In San Diego? Would you like to watch skilled artists create Japanese ink paintings? Would you like to learn this traditional Japanese art?
Head over to Balboa Park tomorrow, Sunday, June 22, 2025, when the 22nd Annual Art Exhibition by Friends of Sumi-e resumes in Room 101 of the Casa del Prado!
I swung by today. I love the simple elegance of this unique art form, and whenever I see there’s an exhibition of Japanese brush painting (called sumi-e or suiboku-ga) in Balboa Park, I can’t miss it.
The participating members of Friends of Sumi-e are always delighted to demonstrate their craft. Today Gaye Lingley showed me how to create an orchid. Here she is, near some of her exhibited artwork:
And here she is creating the orchid. She told me learning Japanese ink painting is never ending. I thought: isn’t that true of any art form?
The orchid is finished. A few strokes of the brush have created depth and subtlety:
Meanwhile, instructor Naoko Ozaki was holding a demonstration across the room….
You can see how, six years ago, Naoko created an incredibly beautiful flower here.
Interested in Japanese brush painting? Want to learn how to do it? Check out the Friends of Sumi-e website here!
Some of the beautiful work on display this weekend:
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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 X.
A free community Garden Fair was held today in Balboa Park celebrating Pollinator Week!
Local organizations that support our natural environment were lined up outside the San Diego Natural History Museum, providing the public with information about native plants and wildlife.
While pollinating bees and butterflies flitted about flowering plants in the Natural History Museum’s nearby nature trail, visitors to the park were learning about how they can help maintain a beautiful and healthy environment.
I walked around the museum to check things out…
Yes! Ecologik is included in a Women in STEM exhibit at the San Diego History Center!There are well over 500 species of bees native to San Diego! They can detect tastes with their front feet!Don’t we all love a clean San Diego? Of course we do!Many informative displays concerning pollinators and our natural environment.I see flowers and pollinators (including a bat) on this table!The San Diego Chapter of the California Native Plant Society is a great resource. They welcome new members!I didn’t know there’s a Paradise Hills Native Garden. I’ll have to check it out!The San Diego River Park Foundation had a table with great information.Volunteers with the San Diego Natural History Museum were providing a tour of their nature trail in Balboa Park.More exhibitors on the museum’s Moreton Bay Fig tree side.San Diego Canyonlands had some native pollinators on display.Hello to the Master Gardener Association of San Diego County!And hello to the San Diego Bird Alliance! They were demonstrating a native seed library. Create your own!You can help save Monarch butterflies by planting milkweed seeds.Endangered Concepts has repurposed unrecyclable plastic. The plastic fills decorative boulders! Clever idea!Learning at the California Native Horticultural Foundation table.Hey, NAT Garden Corps–this Garden Fair is a very cool event! That’s milkweed people can plant.
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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.
You’ve probably seen those book lending libraries placed near the sidewalk in front of homes. The boxes are filled with books that anyone can borrow.
Well, did you know there are similar native seed libraries?
Native seed libraries like the one in my photographs provide free native plant seeds for community members to use in their gardens.
As we know, native plants in San Diego are drought resistant and attract pollinators such as butterflies and birds. They’re good for biodiversity and a healthy environment.
If creating your own native seed library is something you’d like to look into, or do, check out this webpage on the San Diego Bird Alliance website. They provide starter kits that include seeds, envelopes, labels, brochures, posters and other materials for your box. Building the structure is your own fun project! (Perhaps make them similar to one of these.)
The 2025 San Diego County Fair has a theme that’s close to the heart. It’s all about beloved pets.
Not surprisingly, a variety of non-profit organizations centered around animals are present at the big summer event in Del Mar. I stumbled upon several of these organizations. I’d like to draw your attention to what good people (and animals) are doing in their community.
The above dog and the next photograph represent an organization in Baja California, Mexico. La Manada Feliz rescues animals and provides them with a better life with loving people. Here’s their website.
La Manada Feliz operates a cage-free sanctuary where rescued dogs can receive medical care, learn social skills and heal. Their website says: Help us achieve our mission by adopting, supporting as a guardian and/or volunteering at our dog sanctuary in Valle de Guadalupe.
Next up, San Diego Spaniel Rescue does exactly what its name says. They are an all volunteer based non-profit organization dedicated to providing breed education, rescue, fostering, medical and adoption services for abused, abandoned and/or homeless Cocker Spaniels.
If you’d like to help them or would like to adopt a rescued spaniel, you can go to their website here.
More good work and smiles can be found at Pug Rescue San Diego County.
Here’s their website. Pug Rescue of San Diego County (PRSDC) is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to rescuing unwanted, neglected, abandoned, and relinquished Pugs and placing them into a new permanent home where they may live out their lives in a loving and caring environment.
Check out the friendly dogs in my next photo! They are part of Pawsitive Teams!
Pawsitive Teams was founded in 1997 with a desire to be a volunteer-inspired and volunteer-run organization designed to promote the use of well-trained dogs to improve the lives of San Diegans. Our volunteer service dog trainers spend two years with their canine charges prior to placement with individuals with limited mobility who can benefit from the skills of our specially trained dogs. Our therapy dog program is overseen by a steering committee of volunteers dedicated to using therapy dogs with a variety of populations such as at-risk teens, active-duty military, children testifying in court, and those with mobility or developmental disabilities. Our mission with the therapy dogs is to partner with community organizations and work together with professionals in accomplishing client-related goals.
