Visitors to the Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park walk through a sunlit paradise of color and creativity.
Over the past five years, I’ve blogged about Spanish Village Art Center many times, on Cool San Diego Sights and on my other website Beautiful Balboa Park. Spanish Village is one of my go-to places when I need to feel optimistic, free and alive.
Whenever I stroll around the many art studios, I feel like I’ve entered a kaleidoscope of living color and creativity. It’s a wonderful place to visit if you want to be inspired.
Lovers of art in San Diego need to swing on by. You’ll find yourself lingering. And smiling.
Sign lists 2018 events, including special shows and sales, in Spanish Village Art Studios in Balboa Park.Patio tiles leading visitors to the front door of Studio 26 seem like a Yellow Brick Road of many colors.Surprising colors grow in four pots.The rear of the Uni-two-corn by sculptor Kim Ogburn, which functions as a seat for two.A dreamlike canvas in front of Studio 31 in Spanish Village.Someone admires a glass vase created by the friendly glassblowers in Studio 19.Beautiful cacti in a planter near the front door of Studio 18.An amazing flower outside the San Diego Mineral and Gem Society building in Spanish Village.Colorful cats have gathered on the patio in front of Studio 16 in Spanish Village.The local artists in Studio 14 specialize in Kaleidoscopes, Egg Art and Handmade Art.A painter creates new artwork outside the window of the Southwestern Artists’ Association Gallery in Studio 23.Mary-Ella Bowles in Studio 6 created this fun Fairy House out of a gigantic hollow gourd!A colorful frog is standing on a big leaf outside Studio 10.
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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!
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 photos for you to enjoy!
Late yesterday I sat for a spell on the poop deck of Star of India, gazing out across San Diego Bay. The cool sea breeze felt so refreshing after a day of summer heat. White sails traversing the sparkling water gave my eyes a welcome rest.
As my attention shifted, I became aware of the tall ship’s ropes that rose in a web all around me. Many were fastened to a row of wooden belaying pins along the ship’s rail.
Those beautiful ropes seemed like magic. Silent and unbreakable, coiled and knotted–twisted, mysterious, purposeful. Threading together a small wind-tossed world.
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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!
A fan at 2018 Comic-Con receives an award from Syfy in the Gaslamp on Saturday afternoon!
Breaking News!
I was going to post photos from my late morning walk through The Experience at 2018 Comic-Con, but an unforeseen event this afternoon has disrupted my plans!
In the mid-afternoon Syfy arrived in the Gaslamp Quarter to award medals to winners of their fan art competition, and . . . you’ll have to see what happened! Read the captions!
On Saturday afternoon at 2018 Comic-Con, the craziness gets underway.Waiting for a trolley with a shark fin hat.Bumblebee had a tough time squeezing into this trolley, but made it!Pikachu was making a new friend.Someone appeared to be really hungry.What planet is this? What’s going on here?It seems to be a planet that’s packed with crazy, fun-loving Comic-Con fans!I don’t know if these guys were making a political statement, or just looking a bit silly.Speaking of silly, here’s a super fantastic Batman photo op!Where did he come from? I barely got away in time.Everyone’s a kid during Comic-Con.Everyone likes posing with superheroes.Kids liked this colorful robot.Will these guys pose for a group cosplay photo?Of course! It’s Comic-Con!This guy clearly has issues.It’s a Comic-Con exclusive life-size Star Trek Barbee, mint in box!A great Ming the Merciless cosplay!Aquaman is being pursued by a toothy sea creature.Someone went to the Gaslamp Quarter for a martini, and look what they saw.I see Other Mother in front of LAIKA LIVE San Diego!And here’s Logan in padding. Perhaps his healing factor isn’t what it used to be.Instead of breaking Batman’s back, Bane goes after the neck of an innocent bystander.Look what’s coming down Fifth Avenue! It’s the Syfy Fan Creator Award show for Comic-Con 2018!The Syfy drum line gets the crowd in an even more excited mood.Time for another selfie.A Syfy fan who made some super cool art gets a medal, then speaks a few words to the gathered crowd.Everyone’s having a great–if wacky–time.The Syfy band played the theme from Ghostbusters. A kid wearing a Ghostbusters t-shirt receives a medal and a high five!Let sheer insanity resume.Deadpool makes some gyrating moves.Apparently his dance worked. He attracted a rainbow unicorn!Members of the Justice League of America have descended into the Gaslamp Quarter. Have no fear, good citizens!Another photo that says it all.A fuzzy pic. I feel fortunate that I took if from a safe distance.Super-tall-Spock coolly analyzes the situation.While Captain Kirk is with the ladies.More fun, creative, absurd cosplay.Yes, it seems everyone is little off their rocker this afternoon.Another day at Comic-Con.Another Saturday afternoon, that is.The Guardians of the Galaxy have arrived to help guard the Gaslamp Quarter for a bit.Yes, the full tilt craziness has just begun.Here come some fast food superheroes. First up are McDonalds and Wendys.I bet you didn’t know Grimace is a big time purple superhero.Jack in the Box casts his taco spell on me, making my head spin.Panda Express and KFC complete the Legion of Indigestion.If you bite one of those apples, you’ll get worse than indigestion!Everything is returning to normal. Good old Wonder Woman and Superman are coming down Fifth Avenue.And these guys, too.She-Ra and her pal have things under control.
