The COVID-19 pandemic was difficult for all of us. Tragically, many would not live through it.
We all remember the long days of uncertainty, fear, loneliness, forced isolation.
If you head to Balboa Park today, you need to stop by the San Diego Museum of Art to experience Paintings from the Confinement. Today is the final day of this emotionally moving exhibition.
I viewed the small egg tempera paintings, created by San Diego artist Marianela de la Hoz, at the urging of my museum docent friend Catherine.
The images are symbolic, spare, often grim. There is darkness. There are claustrophobic spaces. There is flat human life on small cold screens. But there are a few rays of hope beyond the confining walls. Thank goodness those walls have now mostly come down.
The artist found it hard to honestly paint her many feelings. In particular, it was very hard to portray death.
In her statement, Marianela de la Hoz explains the only treasures I have are my loved ones, family, friends, and art; everything else remained as non-essential.
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Write Out Loud in San Diego offers several great educational programs that encourage students to thoughtfully read, write, speak and listen!
Yesterday, at the Arts in the Park event in Chula Vista, I learned how students can experience the transformative power of poetry!
Let Your Voice Be Heard is a program of Write Out Loud that provides free poetry writing workshops in schools. Students K-12 are inspired to reach within themselves and express their thoughts and emotions with a poem. Selected works are then displayed in libraries and retail businesses!
Poetry Out Loud is a poetry recitation competition for high school students. This educational program encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country…students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about literary history and contemporary life.
I was told that some teachers, like many students, are bewildered and a bit intimidated by the very idea of poetry. But why? Poetry is simply words flowing from our inner selves. There’s no right or wrong. There’s no need to be exalted or profound. Just be yourself. And, possibly, learn a little more about yourself in the process!
Teachers, please explore all the educational programs offered by Write Out Loud by visiting their website here!
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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!
A free, family-friendly event was held today at Chula Vista’s Memorial Park.
The annual Arts in the Park festival brought the community together to enjoy music, artists, dance, food and all sorts of cultural fun! The event was presented by Chula Vista’s own Onstage Playhouse and CARPA San Diego.
So many smiles! So much creativity!
Take a look!
A smiling stilt walker from Circus Joy!Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe and Old Man puppets take to the stage!Write Out Loud provided Kamishibai story box theatre performances. They also read poetry. (I enjoyed Robert Frost’s Mending Wall.)Chula Vista Learning Community Charter Elementary School smiled while creating art!The many colors of life.The Rad Hatter was helping people create crazy cool hats with paper bags!Artists and art organizations could be found under canopies all around the festival.Many young performers took to the stage in Chula Vista’s Memorial Park and received great applause!
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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!
Famous author Mark Twain and several literary friends visited San Diego today. They arrived at Heritage County Park for a very special event.
TwainFest 2022 welcomed some of the world’s most celebrated writers, delighting everyone who attended the outdoor festival. The free, family-friendly event is put on every year by Write Out Loud.
Mark Twain himself greeted visitors who wandered about…
When I asked him, Mark Twain wouldn’t clearly acknowledge that he was inspired by Squibob. Historians say he probably was.
But we can all agree Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a classic of American Literature. The esteemed author must’ve been pleased when TwainFest visitors cheerfully whitewashed a fence, much to the consternation of Aunt Polly.
Soon Twain was joined by three other notable writers. Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Emily Dickinson.
Yes, a fine summer day filled with imagination–another chapter in our own never-ending stories…
Out of the blue, a friendly Charles Dickens came strolling along through Heritage Park. The author confessed that one of his favorite works was A Christmas Carol.
In another area of the park, the Red Queen of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was playing croquet. I didn’t see Lewis Carroll, but he must’ve been nearby.
In the sunny Author’s Salon, Edgar Allan Poe was talking about his life–what he remembered of it.
Then Poe began his emotional recital of The Raven.
A few steps away, what were these smiling TwainFest visitors observing?
Tinker Bell and Peter Pan!
And that scoundrel, Captain Hook!
And what was going on over here?
Alice, the White Rabbit, the (Mad) Hatter and smiling guests had assembled for a quite unique tea party!
The Dormouse made a surprise appearance at the Mad Tea-Party as well!
And who is this fine fellow over here reading a story about gallant knights and noble acts of chivalry?
Don Quixote! (And his squire Sancho Panza.)
For his first big adventure, Don Quixote encountered a terrifying number of large fearsome giants who looked strangely like windmills…
Thank you, Mr. Twain, for the twinkle in your eye and your timeless humor.
And for bringing so many literary friends to San Diego!
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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’d never heard of the expression “spiritual dolls” until I visited Balboa Park last weekend.
KOKORO NO KATACHI | Image of the Heart is an exhibition of spiritual dolls at the Japanese Friendship Garden. It features the work of Kimiko Koyanagi and Michiko Stone, artists who combine traditional Japanese doll-making with contemporary art.
The two sisters are third-generation ningyo doll-makers, descendants of the Japanese Doll-Making Muraoka Family of Tokyo. Their work has been exhibited internationally.
The dolls on display are beautiful in their simplicity. The sculptural figures appear serene, pure of spirit, almost angelic.
According to the JFG website’s description, these dolls are meant to be poetic. They convey deep emotion and philosophical meaning.
