Jorge Luis Borges wrote: “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” As someone who loves to read and write, I agree.
But I also love to experience life, contemplate and be inspired in other ways. So paradise, to me, would also be like a museum full of extraordinary artwork.
Anyone who’d like to enter such a paradise in San Diego should visit the San Diego Museum of Art. Every time I go, I feel that I’ve ascended to a blissful place–an elevated place where I become fully alive.
My docent pal Catherine guided another great tour of the museum this weekend, and as I and other guests walked from gallery to gallery, my eyes couldn’t stop jumping from wonder to wonder. And I had to chuckle a couple of times, too. Catherine has been known to spontaneously inject bits of wry humor into her tours. With this simple blog post I would like to thank her for being so generous.
The San Diego Museum of Art never ceases to amaze me. I’m always discovering something new. It contains a truly world-class collection of fine art, including masterpieces by some of history’s most celebrated artists. The museum has also collected many pieces that have a special connection to San Diego.
I’ve always thought it would be amazing if one small gallery were permanently dedicated to San Diego–to San Diego’s most renowned artists, and to timeless works of art inspired by our beautiful and surprisingly diverse city. Just imagine!
Do you love art, too? If you ever find yourself in Balboa Park, please walk over to the San Diego Museum of Art.
Then step through the front door into Paradise.
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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!
Close photo of several bronze figures in Tim Shaw’s Middle World.
A very disturbing and powerfully thought-provoking exhibition has recently opened at the San Diego Museum of Art. Yesterday I walked through the dark galleries that contain Tim Shaw: Beyond Reason, and this morning my mind is still digesting the half dozen fantastic installations created by the celebrated artist.
Tim Shaw is a Northern Irish sculptor who, as a child in 1972, witnessed firsthand the bombing of a Belfast cafe during Bloody Friday. That exact, horrifying moment is recreated in a bloodless, abstract way in his installation Mother, The Air Is Blue, The Air Is Dangerous. Eerily spinning trays hover in the air above suddenly upset tables and chairs; the shadows of fleeing people stream across surrounding windows.
That same feeling of malice and inescapable chaos seems to echo elsewhere in Tim Shaw’s work.
Walking through the dim galleries containing Tim Shaw: Beyond Reason feels inhumanly bleak. Little light, the low sound of a hollow, echoing, machine-like vibration all around, no human warmth. Like the corridors of a dark artificial video game world where there is no hope for actual daylight. Where synthetic horrors await around corners.
Themes explored by the six immersive installations range from the primal, unconscious complexity of human beings, to cynical exploitation in a materialistic society, to the uncertainties that rise in a technologically directed world.
I found the first installation that I encountered, Middle World, to be extraordinarily rich with symbolism. A massive sculpture, Middle World presents many small bronze figures that appear to have emerged from ancient mythology, Shakespeare, or the fleshy canvases of Hieronymus Bosch. The weird, expressive figures, some in masks, are arranged on a throne-like stage above what seem to be stalactites and beneath what seem to be Gothic columns and skeletons in catacombs. The sculpture incorporates the shapes of objects that are both modern and ancient, commonplace and supernatural. It’s a mixture of space and time and human passion and compulsion and perplexity. A melting, flowing work of sculpted substance like an unending dream.
Other more disturbing installations that compose the exhibition concern dehumanization and include subjects like the silencing of free speech, vigilantism, human exploitation and depravity.
Defending Integrity from the Powers that Be presents two rocking-chair-like figures that are in constant back-and-forth motion. Both are gagged, and the muffled voices that emerge from either are unintelligible. According to a nearby sign, the piece represents how voices are silenced with money, and how people are influenced by the proliferation of disinformation on the internet. (What it fails to mention is that billions of ordinary people now speak their thoughts more freely than ever because of the Information Age. As a blogger who pays close attention to such things, I can tell you that many ideas don’t go unheard because of stifling propaganda or censorship, but because the internet has become a complete babel of voices all desperately competing to be heard.)
Another unique installation concerns technology and our evolving understanding of what it is to be human. Aptly titled The Birth of Breakdown Clown, the interactive sculpture seems to have a great deal of potential. Visitors enter a small room and stand before a human-like robot that moves its head and limbs while engaging with the audience. A member of the audience is invited to stand before the robot and converse with it. Breakdown Clown is said to possess artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, during the performance that I witnessed, I couldn’t detect any sort of autonomous machine intelligence, or even working speech recognition. With an odd combination of humor, condescension and poetic rambling, the Genesis-quoting robot guided the entire conversation. Its often disconnected statements and responses were apparently composed by the artist.
