People in downtown San Diego have a special treat this weekend! Four metal sculptures by Ricardo Breceda (whose famous landmark sculptures can be seen around Borrego Springs) are on display in front of the San Diego County Administration Building!
Check it out!
There are two bighorn sheep about to butt horns, a giant coiling rattlesnake, and a fierce dinosaur on a flatbed! They’re on display in the sunshine on the grass near Harbor Drive. You can’t miss them!
Ricardo Breceda’s sculptures in Borrego Springs have won the artist international renown. He brought these four pieces here so residents of San Diego can enjoy some of his work, and so everyone is hopefully inspired to head out to the desert where over 130 of his incredible sculptures can be viewed. Here’s his website.
(Five years ago I photographed his Wild Horses public art installation in Vista, California. You can see those photos here!)
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Imagine owning a table umbrella that’s also a work of fine art!
No need to imagine. Look for Studio 26 in Balboa Park’s amazing Spanish Village Art Center. That’s where you’ll find Edward Juarez, the friendly artist who you see in these photographs!
He was painting away when I walked through Spanish Village yesterday. I asked him about the umbrella. When finished, it will have multiple coatings and will be absolutely waterproof. The finished carousel umbrella on the patio nearby has been outdoors for a good while and still looks great.
It was incredible how the cowboy image he was painting came to life and acquired depth as he continued to apply color. This umbrella will be as vibrant as an oil painted framed canvas! He kindly took me into his studio and showed me other Western paintings perfect for this umbrella.
It would be super cool to own one of these table umbrellas, don’t you think? Good news! Edward told me he does commissions! Step into his studio and you’ll notice he paints every kind of subject matter.
Walk through the front entrance of Chula Vista City Hall and you’re immediately greeted by very unique art.
Symbiotic is the name of this Civic Center exhibition. All of the pieces are by printmaker, painter, writer and poet Joelle Cook (@wolfprintsart).
As a nearby sign explains: Symbiotic is the debut solo show of artist and author Joelle Cook… Her art is an exploration of the ways the biological world and the architecture of manmade forms overlap, and how that lends to a new kind of worldbuilding driven by this mix of natural beings and hard shapes.
I noticed that for many of the artists’ pieces, images of living things are created by combining simple and complex polygons–“hard shapes” defined by rigidly straight lines.
In an unexpected way, these creations might remind viewers of a scientific truth. The astonishingly complex living world around us arises from more basic geometry. Think individual molecules and atoms.
Go check out this cool exhibition and see it all for yourself!
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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.
In San Diego’s Civic Center Plaza, near the Civic Theatre Ticket Office, you’ll find these words:
Blooming is the wild body unmarred by the limits of this world
Its petals temporary but you’d never know it
The two lines were written by Paola Capó-García, San Diego Poet Laureate 2025-2027. A special City of San Diego webpage provides her biography.
Paola Capó-García lives in North Park. Her accomplishments and accolades as educator, author and journalist are numerous.
The thought-provoking words in Civic Center Plaza are actually the conclusion of her poem Wild, which you can read here. Her poem explains the difference between blooming and blossoming.
Are you blooming?
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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.
I can’t believe how many great artists came out this afternoon to the 2025 Chula Vista ArtFest! The annual event, which celebrates local artists from South Bay, was held in the outdoor courtyard of Chula Vista City Hall.
A big crowd gathered to meet artists and view some live painting. Most of the creators I saw had a table overflowing with completed works for sale.
The festival also featured representatives from the City of Chula Vista, community organizations, art-related vendors, live music on a stage and plenty of food.
I met many of the artists, and was wowed by their amazing creativity. As you’ll see, one of the artists was winner of a super prestigious Eisner Award!
Consider supporting these artists by clicking links to their websites or social media.
First, let’s meet some smiling people working for the City of Chula Vista. They were providing information that helps residents care for the environment.
On Saturday, October 18, you can join others in your community to Beautify Chula Vista!
Learn more about this great volunteer activity by clicking here.
Now a few fun photos before we meet some artists…
First artist is Tanisha McCullough, aka Nini, a super talented youth who loves to create portraits in oil paint!
The next creator, Tony Washington, won a 2024 Eisner Award at Comic-Con! He’s also a New York Times best selling artist!
His professional accomplishments, which include work in comic books, animated movies and video games, will blow your mind. See them here!
Next artist I met was Ed Roeder. Check out some of his awesome pop culture stuff!
He and his wife, both artists, operate the website Castle by Design.
Next is cool self-taught artist T. Jay Santa Ana. He’s fascinated by Time, Space, and Line… an expressionist and a surrealist experimenting in a framework of abstractions.
@GRASSHOPPERCV.OFFICIAL was airbrushing shirts and stuff at Chula Vista ArtFest.
Last, but certainly not least, is Chicana artist Isabel Garcia (@artbyisbl) from Southeast San Diego. She was just as nice as the first time I met her, years ago! Still going strong!
San Diego Theatres and ArtReach are partnering to create a new community-driven mural in Civic Center Plaza. And they want to hear from you!
Do you have any ideas?
I noticed the above sign in a window of San Diego’s City Administration Building.
The mural will be on three Concourse exit doors facing Civic Center Plaza. The plaza’s overall architecture is mid-century modern. (I once blogged about how sculptor and architectural designer Malcolm Leland created modernist elements of the plaza and nearby parking garage. See that here.)
If you’d like to provide your own input on the future Civic Center Plaza mural, here’s the form where you can make suggestions. The link also leads to more information about this project.
