Earlier this year, stunning public art debuted in Escondido. You can find this tile mosaic mural near Maple Street Plaza, on an outdoor wall west of the John Paul the Great Catholic University building.
The amazing “America Connects West Region Mural Mosaic” unites small works of tile art painted by over 1500 participants, ages 7 to 97, representing America’s Western States.
According to the official website, Mural Mosaic’s Global Roots is a unique initiative that aims to bring people from around the world together through the power of art. Each collaborative Mural Mosaic production invites people from communities everywhere to connect and celebrate their unity through their diverse expressions of art. With each tile placed in a mural, Global Roots is reconnecting the world through the joy of art – one tile, one mural mosaic, one country at a time.
Not only is this a very cool concept, but the finished Global Roots murals, which often depict beautiful trees and landscapes, are spectacular!
This particular West Region project was finished in collaboration with Esco Alley Art in Escondido. You can see other Esco Alley Art murals here and here.
I took these photographs yesterday…
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Gallery 21 in Balboa Park’s Spanish Village Art Center is now hosting a show full of very beautiful silk art, created by members of the San Diego Silk Guild.
During my visit to the gallery this afternoon, I was interested to learn about the different types of art that can be created using silk. I was shown clothing, scarves, paintings on silk, wax batiks, Japanese shibori, botanical printing, unique sculptures . . . far more than my astonished brain could easily comprehend!
As you can see, this silk artwork can be very colorful. Some of the techniques produce a degree of subtlety and complexity one might not expect.
Looking for something beautiful to take home? Most of the pieces are for sale.
I’m afraid I forgot to take a photo of the sign in front of the gallery, but I believe the show continues until mid-August. You might want to drop by next weekend!
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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 Twitter!
Have you ever wanted to peek into the homes of well-known artists? Now is your chance!
The La Jolla Historical Society has an intriguing exhibition now running at its Wisteria Cottage Gallery. The Artist At Home provides a glimpse into the domestic life of artists–many of whom are world-famous, and many who live in the Southern California and Baja region.
The exhibition has a bit of fun recreating how the home of an artist might appear. But by far the most interesting thing you will see are the numerous photographs of artists in their living spaces and home studios, often at work.
The architecture is frequently unique, designed by creators who continuously create. Works in progress are scattered in rooms among furnishing. It’s apparent that for many artists life and work are indistinguishable. Living is devoted to creating.
Learn more about the exhibition The Artist At Home, including the location and hours, by clicking here.
Niki de Saint Phalle and her assistant Tim Herr at the Princess St. studio. La Jolla, California. 2000.Studio of James Hubbell. Santa Ysabel, California. 2012. Norman Rockwell.Georgia O’Keeffe.Andrew Wyeth.Studio of Irène de Watteville. Solana Beach, California. 2023.“Being an artist is a lifestyle… There is no major distinction between home and studio life.” Einar and Jamex De La Torre.Studio of Johnny “Bear” Contreras. San Pasqual Reservation. 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 Twitter!
If you’ve never visited the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla, now would be a great time to go. They’re currently presenting the 31st Annual Juried Exhibition in their beautiful, light-filled Joseph Clayes III Gallery.
During my La Jolla walk yesterday, I stepped into the Athenaeum merely to savor the handsome architecture and furnishings of this special, unique library. As I turned from the entrance into the main gallery, I was pleased to discover this juried exhibition. The very different pieces–including sculptures, paintings, drawings and photographs–were created by twenty-five artists. (How prestigious is this annual exhibition? Three hundred artists submitted their work for consideration.)
Visit the Athenaeum to enjoy the great pieces in this gallery and elsewhere in the library. You’ll appreciate the passion of artists who love to create.
Check the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library website here to learn more!
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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 Twitter!
Several weeks ago a colorful new mural was painted in Waterfront Park in San Diego. You can find it on the east side of the restrooms, which are located a few steps south of the County Administration Building.
Diversity is a fact. Inclusion is an act! A positive message of human kindness is conveyed by the happy artwork.