Many of the spiritual dolls are thin and elongated. To me their soft forms seem to have emerged from inside growing wood, or bone, or from living beams of light.
One fascinating display shows the many steps taken to make these unique dolls. If you’re a crafty person, you certainly want to see this!
Image of the Heart can be experienced in person inside the Exhibit Hall at the Japanese Friendship Garden through October 30, 2022.
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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!
Around noon today, chalk artists were doing their thing at the 25th Annual Lemon Festival in Chula Vista!
The enormously popular community event is taking place today in Chula Vista’s historic downtown, along Third Avenue.
I paused to admire the half dozen creative works, most of which were in progress.
As you might expect, all this lemony artwork required a fair amount of yellow chalk!
Sweet!
Chalk art by Dorothy Corona.Chalk art by Brenda Mora.Chalk art by Eric Arcala.Chalk art by Colin Moyer.Chalk art by Meg Canilang.Chalk art by Cecilia Linayao.
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Back in Middle School, a bunch of classmates and I spent a summer weekend camping on Catalina Island. At the Parsons Landing primitive campground to be exact.
We hiked all over the north part of Catalina and saw bison, cliff dived into the ocean, sat around a campfire, and even went on an afternoon snipe hunt. (We saw bison? That’s correct! A small herd of bison was transported to this Southern California island by Hollywood for the filming of The Thundering Herd, a 1925 silent movie.)
The snipe hunt fascinated me. We headed up one of the trails above the campground searching right and left and occasionally beating a bush with a stick. Everyone knew from the start that the snipes weren’t real, but we all had fun “hunting” them anyway. At least for a little while. I think what made the snipe hunt fun was the shared joke, and the fact that we were heading up a trail that was new to us.
An idea for a short story came to me some time ago, based loosely on that snipe hunt experience. Of course, I changed many elements for my fictional story. It was necessary that I make the setting of the story a dark night.
You’ll see why when you read my new story, The Snipe Hunt, by clicking here!
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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!
Should you find yourself at Escondido’s Grape Day Park on a Saturday afternoon, be sure to walk over to that green corrugated metal building near the old train depot museum. You’ll be able to enjoy a look inside the Bandy Blacksmith & Wheelwright Shop and see instructors, students and Bandy Blacksmith Guild members at work!
I happened to be walking by a couple Saturdays ago, so I took these photographs.
Students were learning the basics of blacksmithing near one of the forges, and several friendly gentlemen were busy inside the woodworking shop building a dray wagon that will eventually hold a portable blacksmith shop for public demonstration.
You can learn much more about the Bandy Blacksmith Guild by clicking here. Perhaps sign up for a class!
The history of the Tom Bandy Blacksmith is complex and interesting. You can read about that history and learn how the present structure ended up in Grape Day Park by clicking here.
When I read the page concerning past projects of the Bandy Blacksmith Guild, I was surprised that guild members produced most of the metalwork for the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s replica Spanish galleon San Salvador. (Yes, the same ship that took part in Comic-Con last week! If you’d like to see photos of San Salvador being built, click here.)
Another past project of the Bandy Blacksmith Guild was the restoration of the San Diego Centennial Cannon, which I once photographed inside the Whaley House Museum. You can view a photograph of that historic cannon here!
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
A pretty good crowd was walking around outside Comic-Con this Sunday mid-afternoon. The more popular offsite activations still had long lines–two hours in many cases! But some of the lesser offsites were already coming down, being dismantled, loaded back into trucks.
Comic-Con 2022 went by all too fast!
I had the energy for one more walk. Back to work tomorrow.
I hope many of you enjoyed looking at some of my photos this past week. Now I think I’ll take a few days off from blogging, to catch my breath.
But I’m sure there will be many more cool San Diego sights to come!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
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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!
It’s Sunday, the last day of Comic-Con 2022. Things are beginning to wind down a little bit, but thousands are still enjoying the annual pop culture convention.
In the morning fans were heading to the San Diego Convention Center, and many families had driven in from around the city on what is typically a more family-oriented day.
The offsite lines aren’t as bad as Saturday, but they’re still fairly long. I’m afraid I didn’t have the patience to wait. I like to keep moving. Perhaps I’ll go on one more walk around Comic-Con this afternoon and analyze the situation again.
This is what I saw…
People head in toward the San Diego Convention Center on Sunday, the last day of Comic-Con.Congratulations Rachel Smythe! Eisner Award winner for best webcomic.Cool cosplay!The IMDboat has already wrapped up. Or, I should say, is unwrapping.These friendly folks are launching JAM. It’s a spoken word app for your phone. You can record or listen to mini-podcasts about a minute long! “Your story. Your voice.” Brilliant idea!
Here comes Batman. He forgot to use a grappling wire.Creative steampunk and flames cosplay!UH OH! Looks like the dragon escaped from the House of the Dragon’s castle.No, it’s just friendly T. rex and his buddy.As the morning progressed, the crowd heading toward the convention center grew.Walking during Comic-Con, a few minutes before some of the outdoor activations open.A somewhat longish line at the Abbott Elementary offsite.Minimalist cosplay. Nezuko’s box.Another smaller box, with a head poking out of it.The Dragon Ball offsite gave away lots of great swag!Hela and her small red sidekick.I was tossed a tiny rubber ducky that squeaks!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 