There’s a mysterious cabinet in downtown San Diego.
This seemingly ordinary cabinet is designed to hold both Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
I saw the cabinet today when I stepped into the studio of artist James Watts (@jewattso). And I was shown bits of both Jekyll and Hyde.
I was shown how the cabinet, painted pitch black inside, has a sliding door. Dr Jekyll will stand inside the cabinet on one side. Mr Hyde will stand on the other side. For a surprising revelation, slide the door open in either direction!
You can see the cabinet here…
(To the right of the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde cabinet stands Frankenstein’s monster. Perhaps you saw that monstrous creation displayed at the Oceanside Museum of Art last year!)
In the next photo, James Watts is carving Mr Hyde’s bones out of basswood.
He has already hand-sewn parts of Dr Jekyll together. Here’s his face…
James Watts explained that every stitch of the canvas Dr Jekyll is by hand. And that’s important.
I first met James Watts almost five years ago when I stumbled into his utterly fantastic downtown studio. You can see the blog I posted that day here.
As the Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde cabinet progresses, I’ll provide updates!
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The working Blacksmith Shop is one of Old Town San Diego State Historic Park’s most popular attractions. At one end of the blacksmith shop is a small wood shop, where I seldom see any activity. But that wasn’t the case today!
Gary, a California State Parks volunteer, was busy working on some projects inside the Wood Shop. He was nice enough to describe the elegant Mediterranean chair that he is creating, plus a beautiful wooden cabinet and stand!
He then demonstrated some of the old-fashioned tools one can see in the wood shop. Many of the historical tools hanging on the walls are so old they are no longer very functional. But they do provide an idea of what a wood shop might have held in the early days of San Diego, around the mid-19th century.
I asked him about Old Town’s cannon carriage project that I blogged about over a year ago. He has the materials ready, but he’s awaiting word concerning it!
Gary explained that the above tool is an antique drill press. (Sort of looks like a massive mousetrap!)
By pulling a cord, this rather primitive lathe smoothly rotates a length of wood around a horizontal axis. I forgot to ask Gary, but I believe this might be an old bow lathe.
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
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!
Are the above chairs awesome or what? I bet you’d like to sit in one!
When I visited the Mingei International Museum last weekend, I set my astonished eyes on this furniture. I then admired other fantastic furnishings, all designed by world-renowned French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle!
The many sculptures she created during her lifetime are widely known. But chairs and tables and vases and mirrors? Yes!
You’ll discover all sorts of crazily colorful objects when you visit the Niki and Mingei exhibition at the Mingei International Museum!
You’ll see an exuberant, irrepressible love of life.
Did I mention Niki became well known for her sculptures?
Belly Warmer, 1973, sterling silver, leather, wood. Arline M. Fisch.
While the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park undergoes it’s monumental renovation and expansion (read about that here), select pieces from their permanent collection are on display at the San Diego Central Library’s Art Gallery.
The title of this exhibition is Crafting Opportunity: Mid-Century Work from the Collection of Mingei International Museum. Head up to the Central Library’s 9th floor gallery and you’ll discover unique and experimental pieces by noted artists and craftsmen, many of whom are from the San Diego region. You’ll see beautiful ceramics, fashion, metalwork, furniture and a surprising variety of other objects. Some of these pieces, representing the post World War II designer-craftsman movement, are on public display for the very first time!
I walked to East Village early this afternoon to see for myself!
Make sure you check this exhibition out before it ends on July 28, 2019.
A look at the current exhibition in the San Diego Central Library’s art gallery. Crafting Opportunity: Mid-Century Work from the Collection of Mingei International Museum.
Vase, c. 1959, glazed stoneware. Harrison McIntosh.
Owl, c. 1960, glazed stoneware. Marg Loring.
Untitled, c. 1965, mosaic and enameling. Ellamarie Woolley.
Plate, 1979, stoneware, porcelain. Peter Voulkos, who was drawn to the Zen notion of looseness of form and unpredictability.
Bowl, 1954, glazed earthenware. Laura Andreson.
The Superior Masculine Mind, date unknown, glazed stoneware. Beatrice Wood, whose work often contains a playful feminist angle.