Tim Shaw: Beyond Reason as a whole is a very forceful, challenging work of contemporary art that will strongly engage active minds. It presents unspeakable horror. It isn’t for the squeamish. It’s an examination of human darkness and potential inhuman darkness. It undertakes a quest for understanding. That which has come into existence tries to understand its own creation. An electronic clown tries to define the Mystery that underlies all things.
However, to my thinking, darkness should be contrasted with light. And clowns that are witty have a beating heart.
These photographs were taken by my poor old camera in very dim darkness, where no flash photography is permitted. The images are a bit blurry, but somehow that makes them more potent!
If you want to be intellectually challenged, and journey through galleries that are filled with warnings, uncertainty and darkness, check out Tim Shaw: Beyond Reason, which is now showing at the San Diego Museum of Art through February 24, 2019.
Middle World. Mixed media, 1989-Current, by artist Tim Shaw.Ancient symbols and strange figures contained in Tim Shaw’s Middle World.Mother, The Air Is Blue, The Air Is Dangerous, Working Drawing I. Ink, charcoal, and collage, 2015, by artist Tim Shaw.Defending Integrity from the Powers that Be. Mixed media, 2017, by artist Tim Shaw.Alternative Authority. Mixed media, 2017, by artist Tim Shaw.The Birth of Breakdown Clown, an artificially intelligent, interactive, speaking robot by Irish sculptor Tim Shaw.
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If you’d like to read a few philosophical works of fiction that I’ve written–stories about the complexity of life–about the mingling of darkness and light–please visit Short Stories by Richard.
The 2nd Annual Day of the Dead North Park Festival had a couple blocks of Ray Street overflowing with color and life!
Today I checked out the Day of the Dead festival in North Park!
The annual festival, which is only in its second year, was held on two blocks of Ray Street just south of University Avenue. I couldn’t believe the size of the crowd enjoying this relatively modest event celebrating Día de los Muertos!
All of the cherished Day of the Dead traditions could be found, including a large, beautiful altar and lots of face painting, and, of course, some elegantly dressed Catrinas strolling about. There was also abundant Mexican music, themed artwork and yummy food!
This is definitely a festival that should grow in popularity!
Many costumes celebrating Día de los Muertos (and also Halloween) could be seen about the fun North Park festival.Boy poses for photo as a Day of the Dead skeleton with top hat.A traditional Día de los Muertos altar remembers loved ones who’ve passed from this life.Kids and adults could color a calavera, or decorative skull.Lots of Day of the Dead merchandise could be found at various vendor tables about the festival.Some Día de los Muertos items for sale included Catrina dolls, orange marigolds and colorful calaveras.Many faces at the festival had been painted to resemble sugar skulls.Characters from the popular culture have been transformed into these Day of the Dead refrigerator magnets!I see a hanging shirt printed with the image of a Mexican lucha libre mask. Seems appropriate in this photo!Another small altar (or ofrenda) includes photos of deceased loved ones, papel picado, and pan de muerto.Mariachis performed joyful music for the crowd at one end of the city block.Día de los Muertos is celebrated in North Park. It’s a new local tradition that promises to grow even more popular!
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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!
Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, returns this coming Wednesday, October 31. Many in San Diego will observe the Mexican holiday, a festive span of three days that coincides with All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.
Day of the Dead is woven with long-lived traditions respecting human love and loss. Families build small altars, create powerful images. It is a time when loved ones who have passed on are prayed for, remembered and blessed.
Over the years, I’ve experienced several memorable Day of the Dead events in San Diego.
Here are three Day of the Dead blog posts from past years. Click the links to enjoy a variety of colorful photographs…
19th century engraving depicting Count Almaviva and Susanna in Act 3 of The Marriage of Figaro. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
By sheer chance I stumbled upon a very cool event this afternoon. I was walking through the San Diego Central Library’s courtyard when I noticed a sign posted by the entrance to the Neil Morgan Auditorium. It announced that a free lecture was about to begin!
I hurried in, took a seat, and found myself quickly mesmerized by a talk about the San Diego Opera’s upcoming performance of The Marriage of Figaro!
Dr. Ron Shaheen, Adjunct Associate Professor in the Music Department at the University of San Diego, made the fascinating presentation. With the help of photographs, video clips and audio samples, he provided a wide range of information concerning Mozart’s famous opera. Even a complete opera novice like myself could appreciate the beautiful, timeless and amusing qualities of The Marriage of Figaro.
