Tag: imagination

Paintings celebrate food at La Jolla library!

There’s a tasty, mouth-watering exhibition ready to be devoured at the La Jolla Riford Library. Step into the Community Room and bring your appetite for art!

The Culinary Arts offers a buffet of paintings by 15 local artists that celebrates food!

As the library’s exhibition website states, you’ll find captivating oil paintings of everything from Cheeseburgers to Triple Decker Ice Cream Cones to delectable Beignets!

The visual feast comes to an end on May 18, 2025.

Fortunately, if you’re still hungry, all of these delectable pieces are for sale. By purchasing a painting or two, these treats can become takeout and brought home for your future enjoyment!

Yummy samples…

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Street art on four blocks of Imperial Avenue!

Followers of Cool San Diego Sights know I love walking all over and taking photos of interesting things, including street art. My most recent walk through Logan Heights resulted in lots of great finds!

These photos were taken along Imperial Avenue, as I walked west from 29th Street to 25th Street. (The first two photos are actually a few steps east of the intersection.)

Enjoy!

I love the following artwork on a building at Imperial Avenue and 29th Street. If you know anything about it, please leave a comment!

Now I’ve reached more works of art painted on a fence. They appear to belong to Varrio Guetto Art Gallery. The eyes are similar to work done by renowned muralist Mario Torero…

As I continue my walk west…

The next cosmic mural features a robot with sunglasses. It’s signed Dentlok Tattoo Arts 2022.

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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.

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Mosaics at El Portal Undercrossing in Encinitas!

I absolutely love these mosaics!

Seventeen long, narrow mosaic panels were created last year in Encinitas on either side of the El Portal Undercrossing, which allows pedestrians to pass under railroad tracks.

I saw them the other day for the first time!

This excellent article about the project explains how it aims to tell the storied and colorful history of the city and its residents, was a collaborative effort between students from Paul Ecke Central Elementary School and San Dieguito Academy, nonprofit art studio Campana Studios and SDA art teacher Jeremy Wright.

I took a bunch of photos for everyone to enjoy!

The City of Encinitas has completed other public art projects at underpasses, similar to this. In the past I’ve photographed some of that art: here and here and 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.

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Cool murals near Encinitas train station!

These two cool murals can be found close to the train station in Encinitas.

One mural, in my first two photographs, is painted on a wall at the Moonlight Marketplace flea market venue, which, when not in use, appears like a dirt lot west of the station platform. The butterfly and face artwork was created by Chloe Becky (@elsiethecowww).

The second mural is in the alley one block directly south of the Encinitas train station. It’s on the back of a building near the corner of Founders Drive and E Street. The smiley face in swirled colors was spray painted by DJ NEFF (@djn3ff) in 2024.

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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.

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Cool memories of past WOW Festivals!

Have you ever experienced the WOW (Without Walls) Festivals, put on every year by the La Jolla Playhouse? If not, you’ve missed out on some super creative art installations and theatrical performances.

The WOW Festivals over the years have been held at different venues in San Diego, including Horton Plaza Park, Liberty Station, and the Rady Shell. This time, like last year, everything is taking place inside the UC San Diego campus. Many of the unique (and sometimes rather weird) performances are free, and it all begins tomorrow!

WOW 2025 will run Thursday April 24 through Sunday April 27. Find everything you need to know, including the event schedule, by clicking this La Jolla Playhouse link.

Curious what sort of stuff goes on at these festivals? You’re in luck! I’ve taken loads of photographs over the years!

Click the following links to past blog posts:

2017:

La Jolla Playhouse enlivens Horton Plaza Park!

2019:

Scenes from Without Walls Festival 2019!

2022:

Myth, wonder and WOW in San Diego!

Giant ants interact with curious kids!

2023:

Huge birds and fun at Without Walls Festival!

2024:

Gravity-defying dancers at UC San Diego!

Sheep attacked by wolf in La Jolla!

Brave people confront danger in La Jolla!

Love’s dance at La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW!

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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.

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Billowing Bait comes alive on Shelter Island!

Billowing Bait is a kinetic sculpture on Shelter Island, mounted near the entrance of Nielson Beaumont Marine. I spotted it during a recent walk in Point Loma.

The sculptor is Jon Koehler. His shimmering work of art features over 300 small stainless steel elements that move together but independently with the wind. Created in 2013 according to its webpage (2012 according to the nearby plaque), the sculpture is part of the Port of San Diego Public Art Collection.

The shining sculpture is meant to resemble a school of small bait fish . . . or a billowing spinnaker sail. You can learn more about it here.

If you ever walk past 2420 Shelter Island Drive on a breezy day, pause to watch Billowing Bait come alive!

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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.

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Story Trail created at Waterfront Park!

A super fun Story Trail for young children has been created at San Diego’s Waterfront Park!

Parents and children can follow the very easy Story Trail along a pathway between the basketball court and County Administration Building, on the north half of Waterfront Park. The Story Trail is a project of the San Diego County Library and encourages reading and imagination. Simple signs along the trail can be read one at a time in sequence, resulting in a happy story!