Weed Pots, c. 1965, glazed stoneware. Wayne Chapman.
“Happiness” Yardage, 1967, machine-woven, hand-screen printed linen and wool. Jack Lenor Larsen, whose signature pattern remained in production for decades.
LCW (Lounge Chair Wood), c. 1946, molded plywood. Charles and Ray Eames, who famously revolutionized industrial design by introducing molded plywood.
Untitled, 1969, enamel on steel. Kay Whitcomb.
House of Cards, c. 1960, printed paper. Charles and Ray Eames.
Artwork now on display in the SDSU Downtown Gallery includes extraordinary furniture!
Some fantastic, highly innovative art is now on display at the SDSU Downtown Gallery. Tom Loeser: Please Please Please is the title of the surprising exhibition.
Walk through the door of the SDSU Downtown Gallery and you might not be sure whether you’ve entered a bizarre furniture and hardware store or a dream-place where art conforms to your body. Those abstract paintings on the wall actually unfold into chairs! Those shovel handles in a row form the back of a beautifully crafted wooden bench! That colorful “luggage” tossed in a heap in one corner seems more appropriate for a comfortable living room than a cargo hold!
According to a sign in the gallery, Tom Loeser imagines new ways that the body, furniture and space can interact. He wonders: if the furniture we sit on were totally different, how might our lives be different too?
I can tell you resting on these pieces (and you’re allowed to actually sit on a few of his tumblers) would put me in a very creative and happy state of mind.
As I sat I might gaze at Tom Loeser’s artwork on the gallery’s walls, which includes fantastic blue cyanotypes and strangely elemental pyrography. Transformed by the artist’s genius, ordinary objects seem to radiate a weird spiritual essence. The images, like his furniture, seem to present a vision of unexpected potentialities in our practical, solidly physical world.
If you love really clever art, check out the SDSU Downtown Gallery before this exhibition ends on October 28, 2018!
The art exhibition Tom Loeser: Please Please Please is now showing in downtown San Diego.
Two works of art by Tom Loeser. Not a Dozen Even, 2014, cyanotype. Double Dig, 2016, white oak and shovel handles.
S/M/L, 2014, cyanotype by artist Tom Loeser.
A room full of practical objects made dreamlike.
Dig for Three, 2015, walnut and shovel handles by artist Tom Loeser.
LA/Chicago/New York, 2016, plywood, wood, felt, paint by artist Tom Loeser.
A colorful tumbler that can be sat upon comfortably any which way.
Folding Chair, 1987, painted plywood, maple, stainless steel by artist Tom Loeser.
Scythe by Scythe, 2016, maple, hickory, scythe handles by artist Tom Loeser.
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Gaslamp Museum at the William Heath Davis House and Park, 1850. Home of the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation.
These photos inside the historic William Heath Davis House Museum were taken a few months ago. I toured the fascinating house during the Fall Back Festival, which is held every year in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.
Dated 1850, the William Heath Davis House, like a number of other structures in early San Diego, was built on the East Coast and shipped around Cape Horn. At the time San Diego simply didn’t have the resources and tools required to build a fine wooden house. Various rooms inside the museum show what life was like in New Town a century and a half ago. It was a much simpler time. The small museum now sits in the middle of a gigantic, bustling metropolis.
Please read the photo captions for more info, and click the signs to read them.
Photo of the William Heath Davis House Museum taken from across Island Avenue.
Tours of the historic house are available. A museum store contains fascinating gifts.
The William Heath Davis House, built in 1850, is the oldest surviving structure from San Diego’s New Town. It is a prefabricated “salt-box” style home, shipped from Portland, Maine around Cape Horn.
The 1850 Davis-Horton House was used as a military barracks, county hospital, and was home to New Town’s founder Alonzo Horton and several other families over the years.
Looking down the stairs from the second floor. A lady in Victorian attire welcomes visitors to the museum during the Fall Back Festival in November.
A look at the first floor living room where family and guests would gather.
A small piano, sheet music, teacup and candle. Entertainment in the olden days was simple.
The dining table is set for a grand meal in what was then a sparsely populated New Town San Diego.
An old sewing machine can be found by a window upstairs.
The nursery, with crib, chest and small bed.