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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!
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 photos for you to enjoy!
Professor Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore cosplay at 2018 San Diego Comic-Con.
I missed the Harry Potter cosplay meetup today at 2018 San Diego Comic-Con, but I did manage to photograph many of the characters when I happened to see them walking about the Gaslamp Quarter!
Of course, wouldn’t you know, the one character I didn’t find was Harry himself.
Hermione Granger cosplay.Newt Scamander cosplay.Knight Bus conductor and Hogwarts Express conductor cosplay.Molly Weasley cosplay.Bellatrix Lestrange cosplay.Dolores Umbridge cosplay.Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy cosplay.Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody cosplay.Rubeus Hagrid cosplay along with “Mad-Eye” Moody at 2018 San Diego Comic-Con.
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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!
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 photos for you to enjoy!
Dozens of amazing stop-motion puppets can be viewed inside LAIKA LIVE San Diego at 2018 Comic-Con!
Wow!
If you thought last year’s Laika Experience at Comic-Con was great, you’ll be absolutely stunned by LAIKA LIVE San Diego in 2018!
Not only are there lots of detailed puppets, models and scale movie sets, but during the tour visitors can meet and talk to an actual working armaturist and an animator! Anyone interested in how Laika produces their films can ask any sort of question, and the friendly guys explain everything–from how puppets, their armatures and costumes are created and manipulated, to how scenes are conceived and filmed.
Visitors to LAIKA LIVE San Diego also get a preview of the upcoming funny and heartwarming movie Missing Link.
If you can, visit this Comic-Con offsite before Comic-Con actually begins and the lines get really, really long.
Here are some photos. Read the captions for more info. I’m no expert, so I hope I’ve described things correctly.
There’s a lot more to see than what I cover here. Many detailed displays that visitors can view during the tour explain the complicated process of making a Laika movie!
Before beginning the tour, visitors can pose with various Laika characters, like Other Mother, for a photo.While we wait to begin the tour, we watch a video explaining various aspects of Laika’s animation and how their fantastic movies are produced.Visitors are encouraged to vote for this LEGO model of Coraline’s house by photographing a QR code. Given enough votes, LEGO will produce the kit!A board contains Laika fan art and letters.Examples of one letter and some fan art.Visitors to LAIKA LIVE San Diego get character fans as free swag.The tour has begun. Here we see a large model of Coraline’s Other World House Exterior, or Pink Palace. The 1/16 scale miniature was used to film several exterior scenes.A closer look, with models of Coraline characters on the porch.A friendly LAIKA armaturist describes how puppets are made, manipulated and repaired at his workstation, dubbed the Puppet Hospital. He answered every sort of question!Two of the puppets, I believe from ParaNorman.A look at the Puppet Hospital and some of the tools used to make, modify and repair Laika’s many puppets.Once a puppet’s physical posture is slightly altered, the turn of a key tightens up the armature for another camera shot.Next we see how this Laika animator captures images of Kubo on a small set of his village using a camera on a running rig.One camera shot is analyzed.Software allows many frames to be merged and edited into a completed film.Some puppets have many faces that can be attached, each with a slightly different expression.The tour continues to a large set that is being used to film Laika’s upcoming funny movie Missing Link. The detail of the Pacific Northwest forest is extraordinary.The friendly LAIKA tour guide poses for a fun photo!Near the end of the tour, there is a life-size replica of Coraline’s Other World Living Room.A fantastic set and puppets used in the filming of The Boxtrolls.More cool sights during an amazing tour of LAIKA LIVE San Diego at 2018 Comic-Con!
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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!
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 photos for you to enjoy!
Earthlab, 2017, by artist Eva Struble. Acrylic and oil on canvas. Optimistic and energetic colors depict small San Diego farms.
Today I enjoyed some stimulating artwork at the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park. Their current exhibition is called High-Key: Color in Southern California, and for a very good reason.
Palm greens, desert tans and ocean blues are primary colors in our region’s sunny landscapes.
Additional vibrant colors live in our diverse urban centers. Like neon and surfboards, lowriders and pinatas, our local culture is saturated with bold, bright color.
High-Key: Color in Southern California can be enjoyed at the San Diego Art Institute through August 12, 2018.
If you visit Balboa Park this summer, you might want to check it out!