The creators of this mural are REVISION (@revision_sandiego) and Hanna Gundrum (@littlehouseink).
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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 Twitter!
Should you ever walk down Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach, keep a sharp lookout for the Ocean Beach Arcade. It’s the brick building you see in the next photograph. Inside you’ll discover a number of small businesses, including a coffee shop, vintage store and art supply store. And you’ll find yourself surrounded by all sorts of fun artwork!
The mural of a boy peering into a window with his dog immediately brought out my camera. As I looked around, I snapped more photos!
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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 Twitter!
I can’t believe how many cool photographs I captured five years ago, back in August 2018!
There were so many great events. There was the Lemon Festival in Chula Vista . . . RC boats racing on Mission Bay’s Model Yacht Pond . . . the Sea Chantey Festival at the Maritime Museum . . . and a celebration of Californio history in Old Town!
And there was that strange mathematical sculpture being assembled at University of San Diego . . . a special look at a model of Lane Field, which long ago was home of the Padres . . . an exhibition of truly bizarre furniture . . . the US National Beat Poet Laureate performing in Balboa Park. . . and, last but not least, a look inside one of San Diego’s most amazing and little known museums!
Curious?
Click the following links to enjoy lots of photographs!
Georgia O’Keeffe. Henry Moore. What do these two famous modernist artists, who lived on two separate continents, have in common? Love of nature. And a singular exhibition now open at the San Diego Museum of Art!
I enjoyed a very special tour of O’Keeffe and Moore a few days ago and I’m still deeply moved while thinking about it.
I, like many people, have always loved the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe. However I knew precious little about Henry Moore, apart from a curvaceous sculpture he created, Reclining Figure: Arch Leg, that stands in the sculpture garden at the San Diego Museum of Art.
When compared side by side, the abstract work of both artists is strikingly similar. Organic, sensuous, familiar, elemental, inspired by forms found in nature. It’s no surprise that their art seems to be distilled from flowers, landscapes, bones and clouds. Because both artists loved nature and closely studied these things.
Both Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore collected bones, driftwood and smooth river stones. Their studios resembled work areas at a natural history museum. In one gallery at the San Diego Museum of Art, recreations of the two artist studios are displayed for visitors to enjoy.
I was surprised to learn that O’Keeffe created sculptures, and that Henry Moore, the sculptor, also painted. The exhibition contains over a hundred pieces between the two artists.
Here is some of O’Keefe’s beautiful work:
The White Flower (White Trumpet Flower), Georgia O’Keeffe, 1932. Oil on canvas. “I have painted what each flower is to me and I have painted it big enough so that others would see what I see.”Red Hill and White Shell, Georgia O’Keeffe, 1938. Oil on canvas. A moon snail shell from the Atlantic shore in the New Mexico desert.Ram’s Head, Blue Morning Glory, Georgia O’Keeffe, 1938. Oil on canvas. Juxtaposition of skull with a flower.
Museum visitors admire Georgia O’Keeffe’s recreated studio which was located at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico:
Abstraction, Georgia O’Keefe, 1946. White lacquered bronze. Inspired by spiral of ram horns.
And here’s Moore at work, and a recreation of a studio in rural Hertfordshire:
Moore Working on the Elmwood Reclining Figure 1959-64. Photographer unknown.Recreation of Henry Moore’s Bourne Maquette Studio, which was named for a stream near the old farmhouse where he lived and worked.
A few of Moore’s sculptures, some of which are models for even larger pieces:
Working Model for Seated Woman, Henry Moore, 1980. Plaster with surface color. Enlarged from a small maquette created in 1956.Mother and Child, Henry Moore, 1978. Stalactite. Inspired by two seashells. (You don’t often see a sculpted piece of stalactite!)Working Model for Oval with Points, Henry Moore, 1968-69. Bronze. Inspired by the interior of an elephant skull.
This truly extraordinary exhibit is made possible by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and Henry Moore Foundation. It will be on view at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park until August 27, 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 Twitter!