This cool mural was painted in Ocean Beach back in 2023, but I saw it yesterday for the first time. Check out the surreal imagery!
The large mural can be found on the exterior of the The Template, facing the parking lot.
Signatures by the artists appear to be MURALIS, ART BY SOUP, EATHDUST, HAILYBROUS, JORDINDAVID, and SOURCE!
To me, it seems the theme might be: When trying to determine the essence of life, don’t go crazy. I noticed that “Stay Sane” is included among all the surreal, spray painted images!
This is the same wall where a History of Electricity mural was painted years ago. You can see those photos by clicking here.
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Lovers of Comic-Con in San Diego should head over to Balboa Park. The Comic-Con Museum recently opened a new exhibit called Cover Story: Six Decades of Comic-Con.
The lower level of the museum now features tons of artwork representing years of creativity and fun at the world’s biggest and best popular arts convention.
Visitors can look closely at original art used for the covers of Comic-Con souvenir books and other publications, beginning back in 1970 when the event was attended by only 300 fans. There are fine examples of interior art, too. You’ll see the work of legendary artists, from Jack Kirby to Frank Miller to Alex Ross.
Fans of DC and Marvel superheroes will love this exhibition. As will fans of fantasy, and science fiction, and comic strips, and cartoons . . . All things pop culture are celebrated!
Here are only a few examples…
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The subject matter for art is infinite, and sometimes it seems like the different paths for creating art are beyond count. That is certainly the case in a current exhibition at the Oceanside Museum of Art. Matrix multiplied: hybrid approaches to printmaking demonstrates that amazing art can be produced by utilizing multiple printmaking techniques.
Eighteen artists are featured in the exhibition. Many of their pieces incorporate different techniques, ranging from traditional handmade printing methods to digital technology. They are truly unique!
No particular theme is depicted among the pieces. You’ll see abstracts, portraits, landscapes . . . art books, hangings, sculptures . . . all produced in ways you might not have imagined. The exhibition is a celebration of artistic skill and creativity!
Go check it out through August 2, 2026!
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It seems every time I visit the San Diego Sculptors Guild in Balboa Park, I find artist Justin Hammond bringing clay to life. He was at work again yesterday!
Justin is a multi-talented artist who loves to create art that tells a story. The clay he was shaping is part of one amazing story.
The figures you see in these photos he calls Elata. The sprite-like creatures with flowers sprouting from their heads are born as the blossoms of a tree. The tree has grown from a seed: a woman carried away by a flood, burying her.
Each beautiful little Elata creature results from a single memory of the deceased woman.
The story created by Justin develops, until the Elata themselves become memory collectors. It’s a brilliant and original idea that would make an amazing movie. Imagine these fantastic clay figures in a Laika stop-motion animated film, like Coraline or ParaNorman!
In addition to a lot of great artwork, Justin Hammond has created short YouTube videos using clay models. You can see much of it on his website by clicking here!
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Are you a fan of Comic-Con? You should know that Will Eisner Week is March 1-7, 2026. The theme this year is Dream Big: Read a Graphic Novel!
San Diego’s amazing Comic-Con Museum will be celebrating “Will Eisner Day” with a special event. Four panels will be held in the museum’s theater on March 4, from 12 pm to 4 pm. Participation is included with museum admission, and free for museum members.
The panels are: Cats vs. Dogs: Panelists’ Pet Comics; Will Eisner Hall of Fame 2026; Graphic Novel Adaptations from Literature; and Graphic Memoirs by Women.
Administrator of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, Jackie Estrada, will be among the panelists!
If you’re a creator seeking inspiration, a lover of graphic novels, or simply curious about this certain-to-be-awesome, one-of-a-kind event, check out this webpage for more information!
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Do you love art? Have you ever visited the Athenaeum Art Center in Logan Heights? You should!
The Athenaeum Art Center is located inside the Bread and Salt building at 1955 Julian Avenue. The art center includes the Catherine and Robert Palmer Gallery, a secondary classroom gallery, and an extensive, very impressive print studio (which I’ll blog about shortly). The main gallery is currently hosting the exhibit Jonathan Paul Parker: All Shall Be Well.
San Diego artist Jonathan Paul Parker‘s first solo exhibition features drawings and painted works that are mostly on paper. His abstract pieces are colorful, complex and dreamlike. They are informed by his involvement in experimental film and improvisational music.
I visited the gallery today.
The images appeared to me like confused dream-shards a sleeper tries to assemble and retain in memory shortly after waking. Or perhaps they’re a sort of visual stream of consciousness–fragments of thought, feeling or memory that take strange form, rising mysteriously to the mind’s eye from a person’s inner being.
The exhibition webpage states: Using color, gesture, and rhythm, [Jonathan] works in a state of focused openness that allows intuitive and archetypal forms to surface. His process draws on the idea of active imagination, where inner images and impulses rise to awareness and shape the direction of the work.
Visit the free exhibition and discover how this unique art speaks to you!