Many in the audience chuckled at the antics of its characters. The story, imbued by Mozart with deep emotional richness, turns upon all-too-common human weaknesses. The Marriage of Figaro is a mixture of crazy schemes, sudden surprises, human desire, selfishness, misunderstanding, love, jealousy, even more silliness . . . and concludes with a poignant scene of forgiveness.
Intrigued? Visit the San Diego Opera website here. The Marriage of Figaro will be performed in the next couple of weeks.
More free lectures in the Opera Insights Series will be coming to the Central Library. You can learn when and where by clicking here.
Dr. Ron Shaheen provides an entertaining lecture concerning The Marriage of Figaro during the San Diego Central Library 2018-2019 Opera Insights Series.Information concerning Mozart, his opera The Marriage of Figaro, and the San Diego Opera’s upcoming performances. (Click the image to enlarge it for easy reading.)Detail from a portrait of Mozart, by Johann Nepomuk della Croce. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
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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!
Audience looks down as a dancer portrays a homeless person during the first stage of 2018 Trolley Dances at Hazard Center.
This morning I watched the first dance of the 2018 Trolley Dances at Hazard Center shopping mall. This unique annual event is a production of the San Diego Dance Theater.
Arriving early, I stood a couple of floors above the outdoor performance, and let my eyes wander about as I took in the entire scene.
The first dance portrayed the homeless. As the invisible curtain rose, dancers, who sat alone among their scant possessions, rose and converged in a dizzy, tragic performance.
Two male dancers tussled over a shopping cart, but that seemed to be the extent of their malice. The twisting dance showed troubled souls coming together, having a moment of hope and happiness, raising each other up before departing to go their separate ways.
After the first dance ended, I followed the mobile audience as they were led west down the nearby San Diego River Trail to the next outdoor stage. Chairs were set up short of the place where Highway 163 crosses Mission Valley.
I continued walking. What I saw thereafter wasn’t part of the program.
As the audience gathers on the south side of the Hazard Center shopping mall, one performer appears be homeless, sitting alone.The gathered audience awaits the first outdoor dance of 2018 Trolley Dances.The performance begins, and another dancer rushes onto the stage.Dancers converge in front of the audience. The raw, disturbing dance portrays the lives of different people who are homeless.Dancers move about fluidly, showing a variety of emotions, including pain, loss, uncertainty, anger, hopelessness.A shopping cart is a focal prop. Seen from above, it is empty.Performers tussle briefly over the shopping cart, while a nearby couple dances.The dancers spread out and face the audience.The dancers move together, as if suddenly animated by a unifying energy.One dancer is raised up by the others.
The dancers finally exit the stage, struggling up sets of stairs at Hazard Center.They return to take their bow. There is great applause.The dancers collapse and lie on the concrete.This performance is over.The audience will be led across the street and on to the next nearby dance location, on the path by the San Diego River.What the audience did not see. An empty drug baggie at the bottom of some stairs behind Hazard Center. Very few people use these particular stairs.The audience heads west along the San Diego Trolley tracks.The mobile Trolley Dances audience is guided through a short stretch of Mission Valley along the San Diego River toward the next unique stage.Empty chairs and graffiti on a construction wall await at the next Trolley Dances stage.That is as far down the path the audience would venture.Had they proceeded farther, they would have reached a place where many homeless gather and take shelter–in shadowy places beneath Highway 163.
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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!
Ready for combat, warriors file through the 16th Annual Viking Festival in Vista, California.
Today I headed up to Vista to enjoy the 16th Annual Viking Festival, which is being held this weekend in and around Norway Hall.
This very popular festival features everything Norse, including costumes, crafts, cultural demonstrations, live music on two stages, and a wide variety of spirited competitions. There’s a Viking Beard Competition, a Viking Horn Blowing contest, a Kids Fish Fling, a Guardians of Midgard Chest Game, and an epic All Weapons Tournament. Although I didn’t stay to watch, I learned that Saturday evening concludes with spectacular flaming axe throwing!
I arrived shortly after the gate opened, then wandered about taking it all in before the festival became extremely crowded.
Here come a bunch of photos!
The Vista Viking Festival continues on Sunday. If you’re in the area, you might want to head on over yourself! If you don’t care for big crowds, come early!