Once the design is finalized, members of the community will help paint the mural!
UPDATE!
The following day, during a San Diego Civic Theatre open house event, I met Isabel Halpern, ArtReach’s Mural Program Manager. She had a display concerning the Civic Center murals.
Included was a graphic showing early mural design concepts. The leading artists are Regan Russell and Donald Gould.
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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.
There’s a tiny parking nook on Adams Avenue in Normal Heights where new murals often appear. The nook lies between Adams Avenue Tattoo and Bosforo, a Turkish restaurant. (Bosforo’s building used to be home of El Zarape Mexican Cantina).
Over many years I’ve photographed these ever-changing murals. Most or all of the art has been painted, I believe, by graffiti artists Hasler (@hasler_88) and Sharky (@bigchill8825).
Last weekend, as I enjoyed the Adams Avenue Street Fair, I noticed two new murals in this nook. It had been about a year since I last peered into it.
I’m fairly sure the same artists created both of these. Check it out!
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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.
San Diego artist James Watts (@jewattso), whose fantastic studio is located downtown, is a creative dynamo. Even as he continues to work on his 100 Paintings project, he has begun to produce 100 Scrolls!
His scrolls are painted on fabric and utilize wood sticks he’s found, cut to size and sanded smooth. Unroll the scrolls and you’ll likely find something mysterious, symbolic, humorous or wise. (Possibly all four!) The art of James Watts often concerns aspects of mythology, religion or literature.
The scroll in my first photograph refers to two other works he has created, the Portal to Heaven and the Gates of Hell. Apple and cloud are accompanied by the words: It was not always like this. Seems everything changed with one bite of the forbidden fruit.
The next scroll in unrolled:
If only they knew.
The next scroll, filled with writing, was used by the artist for practice:
…we laughed and cried Oh what a night Who is to know the reason, the whys, the whats, the meaning of it all. To Love is to Love well…
As you can see, some images are created using sumi-e, which is Japanese ink painting.
We are all Broken. We must mend Ourselves.
What is understood Does not need to Be Explained.
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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.
An amazing free event that attracted creative talent from around our region was held in Chula Vista today. FilAm CreatorCon 2025 brought together lots of Filipino-American artists and their fans!
I was surprised by the huge popularity of this annual convention. It was my first time.
The interior of the Chula Vista Library was filled with artist tables overflowing with fantastic artwork: posters, prints, comic books, graphic novels, stickers, jewelry–you name it!
Several community rooms hosted panels or screenings; a fundraising art auction was open to all; and outside, on the library patio, there was plenty of food and even musical entertainment. Neighborhood families came out to the fun event, kids were active and exploring, and smiling artists were busy showcasing and selling their artwork.
What a great experience!
I loved the positive creative energy! I even recognized some of the artists or their great work!
I started out on the patio…
I saw the following information poster.
Bridge the Gap is a nonprofit organization based in San Diego dedicated to celebrating and preserving Filipino-American representation and heritage.
In the spring they have a Creative Summit which supports the next generation of Filipino creatives.
Now I’m inside the main Chula Vista Library.
Look! It’s super nice artist Mary Jhun!
You’ve seen many examples of her distinctive art on Cool San Diego Sights. Click here and here and here and here.
Some of her work:
Here’s another cool artist and illustrator: Robert Rodriguez (@robz_drawings).
Some of his great stuff…
Watch out! Godzilla is energizing his dorsal spines!
This is Raina Ramos (@thrillustrated). She likes to create dog portraits and other cool stuff, like Star Wars art!
Ron Rubio (@rubiobroscartoonstudio), Director, Animator, and producer of smiles!
He has worked on King of the Hill and The Cleveland Show! His brother who has worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and for Pixar and others was present, too.
Little Yellow Jeepney author Jocelyn Francisco, Ph.D. was at the con, too! Literacy is more important than ever.
The FilAm CreatorCon panel From Roots to Resonance: Crafting Filipino Stories with Universal Appeal was fully attended.
Look at all the people at FilAm CreatorCon in Chula Vista!
Big respect!
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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.
Waka poems are a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. A waka poem is unique in that it consists of 31 syllables.
An exhibit at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park contains examples of waka from Japan’s Heian period (794 – 1185) written in kana script. Each composition is beautiful, not merely as a poem, but as a visual work of art.
A sign in the garden’s Exhibit Hall explains: “Among the aristocracy of the time, romantic relationships often began through the exchange of waka… Since men and women had limited opportunities to meet in person, emotions were conveyed through poetry…”
Learn more about this exhibition at the JFG website here.
I was completely unaware of this type of poetry before visiting the garden today. Spellbound, I stood before the examples on display and read translations of each Japanese poem.
The English translations do not contain 31 syllables, obviously, but they definitely convey feelings indicative of romance. I noticed these wakas often employ metaphors taken from nature.
Here are a few of the translations:
There are many villages where the cuckoo bird sings. It’s a bird that I find attractive, but I don’t feel close to it. I like it, but it’s not mine, so I feel a bit jealous. Poet: The Tales of Ise
I won’t allow you to meet me, even if you imitate the crow of a rooster before dawn. Poet: Sei Shōnagon
I was dying to see you, but after I met you I want to live forever. Poet: Fujiwara no Yoshitaka
Should my heart waver and betray our love, then even the impassable waves of a tsunami would cross over the mountains. In other words, I would never be unfaithful. Poet: Author unknown.
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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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