You have a little over a week. Jonathan Paul Parker: All Shall Be Well can be enjoyed through March 7, 2026.
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If you love San Diego Comic-Con, you’ll love Black Comix Day!
All this Valentine’s Day weekend, artists, writers and publishers of African descent will be showcasing their work at the WorldBeat Cultural Center in Balboa Park. The annual event is free, and it will blow your mind!
The last two years at Black Comix Day I met dozens of friendly creators. This year I saw quite a few new participants.
Together they have produced fantastic comics, graphic novels, books, animation, films, figurines, posters and more. Much of the work is informed by their unique experiences as artists of African descent.
Many of the participants come from outside San Diego. Most are self-publishing entrepreneurs with big dreams. Some of the artists have worked professionally or won prestigious awards.
Everywhere you turn, both outside and inside the WorldBeat Cultural Center, there’s something new and very cool. Science fiction, fantasy, horror, Afro-futurism, superheroes, just about anything the human mind can imagine. It’s pop culture heaven!
Read the photo captions and click links to learn about some stuff I saw…
Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls is the Civil War story of a man who escaped enslavement. He’d go on to make a huge impact on American history. There’s a graphic novel, and a major motion picture is in development! Click here.Buy some great books at this outdoor table and you’ll support the Malcolm X Library in Valencia Park!Derek Johnson wrote the noir supernatural horror The Caretaker. He’s a Las Vegas filmmaker and comic creator! Click here to support his work!Mike Haynes-Pitts created The Surge Series! It’s about Afrofuturistic, cyberpunk Africa hundreds of years in the future! His Instagram is here.Smiles at the Wingless Entertainment table. They publish comic books, coloring books and more cool stuff. Click here!The Agents of S.O.U.L. and creator David Phillips have many adventures! Check out the DP Comix website here.New Creation Comics is an independent Christian Publisher. Look at all the cool superhero-like covers! Their website is here.Vampires! Blade! Vampirella! Look at the cool pop culture images created by Attiba Royster at his website here!Bryttney-Mischele Salvant was creating a beautiful surreal expressionist piece at her table. To see more, visit her Poetic Artistry website here!More smiling creators! It’s cartoonist and printmaker Lyssette Williams, and Annika B., who wrote Current Objective and was busy creating a business card!What would happen if you turned the Frankenstein monster into a werewolf? To find the answer, check out this website by Eisner Award winning editor, writer and producer Chris Robinson!
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That’s San Diego artist James Watts (@jewattso) in the above photo. He was painting an image of Japan’s Seven Lucky Gods (or Shichifukujin) on the downtown sidewalk outside his studio yesterday. It’s number 93 of the 100 paintings he’s presently working on.
I had to look up those lucky gods to understand what he was painting. He also showed me a painting of his own family, which got me to thinking.
Mythology, literature, and every creative work uses symbolism. We use symbols in order to better understand and engage with an infinitely larger reality.
Now, what do we understand best? Our own lives.
So it isn’t surprising the symbols we create reflect our human experience. The deities of mythology explain the mysteries of this world, but tend to be very human. The illuminating words of great literature rely upon human experience and interaction. In a strange way, created symbols and reality combine in our own minds. Symbols inform our living.
James Watts loves mythology, literature and life, and his symbolic art connects it all. Or so it seems to me.
His next painting is of the characters in Voltaire’s novel Candide…
The next photograph shows James Watts’ family years ago, when he was a youth. That’s him in a white t-shirt…
And here’s a painting he recently created, based on the old photo…
Symbols we create can be extremely powerful.
Might we all strive to understand, remember, live fully.
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Mary at the Stove is a painting by Patricia Patterson, a former professor of art at UC San Diego. You can find in heading up some stairs at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla.
This beautiful work of art was originally painted on a plasterboard wall at the Athenaeum for an exhibition in 1993. Now it’s part of the library’s permanent art collection.
When I visited the Athenaeum a couple days ago, I told the friendly librarian at the front desk I would be walking over to the Wisteria Cottage Gallery next, to view the exhibition Double Bill: The Art of Manny Farber and Patricia Patterson. That’s when she told me about Patterson’s Mary at the Stove.
I love the image and its simple warmth. It shows ordinary life in an unpretentious, almost nostalgic way. It struck me this painting is something between a Japanese print and folk art. But what do I know?
As you’ll see in my next blog post, Patricia Patterson created many such wonderful images.
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I really like this fun artwork. It’s now on public display at San Diego’s downtown Central Library. The five original paintings and the digital illustration prints were created by Mike McCarley (aka Mike Mike), who resides in Ocean Beach and imbues his work with a playful, laid-back beach vibe.
As a sign explains, his work has roots in skateboard art, cartoons, and an enduring love for the color blue. To see these in person, head up to the Central Library’s second floor near the escalators and look for the glass display cases. I believe the exhibit continues through December, so there isn’t much time left.
If you dig Mike Mike’s stuff, check out his Instagram page here. He works professionally in architecture, but his creative heart belongs to painting and illustration.
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Cool San Diego Sights! 