Ikebana is the ancient Japanese art form of flower arrangement. Certain rules and a certain symmetry, containing contrasts and elegance, make this art form a bit like poetry. Every part of the arrangement, like every word in a poem, is potent in itself and vital. The assembled composition is more beautiful than the sum of its parts.
During the flower show, participants could learn the essentials of ikebana while watching live demonstrations by masters of the art.
If you love exquisitely beautiful things–or unspoken poetry–keep your eyes peeled for future ikebana shows in Balboa Park.
Meanwhile, enjoy these photographs…
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Could kids find and create art at the San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering? Yes!
Today was Expo Day, a free event held at Snapdragon Stadium. Thousands of young people wandered through the stadium’s concourses, viewing STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) displays, and partaking in experiments and activities provided by about a hundred exhibitors!
The annual event is absolutely gargantuan and impossible to cover in one blog post. I’ve blogged about Expo Day several times in past years, when this educational extravaganza was held at Petco Park.
Winding through the crowd, I discovered the Art Pavilion and, with permission from various exhibitors, my camera got busy.
Enjoy a few photos of artwork created by students, teachers and artists attending the San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering. Read the captions!
Families explore the Art Pavilion during Expo Day 2024, a San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering event at Snapdragon Stadium.Are those molecules or cool sculptures? Kids get creative with the help of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.Two hands, liquid and bending light by artist and educator Sheena Rae Dowling.This cool STEAM artwork, full of creative ideas, won a blue ribbon!Demand evidence. Think critically. Erica, a biology student at National University, created this scientific artwork!The Art Club of Patrick Henry High School created these colorful Science Pyramids: Temples of Truth. If you point your phone at the artwork, you can experience augmented reality bursting from each pyramid!Beautiful art depicting native flora and fauna presented by the San Diego Natural History Museum.Space exploration art from a C.A.R.T. student.Lunna, founder of VAINANA, creates art with bananas to fight hunger and promote food sustainability.The colorful work of EcoArts Kids. Students create environmental art in afterschool programs at several San Diego elementary schools.Part of the SoRoART group exhibition of soft robotics by SDSU students. Air periodically inflates these lungs, as if they’re breathing!
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Dozens of sculptures are scattered around Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. Together they constitute the amazing Wolfstein Sculpture Park!
I walked around Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla recently and took photographs of many sculptures. There are dozens all together, and it turns out I missed several. You can see all of the art presently on display and read plaques that include artist information by clicking here.
What you see here is one of several Wolfstein Sculpture Parks! Another smaller sculpture park can be found around the Scripps hospital in Encinitas. Last year I checked out those sculptures and posted photographs here.
Why are these parks named Wolfstein? Nathan Wolfstein developed the process for purifying the blood thinning anticoagulant drug Heparin. Countless lives have been saved as a result of his discovery. Ralyn and Nate Wolfsteindonate art to healing and educational centers and to help promote Arts for Healing Programs.
If you’re ever in La Jolla near Scripps Memorial Hospital, a very pleasant walk can be enjoyed outside the hospital and around nearby medical buildings!
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
The 31st San Diego Latino Film Festival promises to be bigger and better than ever!
The increasingly popular film festival will be taking place from March 14 to March 24, 2024, at the AMC Theatres at Mission Valley mall. You can check out the event website, which includes the full film schedule, by clicking here.
I’ve learned film lovers will have plenty to sink their teeth into. Among 56 features and 79 shorts there is comedy and tragedy, fantasy and realism, and everything in between. Many diverse stories emerge from Latinx experience.
Established and emerging artists are represented. There is animation and there are documentaries. There are films concerning music, and films about dance. Some films are in English, while others have subtitles. There’s so much that audiences can enjoy!
This year there’s a special emphasis on Argentinian cinema, with ten award-winning films featured. In Argentina the film industry faces various challenges, including censorship.
Each curated film is celebrated for its creativity, authenticity and excellence.
There will be a closing night award ceremony and concert, where ticket holders can mingle with guest filmmakers and actors. There is also the opportunity during two closing night films to meet Cheech Marin!
You want to check this out! Go to the San Diego Latino Film Festival website for everything you need to know by clicking 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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
The epic Bay to Park Paseo is a 1.7 mile long, art-filled walking experience that is now being created in downtown San Diego!
Many creators and designers will soon be installing unique artwork along the Bay to Park Paseo, which celebrates the designation of San Diego/Tijuana as World Design Capital 2024!