The very popular Vista Viking Festival attracts thousands of visitors every year.I was given a hearty welcome by these noble members of The Norwegian Fish Club, who meet in Vista’s Norway Hall and put on the festival.The Norwegian Fish Club serves as a forum for persons attached to Norway, its history or mythology. Officers and various members dress in Viking attire!Shortly after I entered the Viking Festival, I spotted this rather unusual longship!It appears I’ve entered Vikings territory!In addition to crafts and artwork, some of the vendors sell swords, axes and other weapons used by fierce Norsemen long ago.A basket full of plastic two-horned Viking helmets.Norway Hall in Vista is where locals gather to share unique culture and history from old Scandinavia.Food and entertainment are plentiful at the Annual Viking Festival.I hadn’t realized that Vikings ate hot dogs!The festival’s Northern Territory is where the Viking clans camp. Demonstrations and reenactments can be enjoyed by curious visitors.These folk show what life might have been like in parts of northern Europe during the Viking Age.A lady at work making Viking crafts.This friendly Viking gent welcomed me to his camp. Various groups actually camp in the park-like setting around Norway Hall during the weekend of the festival.Signs explained different aspects of Norse mythology, including Valhalla, a great hall in Asgard, where fallen heroes assemble and are ruled over by Odin.The singing group Damekor performs on the Loke Stage during the Viking Festival.Hair braiding could be observed everywhere. I was told the length of a Viking’s hair was often representative of their social status. Long, elaborate braids would be “sewn together” and tended by servants.Every sort of Viking armor, costume and dress could be found throughout the festival.One vendor was showing these very cool stained glass dragons.Another vendor had magic runes for sale.Another had a big inventory of very colorful mugs.These funny bearded mugs resemble thirsty Viking warriors!A metalsmith was at work in the festival’s Northern Territory.So was a woodcarver. This guy was fashioning a Viking bowl, or skål, based on actual archaeological findings.More armor and weaponry that might have been used by marauding Norsemen.Bread was being baked in two large outdoor earthen ovens.Visitors to the Viking Festival can purchase fresh bread, crumpets, scones and other goodies.This funny fellow was guarding a Staff Only festival entry.I believe this guy was making collectible Viking charms by pouring molten metal into small molds.One vendor had all sorts of fantastic, glittering figurines on display. I see a couple of dragons perched on geodes.Visitors to the 16th Annual Viking Festival in Vista walk through the Southern Territory.A Viking combat demonstration had just ended, and some festival visitors were talking to one of the participants.I enjoyed viewing an ongoing blacksmith demonstration at Odin’s Forge.Kids pose in a Viking longship for a fun photo.At the Weapons Range, visitors to the Viking Festival try their hand at archery, spear and axe throwing.Aiming for the dragon!And there’s a large beer garden, too. Cheers!
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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!
The San Diego School of Ballet performs during Arte, Color y Fiesta, a special event in Balboa Park celebrating Mexican Independence Day.
This evening I enjoyed a special event at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park. The House of Mexico presented Arte, Color y Fiesta, a cultural program rich with dance, music and patriotism celebrating Mexican Independence Day.
I successfully photographed the first few groups that provided entertainment before daylight waned. Many smiles shined into the evening.
To learn more about the House of Mexico, and perhaps become a member, or provide a donation as they prepare to build their new cottage among the existing House of Pacific Relations International Cottages, visit their website here!
The colorful program at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion was presented by the House of Mexico, member of the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages in Balboa Park.A poster on display during the event showed construction plans for the House of Mexico’s new cottage in Balboa Park.Los Chinelos Unidos por Siempre de San Diego dance in Balboa Park. The traditional dance of the State of Morelos, Mexico includes fantastic Carnival-like costumes and masks.During the program, a color guard advanced the Mexican flag to the stage, and the traditional Grito Mexicano was shouted. Viva México!Mariachi Juvenil de San Diego, a musical group composed of local high school students, perform during an event that celebrates Mexico’s independence from Spain.Meanwhile, in the nearby Plaza de Panama, the Flavor Company dance group had people dancing the Conga for Balboa Park’s Food Truck Friday.Life, color and joy thrive in San Diego’s amazing Balboa Park.
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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 large, welcoming Love City Heights mural greets people along University Avenue near Interstate 15.
There’s a surprising, rapidly expanding outdoor art gallery in San Diego that anybody can freely enjoy. The huge canvases of this unique gallery are the walls of buildings in City Heights, on the stretch of University Avenue between I-805 and I-15.
Eye-catching works of art by noted San Diego and Southern California muralists have recently been painted all along this “drive-through” gallery. And many more will be appearing soon!
I recently enjoyed a walking tour of the colorful murals, led by Carlos Quezada and Edwin Lohr, two members of Love City Heights, an association affiliated with the City Heights Town Council. Carlos and Edwin are both visionaries who are working with local residents, community leaders and businesses to bring new life to this extraordinarily diverse San Diego neighborhood.
