This very colorful street art was painted on two electrical boxes on University Avenue in Hillcrest. It’s signed by artist Liz Lancaster (@lizmurals) and dated 2024.
Different heads appear to be growing atop multi-colored stalks. On the street-facing side of one box there are flowers and the words: Let Love Grow.
You can find this street art a bit west of Park Boulevard. It is so very unique that it’s hard to miss!
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Ish Galvan is a cool dude I met during the Vista Strawberry Festival. He and Vince Vargas are the creators behind Triple OG Comics. He was showing everybody the Tamale Guy comic book they’ve published.
As I understood it, Ish is a writer who loves to mash up different concepts in his work, from mythology to metaphysics to science fiction to neo-noir. The story of the multi-issue Tamale Guy is described as: A tamale vendor escapes his violent past to begin a peaceful life. However, an ex-cartel killer with Aztec powers seeks revenge.
Ish explained that he’s bridging both nerd and Chicano lowrider culture. At first glance the two cultures might seem very different, but in fact they have things in common. Consider the graphics painted on many lowrider cars. It’s the sort of art you’d find in a comic, graphic novel, or at Comic-Con for that matter. Some deep in the lowrider culture have confided to Ish they secretly collect comic books, too!
That these two artists are cultural trailblazers is pretty awesome!
Good luck guys!
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Organizations and businesses who support the environment were lined up behind the center, while vendor canopies and diverse cultural entertainment took place on the open grass nearby. Inside the WorldBeat Cultural Center there was more life to experience, including the rhythms of San Diego Taiko that I enjoyed. Visitors could also walk through the center’s lush Ethnobotany Sanctuary Garden. (I’ll be blogging about the garden later.)
There was plenty to see and do!
Behind the WorldBeat Cultural Center’s building, several canopies were set up for Earth Day. This is where visitors could enjoy most of the environmental activities and education.The San Diego Bird Alliance was showing how to mix clay and seeds to make seed balls that melt in the rain.Local native seed libraries can be found all around San Diego County. The San Diego Beekeeping Society was present with a contained hive for the purposes of demonstration. They are working to save bees.People visiting the Global Earth Day Festival could pot a plant!There were opportunities for swapping seeds, purchasing plants and composting!Books celebrating diversity could be found here. Sitting at the table is author JohnnieRenee Nelson!Books promote positive values of African American families.Lots of smiles at the KNSJ community radio station tent!Inside the WorldBeat Cultural Center people listen to a performance by San Diego Taiko.Some of the vendors on the grass near Park Boulevard.Many people come together in beautiful San Diego. WorldBeat Cultural Center hosts their 34th Annual Global Earth Day Festival!
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This weekend you have one last chance to experience a very special exhibition of art in Balboa Park. Members of the San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild are exhibiting work that celebrates the history and culture of Logan Heights and other neighborhoods along Imperial Avenue east of downtown San Diego.
One Day in the Life on Imperial is the title of the exhibition, now on display in Gallery 21 of Balboa Park’s Village Arts Center (still known widely as Spanish Village).
Last month, at the TULAROSA gallery, I visited the first version of this exhibition. It has greatly expanded and moved since then, and many more diverse artworks are now collected together for visitors to enjoy!
The art you’ll encounter shows what life is like along historic Imperial Avenue. Families and shopkeepers, happiness and struggles–every aspect of a community is the subject matter of local artists who walked the street, absorbing all they experienced. Many of the resulting pieces are energetic and colorful.
One Day in the Live on Imperial continues through Monday, April 20th, 2026. If you’re heading to Balboa Park this weekend, you ought to swing by!
A few examples…
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The coming of Spring was celebrated at the Old Globe today in Balboa Park!
AXIS, a community engagement program of the Old Globe, presented Celebration of Spring. The free, family-friendly event celebrated and honored local indigenous culture, their language and traditions. Front and center in the Old Globe’s outdoor Copley Plaza there was dance, singing, poetry and storytelling!
After wandering past the canopies of several vendors and organizations, I enjoyed the first part of the program, which featured dance performances by Bearpaw Native Dancers and Talent.
The above photo is of a fancy shawl butterfly dance!
A friendly greeting from folks representing AXIS!
Youthful smiles at a table featuring Our Past, Present, and Future comic books.
These optimistic, inspiring comic books were co-written by San Diego State University professor Ethan Banegas (@Ethan-Banegas), a member of the Barona Band of Mission Indians. Several creators helped to put it together!
The House of Mexico was at the event, too. I purchased a bottle of cold water. Hot again today!
An audience filled the tables at Copley Plaza as the cultural performances continued.
Those present were invited to join a Round Dance honoring mothers. The percussion simulated the heartbeat you heard before birth inside your mother.