Most of the new art will be installed along Park Boulevard, up a corridor that connects San Diego Bay to Balboa Park. The Bay to Park Paseo will start at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, cross the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge, and run up the east side of Petco Park, continuing north up Park Boulevard.
Many of you know a lot of old art can already be found along this long corridor!
I’ve photographed most of it over the years.
Here are a few photos of preexisting art on the Bay to Park Paseo…
To enjoy blog posts that feature preexisting art along the Bay to Park Paseo, click the following links. I’ve arranged these links from south to north. (Check the bottom of each blog post for the approximate date I took the photos.)
Some of the painted artwork you see in these old blog posts has since faded, been replaced or badly marred by graffiti.
An idea! Before the Bay to Park Paseo officially opens, perhaps original artists could be contacted in order to restore some of this great old art!
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool public art rises in downtown San Diego’s newly reopened Children’s Park. I walked through the park today and took photographs of this fascinating sculpture, which is titled Petrichor.
Last year, while the reimagined, redesigned Children’s Park was still closed to the public behind a construction fence, I had called this mysterious white structure a “tower of fun” in my ignorance. I thought it might be part of the nearby playground. I’ve since learned the steel and cement sculpture was created by San Diego artist Miki Iwasaki. (You might recall a different sculpture she created for Liberty Station in Point Loma.)
The odd lattice-like geometric shape of Petrichor in the sky makes an interesting contrast against nearby trees and more distant downtown high-rises!
Petrichor was added to the City of San Diego Civic Art Collection in 2023.
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Do you love to create art? Are you a senior? Answer yes to both questions and you might want to enter a free art contest in San Diego!
I learned about this art contest by reading The Scroll, a quarterly newsletter for seniors published by San Diego Parks and Recreation AgeWell Services.
If you’d like to read the Spring 2024 edition of The Scroll, and discover all sorts of activities and opportunities for seniors, click here! You can find information concerning the art contest on page 7. Or check out the graphic I’ve posted above.
Art submitted for the contest will be on public display for an entire month at the Cathy Hopper Clairemont Friendship Center. Media include acrylic, drawing, pastel, mixed media, oil and watercolor. Time to get inspired!
My friend Mark greeted me last Saturday when I poked my nose into the Balboa Park Senior Lounge while walking around. Folks had just finished playing bingo that morning in the lounge.
Mark reminded me that seniors 65 years or better get free admission to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park during this month of February! If you want to learn more about that amazing offer, click here!
Spread the word!
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
If you driven up College Avenue a block north of El Cajon Boulevard you’ve possibly seen this cool mural. It’s painted on the south side of a sushi restaurant called Fish Pit (I don’t know if they are still operating–their website no longer exists.)
The art is by graffiti artist Unity. It appears that a toothy octopus is enjoying a bowl of rice!
Unity is San Diego artist Jonathan Wenner. You can check out another mural that he painted here. He has a very distinctive style.
The Fish Pit mural was painted in 2021. I really like it!
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
New public art has appeared at the RaDD (Research and Development District) complex that now rises on San Diego’s waterfront!
Sculptures and murals can be viewed by those walking along the Embarcadero among the five gleaming RaDD buildings where some construction fences have recently come down.
I was able to photograph the above sculpture and a long mural today during my walk near the USS Midway, the Greatest Generation Walk and Ruocco Park. I also spotted a water feature among plants and trees between the two southernmost buildings.
Another large red sculpture and another mural have also appeared among the buildings to the north, but construction fences still obstruct photography. I’ll try to provide more photos when those fences are removed.
I know nothing about the artists. If you have any interesting information, please leave a comment. If I learn anything further about this new public art in San Diego, I’ll post an update!
(Last November, I spotted a new mural at the north end of RaDD. See those photos 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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
A beautiful new mural has debuted in San Diego’s Rolando neighborhood!
Depictions of homes in the community, nearby San Diego State University, and familiar plants and animals enliven a wall on 62nd Avenue, a block south of El Cajon Boulevard. The mural was created in partnership with SDG&E, whose substation is located here.
This colorful public art debuted earlier this week and is the work of ArtReach. The lead muralist was Katy Yeaw.
(While visiting Katy’s website, I learned she painted a fun electrical box that I photographed years ago in Little Italy!)
Late this afternoon I checked out the three sides of this great new mural…
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool San Diego Sights! 