I love this carousel horse! It was created using thousands of glass beads! Visitors to the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park can’t miss it!
The beaded horse and several smaller animals occupy a large display case on the museum’s ground floor, which is free for visitors to enter.
Look at all the colorful designs made with tiny beads. The patterns and figures on these animals are full of cultural symbolism.
The horse itself was created in the mid-1990s inside the museum by Rosendo Carillo de la Rosa and his family, who traveled to San Diego from the Huichol community in Jalisco, Mexico.
The large carousel horse is made of fiberglass, glass beads and beeswax. The smaller animals, like the snake and jaguar, also representing the Huichol Sierra Culture, are formed using wood instead of fiberglass. Several different artists crafted these amazing bead animals.
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I’m always amazed by the local talent that appears every two years at the museum’s longest running art program–almost a century now! Students from regional schools around San Diego and Tijuana have selected work displayed in SDMA’s Galleries 14 and 15.
This year the theme is Comfort and Calm. In an age of COVID-19, barbaric war, political hatred, talk of the world’s end, and addictive, omnipresent social media that provides a deluge of shallowness, nastiness, confusion and absurdity, I can definitely understand why young people would seek comfort and calm, and how artistic expression can provide that refuge.
The artworks you’ll see are not only very well done but inspiring. Thank goodness, the human spirit is resilient.
You can freely access Galleries 14 and 15 from a corner of the May S. Marcy Sculpture Court and its Panama 66 restaurant. Look for the following sign and head through the nearby doors that lead to museum restrooms.
Enjoy a few examples of this great youth art…
Sunset, Thrace Hollmann. Torrey Pines Elementary School, Grade 4.Along the Border, Katelyn Wang. The Bishop’s School, Grade 12.Spring Rain, Joana Jiang. Francis Parker School, Grade 11.Look Around, Carley Chen. The Bishop’s School, Grade 10.Sunset Fields, Ivory Rose Foley. Gillispie School, Grade 4.My Nature, Olivia Dooda. Johnson Elementary, Grade 2.Hilltop Home, Hadley Lischke. Gillispie School, Grade 1.Warmth, Ava O’Connor. Westview High School, Grade 12.Sleepy, Gabriella Hernandez. Chula Vista High and School for the Creative and Performing Arts, Grade 12.
Have you noticed electrical boxes around downtown San Diego that appear like special works of art? Many of these boxes were painted in 2021 for the San Diego Museum of Art’s previous Youth Art exhibition.
You can find those photographs by clicking here and scrolling down.
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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!
A beautiful sculpture of a female gray whale and her calf stands near the whale-watching overlook at Cabrillo National Monument. The graceful work of art was created by local sculptor Carl Glowienke in 1992.
Over the years I’ve shared different photos of Gray Whale. But I never gave credit to the artist. I figured it’s time to rectify this oversight.
Here are some of those images again, but now I’ve added a photo of the plaque.
Carl Glowienke, who works in Lakeside, has created numerous amazing sculptures. Many depict whales, dolphins and other sea life. Check out his website here.
This morning, as I surfed Carl Glowienke’s website, I was excited to learn he created Grand Canyons of La Jolla–a 3,000 pound bronze topographic map of underwater La Jolla Canyon, installed in Kellogg Park at La Jolla Shores.
I happened to blog about that project’s progress during a walk in early 2022. To see what I discovered, click here. I need to go back and experience the finished work!
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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!
Take a look at this very unique three-dimensional art that honors military Veterans. It’s made of painted drywall screws!
I saw this patriotic artwork today during my visit to the USS Midway Museum. The display was getting a lot of attention on the aircraft carrier museum’s hangar deck!
The artist is Chief Joe Pisano, who has served many years in the Navy Reserve. I learned he now has an exhibition at Liberty Station. His “The Art of Immortalizing Heroes” is located inside the NTC Command Center, near the new Nautical History Gallery and Museum, which I visited here.
Joe’s display today included several flags that he created using thousands of drywall screws. The texture and wavy appearance of the flags is fantastic.
I noticed much of his artwork brings attention to POW/MIA and homeless Veterans.
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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!