Three beds for the children have colorful quilts.
A desk in the study, framed photos, and a cabinet full of books. Â No internet back then!
An old-fashioned penny-farthing bicycle reminds visitors to the William Heath Davis House Museum of what life was like a century and a half ago in San Diego.
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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 fun photos for you to share and enjoy!
Amazing wood art. A hooded figure takes a break at an inn. Just Off The Road, Basswood, Randy Stoner.
Today I moseyed around Del Mar and Solana Beach. My walk included a couple of stimulating hours at the San Diego County Fair. I just wandered about, soaking it all in, and found my feet heading toward my favorite part of the fair, the Design in Wood Exhibition.
Some of the best wood artists in Southern California–the world, for that matter–submitted their incredible pieces this year to be judged. The exhibition, a collaboration with the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association, is celebrating its 35th year.
Here is some of the wildly creative woodwork that really caught my eye. You’ll notice many pieces have an Alice in Wonderland theme. That’s because this year’s San Diego County Fair is all about that timeless children’s book penned by Lewis Carroll. White Rabbits, March Hares and Mad Hatters abound! Everywhere you turn there’s a tea party or a grinning Cheshire Cat!
The Alice in Wonderland theme intersects with Steampunk, of course, so many fantastic contraptions and quirky bits of wood art are included in the exhibition. Take a look!
Glass table supported by fantastic underwater character carved from wood. Califa’s Realm, Avocado, Lorenzo Foncerrada.
A steampunk writer might enjoy creating new worlds while sitting here! Time Machine Desk, Recycled Pine and Plywood, Jeffrey Comulada.
Yikes! Get out of the way! This eye-catching contraption is just too cool. Scorpion Wheelchair, Pine, Roger Aceve.
A truly amazing fantasy woodcarving. Julia the Dragon Killer, Bass, Antonio Barrios.
Ancient warrior and an incredibly elaborate helmet made of wood. Dracon Soldier, Bass, Antonio Barrios.
More outstanding artistry. Heron in a scene from a San Diego lagoon. Spirit of San Elijo, Torrey Pine, Lorenzo Foncerrada.
Wood grains flow in this crazy organic bench. Ongoing Conversation, Baltic Birch, Alan Johnson.
A very cool tangle-tentacled wooden octopus. Denizen of the Deep, Maple, Tom Edwards.
Perhaps this is a wood version of Strider from Lord of the Rings. Ranger, Basswood, Randy Stoner.
A mountain lion carved from wood keeps guard among other spectacular works of art. Kitty Kitty, Mahogany, Bill Churchill.
This skeleton pirate with a brass steampunk telescope is beyond awesome. Mutiny, Bloodwood Fir, Mike Anderson.
Two very cool handmade guitars with an Alice in Wonderland theme. I see clocks, the White Rabbit, a mad tea party, even a mustache!
I love this example of imaginative wood design. Jack Rabbit, Alder, Ray Camien.
Members of the San Diego Scrollsaw Clubs demonstrate their craft to people visiting the Design in Wood Exhibition at the San Diego County Fair.
A wonderfully inventive piece of furniture. Birdcage Chair, White Oak, Patrick Atangan.
Looks like an animal skull in the desert Southwest. Early, Early American Chair, Poplar, Del Cover.
This might be the most intricate model tall ship I ever saw. Sovereign of the Seas, Boxwood, Mahogany, Ebony, Sycamore, William Norris.
When a person becomes old, there’s no need to become dull. Two Canes, Various, Tracy Talbott.
A fun chest of drawers perfect for a kid’s room. Buddy Bear, Walnut, Ralph Crowther.
I wonder if Lewis Carroll imagined there would be steampunk powerboats one day. Looking For Alice, Various, Michael Rumsey.
I love the cosmic layered wood sky with Saturn behind buildings. Night Surfing, Hardwood Plywood, Robert Stafford.
Gears aplenty. Steampunk Cat, Various, Stephen Knight.
Now this work of wood art totally blew my mind. Absolutely beautiful. Stormy, Various, Chuck Collins.
Yeah, some days this pensive chimp could easily outwit me. Thinking, Various, Daryoush Ababaf.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! 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 fun photos for you to enjoy!
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