Visitor to the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park at the exhibition of High-Key: Color in Southern California.Chaparral (II), 2018, by artist Audrey Hope. Canvas and hand wound rope. Swaths of colorful fabric are suggestive of San Diego’s hilly, arid natural landscape.Green, Red-Orange, 2018, by artist Michael James Armstrong. Acrylic sheet, fluorescent light, spray paint.Untitled, 2018, by artist Joshua Moreno. Watercolor, watercolor pencil, gouache, marbling, spray paint.Cleaning Portrait; Whisk #1, 2017, by artist Claudia Cano. Acrylic on paper. A cleaning tool used by a hardworking Mexican immigrant laborer.More artwork splashed with the vibrant colors of Southern California.Rhubarb Moon, 2018, by artist John Oliver Lewis. Porcelain, acrylic.Paradise Prototype, 2018, by artist Allison Wiese. Cast sugar. Patterned concrete blocks were popular in Southern California in the 1950’s and 60’s.
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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!
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 photos for you to enjoy!
Colorful fish swims through a wall at Petco Park near the Sun Diego Beach.
Here’s a collection of random art that I’ve observed while walking around San Diego. Some of these photos are recent; others have been languishing for a year or two unused in my computer.
Enjoy!
Four mermaids painted on tile in an outdoor shop in Old Town.A deer dressed in a polo shirt. Humorous street art in Golden Hill.A silly pelican painted on a utility box on Mission Boulevard in South Mission Beach.IMAGINE painted on a box in downtown San Diego.Imaginative, plant-like street art downtown.Beautiful tile mosaic with Virgin Mary at its center on a wall in North Park.A boy and a bird on an electrical box downtown.I spied this small unusual work of art leaning up against a garbage can downtown.A branching tree enlivens a transformer box in Golden Hill.A whale, shark, dolphin, ray and other sea life painted by many hands on a community mural in Ocean Beach.
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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!
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 photos for you to enjoy!
This morning I jumped off the trolley at the Rio Vista station, which is located beside the San Diego River in the heart of Mission Valley.
I knew I could find some fun street art at the Rio Vista shopping mall.
I headed down a sidewalk and there it was!
A transformer box has been painted with a mermaid. An example of the street art at Rio Vista in Mission Valley.More nearby boxes decorated with fun artwork.Long blue hair like waves of water.Shark street art, with credits to Brise Birdsong, Helen Divas, Angelica Nunez.A sea turtle swims though Mission Valley.I see some jellyfish, too!Two hummingbirds touch beaks.Colorful bird-of-paradise flower street art.Artwork painted on an electrical box at Rio Vista depicts a lady smelling red flowers.
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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!
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 photos for you to enjoy!
Some panels on a mural on Gunn Street west of 30th Street have been repainted. The two shown are by Jorge Gutierrez and Maxx Moses.
North Park is brimming with street art. During a walk yesterday down 30th Street, from University Avenue to Upas Street, I encountered fresh artwork that I haven’t blogged in the past. You can see some of those old photos here and here and here.
As I proceeded down the sidewalk I noticed that a number of electrical boxes and walls have been repainted in the past couple years.
Enjoy these new photos. North Park is alive with creativity!
This box showing the four cardinal directions has been repainted by Jonny Alexander.East.South.West.A scary purple claw has emerged from this crate-like electrical box!The yellow eyes of a mysterious monster peer out!Let’s be friends. That love potion appears intoxicating . . . and possibly toxic!A skull in a bottle. Sink or swim.More fun street art on the same utility box on 30th Street in North Park.Stenciled on a wall. For my hustlers, here’s some motivation. He who has begun is half done.A cute little critter that seems to be inside a living heart.Exotic street art on an electrical box.Strength through Peace.Three sitting female figures contain spiritual symbolism.A wild splash of color.Mural on side of 30th Street Laundry. A Beautiful Morning by Sentrock.An ankh symbolizing life in the hand of a lady with colorful abstract hair.Fun robot graphic on the front wall of Soi 30th, a North Park Thai Eatery.A cool Pangea Seed Foundation Sea Wall created in North Park by Lauren YS. A beautiful underwater mermaid is contrasted with a skeleton.The mural concerns ocean acidification and the resulting death of kelp and sea life.San Diego Padres baseball player under painted fireworks.This final North Park electrical box was painted last month. You can find it on Upas Street east of 30th Street, in front of The Taco Stand.An old salt by the ocean and a sailing ship.A friar by the old mission.Hecho a Mano. Made by hand.
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Every Sunday afternoon, on a large area of grass in Balboa Park’s Morley Field Sports Complex, medieval knights come together and engage in mock combat! These brave knights hail from the Realm of Andor. They are a part of the international Belegarth Medieval Combat Society.
Wielding foam weapons like swords, maces and battle axes, these guys get a super fun athletic workout. I was told by a friendly member of the Realm of Andor that the sport is like a mixture of fencing and rugby, with fairly simple rules. When a combatant receives a strike to a critical area, they fall down as if dead. A hit on a limb results in a loss of its use. Two limbs gone, you’re a goner. The last one standing wins!
I watched as the combatants veered all over the place, swinging a variety of formidable ancient weapons. Two or three knights would gang up on another; others would be struck by a sneaky knight from behind. Some of the members, in their cool costumes and bearing shields, appeared to be rampaging extras in the filming of Lord of the Rings. Many make their own weapons. It’s all about fantasy and high energy fun!
If you’d like to learn more, or perhaps join, check out their website!
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 