The 20th Annual Art Exhibition of Friends of Sumi-e can be enjoyed this weekend in Balboa Park. If you’re in San Diego and love Japanese ink painting or are merely curious, make sure to head over to the Casa del Prado tomorrow, Sunday, from 11 am to 4 pm.
Over the years I’ve enjoyed several of these fine exhibitions. It never ceases to amaze me how trained artists, with a few careful strokes of a brush, can create such profound beauty.
At the art exhibition, you’ll also be able to listen to Japanese flute, observe a live tea ceremony and meet some of the the artists! As you learn more about sumi-e, you can watch as your name is painted elegantly in Japanese!
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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!
Driving through San Diego’s Skyline neighborhood, have you noticed an enormous, fantastic fish?
I’ve seen this amazing fish mural the past few years while riding the Orange Line trolley. I finally walked over to the corner of Imperial Avenue and 69th Street to have a closer look and take photos.
The abstract fish is by San Diego artist Maxx Moses. You’ve probably seen his wildly creative murals around the city and at several trolley stations. Often cultural, technological, and organic imagery are fused together to create eye-popping art.
You can see other examples of distinctive Maxx Moses work 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 Twitter!
A couple of incredible projects are now underway that will improve and beautify the Palisades area of Balboa Park.
One project I wrote about yesterday. Two life-size grizzly bear sculptures and two flagpoles will be added to the roof of the San Diego Automotive Museum. You can read that blog post here.
The second project concerns the historical building directly across Pan American Plaza: today’s Municipal Gymnasium. This building was originally built for the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition in Balboa Park and was called the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries.
Back in 1935, a large themed mural greeted visitors above the entrance to the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries. It was a bas-relief designed by Arturo Eneim, carved out of layers of wallboard. It’s long gone.
But that mural is coming back! And it will be made of cold cast bronze!
In late 2021 I visited the San Diego studio of Bellagio Precast where the 12′ x 20′ cold cast bronze fiber glass reinforced concrete mural is being created. You can see interesting photos from that visit, plus renderings and more description, by clicking here. And here.
I visited the same studio again a couple days ago and observed how the enormous mural is coming together, piece by piece!
Architectural plans for the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries mural are spread near a small model at Bellagio Precast in San Diego.A small model of the cast bronze mural, which includes industrial imagery, an electrical generator, and three human figures.Here’s the mold used for the small model’s creation. You can see how the images are reversed.The design for the electrical generator element that will be included in the large, finished mural.And here is the generator! Just one element of many that will be pieced together to create a mold for the massive cast bronze mural.More elements to be incorporated into the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries mural include huge gears!
Paintings by over twenty NCSFA member artists fill Gallery 21 in the Spanish Village Art Center. The exhibition, titled North County Creates, continues through March 14, 2023.
Anyone in San Diego who loves art should swing on by the gallery to enjoy the many fine pieces. And there are friendly artists with whom you can chat, too!
Today I was fascinated by a variety of painting styles as I visited the gallery. I noted that nearly all of the pieces are for sale, just in case you’re looking for something beautiful.
I also noticed small works of colorful art available for a suggested donation of twenty dollars. Donations support the organization’s high school scholarship fund.
Very cool!
Pathway, by artist Doris Bertch.Mirror, Mirror, by artist Minnie Valero.
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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!
Here’s one last blog post from my long walk in Chula Vista yesterday.
As I wandered down the alley directly west of Third Avenue, I discovered two very cool murals.
The first is north of Davidson Street. There’s a signature, but I’m not sure who the artist is. Leave a comment if you know…
The second mural is south of Davidson Street and is by artist Michelle Ruby, aka Mr. B Baby. You might recognize her artwork. It contains fun, colorful characters that often populate her murals…
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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!
Check out all the fun art on a wall at Algo Bueno in Chula Vista! The artwork was painted by local kids!
I was walking around yesterday when I saw this colorful wall at 354 Church Avenue where Algo Bueno (Something Good), an outdoor eatery, is located. The area was fenced off, so I took zoom photos and sharpened them.
This great art was designed and created by students from Chula Vista Learning Community Charter Middle School.
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 