To learn more, check out the Pawsitive Teams website by clicking here.
Need I say the San Diego Humane Society does many wonderful things for animals in our community? They were at the San Diego County Fair, too, encouraging people to adopt a loving pet. Not just dogs!
Find your fur-ever friend today!
There are many ways that you can help their good work. Here’s their website.
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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 popular attraction at the San Diego County Fair is the Exhibition of Fine Art on the first floor of Grandstand East. The fair’s theme in 2025 is our love for pets, so it isn’t surprising many of the fine art entries depict beloved animals.
The exhibition is extensive and broken up into many categories based on media and subject matter. Artists who’ve submitted their work, hoping for a blue ribbon, are from many walks of life all around San Diego County. When I checked out the exhibition, I couldn’t help noticing pets were a common subject, and not just dogs and cats. I saw rabbits, parrots and other critters!
There are pet portraits, pets painted humorously, pet abstracts! If you have a pet or simply love animals, the art will definitely put a smile on your face.
I photographed random examples that I really like…
Look who I met as I left the fine art exhibit. Woof and Meow!
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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.
Three panels of awesome chalk art welcome people arriving at Grandstand East during the 2025 San Diego County Fair. The theme of the fair this year is “Summer Pet-Tacular” and images of dogs, cats and other non-human friends are all over the Del Mar Fairgrounds!
Stay tuned for the next day or two. I’ll be sharing fun photos of pet art that I found and like! Other stuff, too!
First, check out this incredible chalk art!
Three dogs ride a roller coaster at the San Diego County Fair. Chalk art by Meg and Toni Canilang.A party hat cat! Chalk art by Katie Bush.Two friends among flowers. Chalk art by Maribeth McFaul.
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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.
The positive energy was off the charts this afternoon at the Juneteenth Block Party in North Park!
From all around San Diego a big crowd converged on the street in front of North Park restaurant Louisiana Purchase, eager to join in the Juneteenth celebration: a vibrant tribute to Black excellence, music, and food!
Everyone was mingling, smiling, enjoying barbeque, unique vendors, community organizations, live mural painting, fashion, and even a tiny basketball court!
When the dancing began at two o’clock, everyone made their way to the stage to cheer on joyful, high energy performances!
I hope my photographs capture some of the vibes…
It’s time to introduce the youthful dancers!
First up, representing the Lincoln Emeralds…
Next up, Somethin’ Creative Dance Team! (They teach kids who simply love to dance, and perform at special events and compete regionally!)
Some older dance team members come onto the stage…
Another new trolley wrap has appeared for San Diego Comic-Con 2025! This one promotes Gachiakuta, a Japanese anime television series that will premiere on Crunchyroll on July 6.
Back in 2022 during Comic-Con, Crunchyroll wrapped San Diego city buses with all sorts of cool graphics from their shows. You can find those photos 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.
Dozens of crafty armadillos have rolled into San Diego. I observed them today in Balboa Park, inside the Mingei International Museum!
The roll of armadillos (that’s what a group of armadillos is called) is hanging out inside several glass display cases on the ground floor of the museum. Tuck and Roll: The Art of Armadillos is the name of the free exhibition.
The exhibition includes folk art armadillos crafted from wood, clay, glass, metal, stone, fiber and various natural materials such at shells, gourds and coconuts. There are bowl armadillos, toy armadillos, ashtray armadillos, pipe armadillos, jar armadillos, coin bank armadillos, toothpick holder armadillos…
These crafty armadillos were made primarily in Central and South America, and Mexico, where the roly-poly animals are found in the wild. Many of the objects were created by indigenous peoples following centuries-old traditions.
I took a few photos, but if you plan to visit Balboa Park, step through the Mingei International Museum’s door and encounter these fun armadillos yourself!
Major improvements are coming later this year to Balboa Park, San Diego’s beautiful crown jewel!
In the park’s Palisades area, new historical markers are on the way. They’ll be placed near the entrances of the San Diego Automotive Museum, Municipal Gymnasium, and the Comic-Con Museum.
In addition, nearby lamp posts that date from the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition are to be sandblasted and restored to look like new!
Most importantly, the Municipal Gymnasium’s exterior is going to change substantially, to more closely match the building’s appearance in 1935, when during the exposition it was called the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries. You can learn more about the changes that are coming by clicking here.
These fantastic improvements are being made through a partnership between the Balboa Park Committee of 100 and the City of San Diego.
Today some folks were meeting in the park making decisions concerning the project, including the placement of the historical signs, and the exact color of the sculptural ornamentation that will added to the front of the Municipal Gymnasium.
I stumbled upon today’s activity, learned a little about the project, and took a few photos.
At the start of September, construction fencing will appear in the Palisades and work will begin! I was told all should be completed by Thanksgiving.
The next photo is how today’s Municipal Gymnasium appeared in 1935, when it was the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries…
Photo courtesy of San Diego City Clerk Archives.
This is how it might appear when all is said and done…
And this was observed today…
Sample ornamental panels, or sculptural blocks, were on a table and being considered today. They will be made of glass-fiber reinforced concrete.
I learned the band of ornamentation above the coming 14 feet by 22 feet cold-cast bronze relief mural will be slightly darker than the building’s current color. The ornamentation on the marquee will be more of a bronze color.
Some of the original 1935 lamp posts that will be restored!
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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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 