In spring the life of the world is reborn.
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A special art exhibition will soon be opening in Grant Hill, across Imperial Avenue from neighboring Logan Heights. One Day in the Life on Imperial will feature works by members of the San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild. The exhibition will be open to the public beginning March 21, 2026 at the TULAROSA gallery, located at 2602 Imperial Avenue. The Opening Reception is from 4 to 7 pm.
The San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild has initiated an “Atelier” for the purpose of experimentation with conceptual art and community engagement. This exhibition is its inaugural event. The Barrio Artists Partnership is participating, too. The Atelier artists have, for three months, been walking, talking, observing and creating art based on their community centered dialogue.
Seventeen artists from diverse areas of San Diego will present their finished art as well as their concept behind the art.
Everyone is invited to drop by and see their inspired work!
After March 29 the exhibit will be moved to Gallery 21 in Balboa Park’s Spanish Village Art Center, where it will open on April 7.
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A sculpture was recently installed at the Museum of Us in Balboa Park. You can see the new artwork when crossing the Cabrillo Bridge, about to enter the west archway of the California Quadrangle. Look up toward the second floor’s outdoor balcony!
The sculpture is titled The Economy of the Absurd. It was created by Marcos Ramírez ERRE, an artist from the Tijuana and San Diego region who has created large-scale public works since the 1990s. It’s part of the newly opened Museum of Us exhibition Race: Power, Resistance & Change.
The museum’s About the Exhibit page explains: The exhibition Race: Power, Resistance & Change shares stories of how the construction of race has shaped laws, institutions, and daily life in San Diego and the broader multinational region.
As a plaque on the balcony near The Economy of the Absurd explains: This sculpture is composed of hand tools, assembled into a rising form within a steel frame that resembles the local U.S. Mexico border wall.
A number of other plaques are also located on the balcony, including one featuring the poem Refund by past San Diego Poet Laureate Paola Capó-Garcia. It is all part of the overall exhibition.
When I spied the new sculpture yesterday while walking through Balboa Park, I had to go check it out!
Here I am proceeding out onto the Museum of Us balcony…
(Photographs of views from the balcony before installation of this exhibit can be found by clicking here.)
Visitors are encouraged to contribute to a digital map. The map is of cultural centers and programs across San Diego’s diverse communities. You can participate by clicking here!
Imagine my excitement when I found that one of the plaques, concerning the public mural in Lemon Grove of the “Lemon Grove Incident,” features two photographs that I took for Cool San Diego Sights and a mention of my website!
Finally, here’s the short poem Refund…
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If you enjoy viewing beautiful outdoor murals, you’ll be astounded by those in Oceanside at Joe Balderrama Park. Over 45 murals decorate structures throughout the public park, including the Balderrama Recreation Center and Chavez Community Resource Center!
The murals, completed late last year, primarily celebrate the Hispanic and Indigenous heritages of many who live in the neighborhood. Diverse other backgrounds and ethnicities are included, too. Bold cultural imagery is intermingled with messages of hope.
The lead artist was renowned muralist Joanne Tawfilis. A couple dozen local artists and many local school children contributed to the massive project!
Here’s a good article about the Balderrama Park murals’ origin and dedication.
I walked around the park last weekend and was totally wowed. Take a look at these photographs! The collection of bold murals might not be on the immense scale of San Diego’s world-famous Chicano Park, but the experience is similar in many respects.
I proceeded with my camera in a counter-clockwise direction. I’m afraid I missed one mural on the tennis courts fence because someone was seated directly in front of it and I didn’t want to intrude.
Here we go…
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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.
October is Family History Month, and yesterday was Genealogy Day at the San Diego History Center. I stumbled upon the event and met a bunch of great people!
Various organizations were present that can help anyone investigate their own family tree.
Are you curious about your ancestors?
Following are organizations might be able to help you research the history of your family going back generations. To investigate the possibilities, click these links:
The San Diego History Center also maintains historical archives that can be accessed by the public for research purposes. Diverse materials cover hundreds of years of San Diego history. You can learn more by clicking here!
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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.
A new exhibition recently opened at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park. San Diego’s Lost Neighborhoods takes a look at African-American communities that have been substantially altered, injured, or uprooted by practices such as redlining or urban development over the years.
Communities from Downtown to City Heights to La Jolla . . . and even to Julian in our local mountains have painful stories to tell. These stories can be understood through many old photographs, the words of residents affected by racial discrimination, and by viewing historical maps of affected neighborhoods.
Visitors to the exhibit could and should spend a good while taking it all in.
Yes, change over time constitutes history–but change too often has been self-serving, mean-spirited or unnecessarily destructive.
May we all be kind. Hopefully we learn from the past.
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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.
