virgin of Guadalupe became a religious and cultural phenomenon–how, in Mexico, invading Catholicism eventually melded with indigenous sensibilities, producing the divine but grounded symbolism one sees in the now beloved image.

The Mingei International Museum has presented many outstanding exhibitions, and this one is right up there. I was surprised to see so many different objects, and such variety. I was excited to see so much life.

Each work seems a miracle of human faith and creativity.

Fashioning an Icon: Virgin of Guadalupe Imagery in Textile Design is on view through September 7, 2025.

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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.

Feel free to share!

Working on mosaics at Water Conservation Garden!

Very beautiful mosaics decorate the Tool Wall at the Water Conservation Garden in Rancho San Diego!

As I walked through the garden today, I noticed someone working on this incredible wall. Rosalie, a friendly garden volunteer and artist, took a moment to show me what she was up to. She explained that her Tool Wall is nearing completion!

Some grouting, painting and a bit of other work, and the artistic wall will be finally completed. She been working on it for months.

The wall stands by a path in an area of the educational Water Conservation Garden that is devoted to the use of garden tools. Appropriately, decorated garden tools project from the top of the wall!

Rosalie explained the words on the wall: A garden is a grand teacher. It’s a quote by a very famous British horticulturist and garden designer, Gertrude Jekyll. Yes, tending a garden teaches patience, nurturing, a love for nature and the outdoors…

I’ll soon be blogging more about the amazing Water Conservation Garden, a hidden gem in San Diego’s East County, so stay tuned!

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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.

Feel free to share!