I discovered something cool today while walking through Liberty Station in Point Loma. Pisano Artistry, located in a building adjacent to the Dick Laub NTC Command Center, will soon have a Star Wars exhibit!
I learned the fun news while peeking through the window of artist Joe Pisano’s gallery.
You’ve seen Joe Pisano’s unique and patriotic drywall screw art on Cool San Diego Sights previously. Here and here and here.
I haven’t spoken to him about it, but it definitely appears that he’s a Star Wars fan.
Can’t wait to see it!
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Look at all these great works of art! They were created by neighbors at Father Joe’s Villages.
Father Joe’s Health and Wellness Program includes activities that foster creativity, well-being, and personal growth. That includes making art!
The latest Painting the Town exhibition, now on view at the San Diego Central Library, celebrates this art.
Father Joe’s Villages helps those in San Diego experiencing homelessness. They provide emergency and transitional housing for adults and families with children, provide showers, laundry facilities, a public lunch line, a health center, employment and education services, and more.
Look at this beautiful art and see hope.
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Who in and around San Diego hasn’t heard of the artist James Hubbell? Between his architecturally fantastic Ilan-Lael residence and studios in Santa Ysabel, to his many works of public art around the city (many of which I’ve photographed), the beloved artist has earned a special place in the heart of San Diegans.
Did you know James had a brother named Bert who was also an artist?
During my recent visit to the museum, I noticed the art of these brothers is similar in certain ways. The construction of pieces is very organic, elemental. The works seem to have been extracted from or designed by the living Earth itself. While James lived and worked in Southern California, for over fifty years Bert lived in Kokubunji, Japan near sacred Mt. Fuji.
Their art’s earthy quality seems natural and familiar–perhaps that’s why it feels so spiritual.
According to the exhibition webpage, Bert…was profoundly shaped by Japanese culture, Shinto, Animism, and Native American art. Self-described as a “primitive artist,” he worked across mediums but most prolifically in ceramic sculpture. His fantastical creatures—reminiscent of yōkai—externalize inner fears and anxieties as a means of transformation and healing… Bert, who never sold his art, left behind an estimated 28,000 individual ceramic figures as well as paintings, drawings and found object assemblages.
The exhibition, which continues through September 6, 2026, provides an interesting contrast between the work of the two brothers. In places their pieces are placed side by side. In one gallery room a wall contains the work of James, and the opposite wall contains pieces created by Bert.
One gets the impression Bert could have reached the level of renown achieved by his brother. It seems, however, that he created art just for the personal joy and satisfaction of creating art.
Like any art, you need to experience it in person. A few photographs to entice you into visiting the Oceanside Museum of Art:
The art on the left and the bottom are by artist Bert Hubbell. The pieces are displayed in contract to the watercolor on the right, by brother James Hubbell.More work by artist Bert Hubbell, including Forks and Spoon and Sunburst, circa 1963. Ceramic.Photograph of Bert Hubbell, date unknown.Ceramic by Bert Hubbell atop Wood Pedestal by James Hubbell.Bert’s Mountain of Sculpture, Bert Hubbell, 1961-1963. Various ceramics.
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This might be the most fun interactive art exhibition you’ll experience all year! It’s showing for one more week at the Oceanside Museum of Art, and it’s titled Aaron Kramer: Sense of Wonder.
Do you love crazy, clever, fun-loving inventions? Upstairs at the museum you’ll find loads of them! Playful artist Aaron Kramer likes to tinker and make mechanical wonders using found objects.
Visitors to the Oceanside Museum of Art can turn cranks and press buttons that activate wacky kinetic creations. Wires, old springs, bottles and tin cans, cardboard, odd pieces of wood, broken things–magically become spinning whirligigs, dipping hummingbirds, dancing figures . . . even contraptions that trace images on paper!
I’ve always loved these sort of whimsical creations. Remember that scene near the beginning of the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang–that crazy, elaborate Rube Goldberg-style contraption that automatically made breakfast? These small works of art are just as fun!
If you’re young at heart, you’ll be pressing every button and turning every crank! Through August 23, 2026, that is, when this super cool exhibition wraps up.
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It’s been well over a year since I visited the Artist Alley in downtown Oceanside. I walked through it again today!
Look what my camera found!
Most of this art must be fairly new, because it was painted in places where earlier murals existed.
(The two murals just inside the entrance of the multi-suite building that opens into the alley might have been there a long time–I don’t know. My first four photos are of those.)
I love how the artwork changes in the alley over time. Every time I walk through it I discover new creations!
Oceanside’s very cool, very magical Artist Alley can be entered directly south of the city library and civic center. Simply cross Pier View Way and you’ll find it!
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It’s Saturday. It’s Comic-Con 2026. What does that mean?
That means Fifth Avenue in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter has become the center of the cosplay universe!
Every character imaginable from popular culture comes to life before your eyes.
Some of the costumes are extraordinary. Many of the cosplayers have devoted a lot of time and effort preparing for San Diego Comic-Con.
Enjoy this collection of photographs taken late Saturday afternoon…
Knight on Fifth Avenue.Ghostbusters.Unusual musician!Tonto, Lone Ranger and Wyatt Earp.Wolverine Ultimate Warrior.Batman and Harley Quinn.Art the Clown.Blue Power Ranger.Bird Furry.Chainsaw Man.Princess Bride.Morpheus.Constantine.Limbus Company Dante.The Mask.Powdered Toast Man.Olaf.
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
Saturday is the craziest, wildest, most creatively exciting day every year during San Diego Comic-Con. 2026 is no exception!
Look at what you might encounter by simply walking around downtown San Diego.
The Gaslamp Quarter in particular is absolutely jam packed with people, engaged in cosplay, enjoying the experience, coming and going to the convention center, offsites, restaurants, hotels…
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
How can you not love all the cool, creative cosplay. It’s everywhere you turn outside the San Diego Convention Center during Comic-Con 2026.
I took these photographs during my Friday walks.
Enjoy!
Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon.Spider Bob Ross.Pee-wee Herman.Elf.Wonder Woman.Naruto.Jessie from Toy Story.Evil Queen from Snow White.Winter Soldier.Sharknado victims.Hamburger.Spaceballs.Dead by Daylight and Five Nights at Freddy’s.Helldivers 2.Nightwing.Spider Woman and Nick Fury.Havok.Fierce-looking knights!WD-40.Chainsaw Man.Project Hail Mary.
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
Dinosaurs have suddenly appeared in San Diego! They’ve emerged from the fountain in front of the Marriott Marquis, which is rumored to have an opening that leads to the center of the Earth!
By sheer coincidence, the dinosaurs have made their appearance during Comic-Con!
Oh my gosh! It looks like they’re awfully fierce!
Fierce for an inflatable dino, that is.
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