I was told this Story Trail was created a few days ago. I had to walk along and check it out!

The title of the little story is Wheels on the Van. It was written by Stephanie and designed by Earl Joseph and Stephanie.

Here are a few photos…

Thank you for journeying with us through this book. Remember, San Diego County Library celebrates our communities and dedicates our passion and expertise to help you create your own story!

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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.

Feel free to share!

The amazing Doctor Who exhibit in San Diego!

How do I convey how awesome the Doctor Who exhibition is at the Comic-Con Museum?

If you’re a Doctor Who fan or anyone in San Diego who loves science fiction, it’s an absolute, positive must see!

I haven’t been a regular watcher of the long-running BBC show, but when I visited the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park today, I was blown away. The museum has hosted epic exhibitions in the past, but this one, Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction, might have the most wow moments.

The exhibition celebrates all fifteen Doctors and displays their distinctive costumes. A variety of props can be viewed up close. Best of all, visitors come face to face with dozens of life-size robots and creatures that have been used in the making of Doctor Who!

Most of the alien creatures are utterly bizarre. Some appear to have been hatched in a nightmare. (See my previous blog post about the exhibition’s awesome Monster Vault by clicking here.)

As fans know, scary-looking creatures in the show can actually be allies of the Doctor. When you travel by TARDIS across time and space, you never know who or what you’ll meet!

The exhibition, like the show, is mostly about wonder. Displays explain how Doctor Who story ideas are often based on actual scientific and technological advancements. Concepts like artificial intelligence, evolution and multidimensional reality are utilized in fantastic ways. Indeed, the show began in 1963 as an educational program. Curiosity is an essential element of Doctor Who.

I took a few sample photos. There’s so much to see, you could spend a good hour exploring Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction.

Visitors begin by stepping through a TARDIS…

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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.

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Deadly monsters of Doctor Who in San Diego!

Should we all be worried? Many of Doctor Who’s most dangerous adversaries have materialized in San Diego!

Fortunately, most are confined inside the Monster Vault at the Comic-Con Museum. People can safely observe the deadly creatures and robots while moving through the museum’s epic exhibition Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction.

A huge collection of props from Doctor Who, the world’s longest running science fiction television show, is possibly the coolest part of the exhibition.

Today, as I visited the Comic-Con Museum, I noticed many Doctor Who fans entering the Monster Vault and remembering some of the show’s most terrifying episodes. Some of the detailed, life-size props are super scary. I wouldn’t care to meet real-life versions!

There are menacing Daleks–the Doctor’s arch-enemy: a hateful, genetically-modified species bent on conquest. There is mad scientist Davros, creator of the Daleks. There are different versions of the deadly cyborg Cybermen.

There is a mutated Dreg, a Sea Devil and a Silurian (both evolved reptiles), an armored Sontaran warrior, an Ice Warrior, a parasitic Weeping Angel that moves when you’re not looking, a bug-eyed Wrath Warrior, and more!

As a nearby sign explains: When designing monsters, sometimes the show’s creators explore different options that don’t make it to the screen… The possibilities of alien life are only as limited as our imagination.

The Monster Vault is one of my favorite parts of Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction. But there’s a lot more to see!

I’ll be blogging more about the Comic-Con Museum’s fantastic (and educational) Doctor Who exhibit in my next post!

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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.

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Stories that connect us in Oceanside.

Currently running at the Oceanside Museum of Art is an exhibition titled The Stories that Connect Us: Selections from the OMA Collection.

Each work by 35 Southern California artists is like a unique story that invites you to think, interpret, dream–and thereby become part of the same story. Your inclusion in each artwork’s story might be untold, but it is real.

The museum’s collection contains diverse pieces in different styles, some by highly renowned artists such as John Baldessari and James Hubbell.

I was surprised to learn the Baldessari piece in the exhibit was painted circa 1959, before the artist burned “all” of his work. His Wikipedia page explains: In 1970, Baldessari and five friends[8] burnt all of the paintings he had created between 1953 and 1966 as part of a new piece, titled The Cremation Project. The ashes from these paintings were baked into cookies… This painting survived.

Here are a few photos. If you’d like to become an integral part of these stories, visit the Oceanside Museum of Art by August 31, 2025.

(Forest), John Baldessari, circa 1959. Oil and mixed media on canvas.
Star Stalker, Walter Wojtyla, 1996. Acrylic on canvas.
Influx, Toni Williams, 2023. Oil on canvas.
Untitled (Two Figures with Purple/Pink/Orange Skies), Janet Cooling, 1980s. Oil on canvas.

The following James Hubbell watercolor includes a poem that he wrote in 2004. To read it, visit the museum!

The exhibition also includes two small, typically beautiful Hubbell sculptures.

In the Beginning, James Hubbell, circa 2007. Watercolor.

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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.

Feel free to share!