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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The work of award-winning digital artist Clay Harris will be on exhibit for the next two weeks in San Diego.
Clay’s stunning artwork can be viewed beginning tomorrow (Tuesday, February 25, 2025) in Gallery 21, at the Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park. The exhibition is titled Images from the mind of a Mind Voyager! It will run through March 10.
I stumbled upon Clay today as he was setting up the exhibition. He’s the coolest guy you could ever hope to meet.
After checking out his fantastic images of birds, turtles and other marine life, I paused to learn about his art. The high quality digital art is printed on aluminum, and the process creates an uncanny sense of depth. The pieces I observed shine as if light is being reflected from water.
Clay Harris over the years has had his art displayed at many festivals and in many galleries. So many people have asked that he create large pieces for their homes.
I encourage everyone to head down to Balboa Park and check out this special exhibition. And meet an award-winning artist who will make you smile!
Some examples:
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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.
Brilliant! That’s what I thought when I met artist Jeff Daymont and observed his uniquely designed playing cards and original games!
I was walking through the Seaside Pavilion at the San Diego County Fair–you know, where vendors sell unique wares, demonstrating salad choppers and knives that will cut through a brick–when my eyes fell upon an unusual table. That’s a lot of playing cards, I thought. Then I looked more closely…
Jeff has created playing cards that are truly unique. The Kings and Queens illustrated on cards depict actual monarchs, rulers and royalty from world history. Many of the playing cards are also designed to support all sorts of original games, such as Rock, Paper, Scissors, Water and Lizard!
You can see a bunch of games invented so far for the versatile King’s Keys deck by clicking here. If you think up a new game, submit it!
Not only are these playing cards works of art, but I absolutely love the concept that inspired players can dream up new games!
Do you want to check out Jeff Daymont’s very cool playing cards?
A similar game I wrote for the Commodore 64 was titled Super Clue. It can be played freely on your computer right now by visiting the Internet Archive here!
Here’s a screenshot of a new game beginning:
Hints: the characters in Super Clue move about randomly, randomly drop and pick up objects, and can randomly leave clues at each location. There are several possible murder weapons. You can search characters and locations and interrogate the roaming characters. Use objects that you pick up like a magnifier, rope and flashlight. The initial character positions are randomly generated. To make a new move, type in a simple two or three word command. Enter “help” to see which words are recognized. One character is initially designated the murderer. Deduce who it is and make an arrest before midnight, or before there are more victims! I’m very proud of the sound effects I created. Be patient! As the ancient program runs on a computer emulator, every move’s resulting text can be a bit slow to appear, so wait a few seconds. Map out the mansion as you move about. Have fun!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
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 Twitter!
An exhibition of posters concerning the war in Ukraine is presently on view in downtown San Diego. I viewed the collection of posters today in the second floor art gallery at UC San Diego Park & Market.
These moving, thought-provoking, sometimes chilling posters are presented by AIGA San Diego Tijuana. The Graphis: Designers for Peace Poster Exhibition brings together juried posters from around the world.
The free exhibition is also working to raise funds to aid the devastated people of Ukraine.
I don’t know how much longer these posters will be displayed, so you might want to head downtown to UCSD’s presence at Park & Market and view them soon.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
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 Twitter!
An exhibition of art at the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Diego’s Balboa Park features the “memories” of graphic designer Shuichi Hashimoto.
Should you walk into the garden’s Exhibit Hall, you’ll discover flowers and mountains and clouds and cities, composed quilt-like from many bright fragments. The exhibit is titled Moisture and Light–Landscape in the Memory.
The inspired creator of this unique beauty, Shuichi Hashimoto, is based in Osaka, Japan. According to the JFG website: Hashimoto believes that the persistent rain combined with the humid environment influenced the diverse culture of Japan.
One can see how streaks of light and drops of water in his artwork seem to shimmer and bubble throughout the bright memories.
As I looked upon these abstract landscapes, it seemed I was peering through windows spattered with sunlit raindrops.
You can experience these fantastic memories, too, at the Japanese Friendship Garden through May 7, 2022.
Enjoy a few examples…
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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!
Today I enjoyed walking through the San Diego Pin and Patch Con! This relatively new annual event–billed as the world’s first wearable art convention–was held in Montezuma Hall at San Diego State University.
I love visual art and its infinite potential. As I strolled about the convention floor, my eyes were intrigued by all sorts of cool designs–and I was pleased to find far more than pins and patches! I saw shirts and hats and stickers and greeting cards and bookmarks and colorful prints and much more . . . even crocheted voodoo dolls!
The theme of the 2019 San Diego Pin and Patch Con was cartoon classic Popeye. Much of the inspiration for these unique collectibles, created by entrepreneurial artists, is drawn from the popular culture.
As I walked about, I saw that convention attendees had the opportunity to trade pins with other collectors. I also enjoyed watching a group of Platt College digital media design students as they created their own original artwork.
If you love to collect pins or patches, or would like to join a legion of people who are passionate about creativity, make sure to attend the San Diego Pin and Patch Con next year!
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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!
Some of the coolest posters you’re likely to ever see are now on display at the SDSU Downtown Gallery! Take a look at a few examples!
The exhibition is titled Give-and-Take: Poster Design by Nancy Skolos and Thomas Wedell. Thirty-four awesome posters by the husband and wife team leap out from the walls and make the viewer feel they’ve entered dazzling, conceptually complex three-dimensional puzzles.
In their posters the two artists have created a unique fusion of analog and digital technology. Skolos is a graphic designer and Wedell is a photographer. Many of the posters were brainstormed and carefully worked out by collaging bits of colored paper and images cut from magazines. The posters in the gallery were produced between 1980 (many years before the advent of high quality digital design) and 2017.
Skolos-Wedell posters have been collected by the likes of the Smithsonian Design Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.
This very special exhibition at the SDSU Downtown Gallery runs through July 22, 2018. Admission is free!
Give-and-Take: Poster Design by Nancy Skolds and Thomas Wedell.
The SDSU Downtown Gallery now has a very cool exhibition concerning poster design.
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