An important part of their effort is #theavenuemuralproject. The Avenue Mural Project is using the magic of art to transform University Avenue, which contains City Heights’ Business District, into a vibrant place full of culture, creativity and community pride.
I learned that Carlos has a definite goal. He’d like to have one new street mural painted every month. His hope is that eventually three works of public art will be easily seen from any random spot along “The Avenue”.
I also learned that Love City Heights is collaborating with the City Heights Development Corporation and Mid-City CAN (Community Advocacy Network) to create even more murals east of I-15 through their youth program.
In addition to filling the streets with cool art, Love City Heights is working with business and property owners to transform their historic San Diego neighborhood into a dynamic place where people from all over will come to dine, shop and enjoy themselves. City Heights is the most diverse community in all of San Diego, and is centrally located, with many unique ethnic restaurants that can be found nowhere else. City Heights is uniquely qualified to be an authentic cultural attraction in San Diego.
Would you like to learn more about San Diego’s colorful, rapidly growing “drive-through” art gallery?
Are you an artist, resident or local business owner who’d like to participate in the revitalization of City Heights?
Do you live in San Diego and want something fun to do? Hop in your car or put on your walking shoes, then embark on a voyage of discovery along University Avenue between I-805 and I-15, where you will enjoy an ever-growing gallery of murals!
Here are a few . . .
The first mural painted by The Avenue Mural Project in City Heights contains joyful swirls of many colors! Endless Summer was designed by artist Erin Bowman.The warm San Diego sun shines above stylized waves.The Endless Summer mural was painted by local school children, whose names appear in one corner, along with many positive messages.Earlier this year I posted a photo of this mural on my blog. I hadn’t realized it’s part of a cool outdoor drive-through art gallery in City Heights!Compassion in a City Heights alley. I was told this Amor mural, by @inkpaint and @fabianafoca, is a work in progress.The beautiful tile mosaic “A” is not quite completed.VISUAL painted the wall of a MetroPCS store with a cool image of kids communicating with tin cans and a string.One business along University Avenue had their building painted with a pleasing mural containing elements of nature.Another local store now has happy, inviting murals painted on a side of their building.This fun image depicts kids breaking open a piñata.A mural titled The Garden Party by artists Althea Rose Neff, Gilbert Cota and Alex Malone.A closer photo of The Garden Party mural, on the wall of popular Mexican restaurant Super Cocina.Los Angeles muralist Ruben Rojas, co-founder of Beautify Earth, painted LOVE on the side of 7-Eleven in City Heights.
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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!
Visitors to the San Diego Museum of Art enter Gallery 15, where many human figures sculpted by Mexican artist Javier Marín stand horizontally upon a large wall.
Yesterday, during my walk through Balboa Park, I stepped from the Panama 66 outdoor cafe into Gallery 15 of the San Diego Museum of Art . . . and look what I saw!
Upon one large wall stand numerous small sculptures of the human body, created by Victor Javier Marín Gutiérrez, a Mexican artist whose celebrated work has been exhibited internationally.
The organic sculptures stand on the wall in poses of naked expression, casting dynamic shadows that crisscross in every direction. There is anguish and joy and perplexity and care and simple, wonderful being. There is flesh and there is soul. There is that ongoing internal search for human identity.
According to the San Diego Museum of Art’s website: “Javier Marín’s work, above all, is about beauty, a particularly human beauty that reflects what the poet José Emilio Pacheco described as ‘the terrible miracle of being alive.’”
Looking across at the wall containing many small sculpted human forms is like gazing down from above upon the mass of naked humanity. It’s like a Creator gazing down upon his living, breathing, dancing Creation.
This astonishing wall is an example of the Javier Marín sculpted work now on display in the San Diego Museum of Art’s free Galleries 14 and 15.
The exhibition will be officially kicked off with a special event on Thursday, September 27, 2018. Culture & Cocktails: Art of the Body includes a VIP pre-tour with the artist himself.
The exhibition will continue through March 3, 2019.
Javier Marín’s fleshy sculpted forms depict every sort of human expression.Gazing at many representations of our mysterious selves.
UPDATE!
I saw even more amazing Javier Marín art during a later visit to the museum, and here are some photographs!
The first photo showing sculpted elements of the human body intermixed, is of a piece that can be viewed in Gallery 14.
The next two photos, taken in the San Diego Museum of Art’s first floor rotunda, are of several large, truly stunning sculptures that are described: Untitled I, II, VI. Polyester resin and iron wire, 2004.
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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! 