The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla is like a friendly palace filled with endless treasure. Step through its front door and you’re surrounded by jewels.
Shelves filled with knowledge and beauty. Works of art on the walls, around corners, in nooks and crannies. Comfy places to sit, read, listen, write and fill oneself with wonder.
I headed to La Jolla and stepped through the Athenaeum’s front door yesterday.
In addition to works of art that I hadn’t previously seen, I enjoyed looking at the newest exhibitions in the library’s galleries.
Here are a few of the jewels that I discovered…
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Like a waterfall producing rainbows, Luminous Flux now splashes the Joseph Clayes III Gallery at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library with color and light!
Luminous Flux is part of a new Athenaeum exhibition titled Anne Labovitz: The Blue Hour. It opened yesterday.
Anne Labovitz, who resides in Minnesota, has created beautiful works of art that connect the viewer with surprising light. The radiated and reflected light inspires awe. Of course, luminosity is abundant in this world, but our eyes at times miss it.
Should you visit the Athenaeum to experience the work of Anne Labovitz, you won’t be disappointed. In addition to Luminous Flux (14′ x 20′ x 5’6″ acrylic on Tyvek), you’ll find tall slender stacks of tiny, many-colored books, and shining, colorful, illuminated windows. You really must see them!
The exhibition Anne Labovitz: The Blue Hour will be on display through January 13, 2024.
These photographs of Luminous Flux give a hint of the wonder you’ll experience…
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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Are those holograms? No! The archway just inside the San Ysidro Library’s front door features a cool 3D effect produced by its two lenticular print columns.
This amazing public art, titled Pasaje, debuted in 2019 when the new branch library opened. The artists are brothers Jamex de la Torre and Einar de la Torre.
The San Diego Civic Art Collection website explains: The interior artwork, Pasaje, consists of an archway which serves as both a literal and symbolic entrance to the library. The columns of the archway are wrapped with colorful, illuminated lenticular prints drawing on themes related to San Ysidro, architecture, and the library as a source of knowledge. These densely layered and highly dynamic lenticular images produce the illusion of depth and change when viewed from different angles. Sitting atop the columns is a cantera stone lintel inspired by both Spanish colonial and Mesoamerican architectural motifs.
The San Ysidro Library website further explains: The arch columns feature back-lit lenticular transparencies that exhibit two images in flip format, one showing historical pictures of San Ysidro and the other showing a plethora of images that symbolize curious illustrations in the exploration of books.
Your own eyes have to experience this fantastic optical art!
I found it hard to take good, focused photographs, because the seemingly layered images fade in and out with every slight movement the camera makes. (If you’ve ridden the main elevator at the San Diego Central Library, you’ve probably marveled at similar lenticular artwork by the same artists!)
Hopefully these photos entice you to visit the library in person!
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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Picadillo Folklorico and El Movimiento are two works of public art decorating the exterior of the San Ysidro Branch Library.
Visitors to the library might crane their necks to gaze up at these two large steel screens, but closely observing the intricate water-jet cut designs in each can be difficult. So I took a few photos that provide a better look at some of the detail.
The artists who created Picadillo Folklorico and El Movimiento are Einar and Jamex de la Torre, “brothers and artistic collaborators who were born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and maintain studios in Baja California and San Diego.”
According to the San Diego Civic Art Collection description, the two pieces were inspired by the Mexican folk art of paper-cutting and traditional Moorish screens.
By examining these close-up photographs, you can discover all sorts of interesting little figures incorporated into each design. Many of the figures appear like ancient pictographs, perhaps representing real or mythical creatures.
All of the elements combine to create the impression, in my own mind, of complex, outwardly expanding life.
What do you see?
(The same two artists created amazing public art inside the San Ysidro Library. I’ll post those photos coming up!)
El Movimiento
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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!
How does one combine short outdoor walks with story time at a San Diego public library? Story Strolls!
During my visit to the San Ysidro Library last month, I observed one of these Story Strolls along walkways near the building entrance. Words and illustrations from children’s books are printed on signs, to be viewed by walkers in sequence, as if pages are being turned. It’s such a cool concept that I took these photos.
According to the City of San Diego website, eight branch libraries have featured such strolls. Most are in English. This one in San Ysidro is in Spanish. By scanning QR codes with your phone, you can also hear the story read aloud.
All of the library Story Strolls have a nature theme and debuted in June.
(If these signs appear a little dirty, we’d recently had some rain.)
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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Do you have any old photographs taken years ago in San Ysidro? An effort is underway to reconstruct a World War II Memorial in San Ysidro, but more information is required.
147 men and women who lived in San Ysidro served in the military during World War II. Their names were listed on a memorial that stood in front of the old San Ysidro Library. But that memorial mysteriously disappeared, and now all that remains is a single photograph that shows only some of those names.
Here’s an article that provides a good explanation.
A group called the Friends of San Ysidro Luncheon Group has been attempting to ascertain all 147 names that were on the missing World War II Memorial, and they are still hoping someone out there has photos of it.
Do you know anyone out there who might have taken photographs in San Ysidro long ago? Your help would be greatly appreciated!
If you have any helpful information, please email Jack Gechter at jackgechter@cox.net.
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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!
Border Sign, circa 1920. San Ysidro The Gateway to the U.S.
Those interested in the history of San Diego should visit the San Ysidro Library. Inside the library’s community room, fascinating historical photographs of San Ysidro (one of San Diego’s southernmost districts) can be viewed.
I visited the library yesterday. I wanted to check out the old photos and visualize how San Ysidro appeared long ago.
I learned how this border community began as the Little Landers colony, a family farming cooperative created by agricultural reformer, journalist and writer William E. Smythe in 1908. The motto of Little Landers was “A little land and a living surely is better than desperate struggle and wealth possibly.” It was one of the nation’s first communes. The colony was named San Ysidro, probably after the patron saint of farmers, Isidore the Laborer, and was formally inaugurated on January 11, 1909.
I was also surprised to learn San Ysidro had a Pony Express station!
Here are just a few of the photographs you will see should you visit the library…
Little Landers Colony School, circa 1907. The schoolhouse was located on East San Ysidro Boulevard (old Tia Juana Boulevard) where I-805 is today.Little Landers Colony Sign by San Ysidro Post Office, circa 1913.U.S. and Mexico Border Crossing officials, circa 1924. Looking north from Tijuana toward San Ysidro. The train in the background is on the San Diego Arizona Eastern Railway built by John D. Spreckels.Pony Express Station, circa 1916. Refugees from the Great Flood of 1916, worst natural disaster in the history of the South Bay.San Ysidro Library, circa 1930. The original 1924 library–first Branch Library owned by the County of San Diego. It was the only library in the country with a smoking room for men!
I took outside photos of the old 1924 library several years ago. See them here!
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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!
If you’ve never visited the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla, now would be a great time to go. They’re currently presenting the 31st Annual Juried Exhibition in their beautiful, light-filled Joseph Clayes III Gallery.
During my La Jolla walk yesterday, I stepped into the Athenaeum merely to savor the handsome architecture and furnishings of this special, unique library. As I turned from the entrance into the main gallery, I was pleased to discover this juried exhibition. The very different pieces–including sculptures, paintings, drawings and photographs–were created by twenty-five artists. (How prestigious is this annual exhibition? Three hundred artists submitted their work for consideration.)
Visit the Athenaeum to enjoy the great pieces in this gallery and elsewhere in the library. You’ll appreciate the passion of artists who love to create.
Check the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library website here to learn more!
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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!
There’s a cool free collectible in San Diego during Comic-Con 2023. Library cards featuring the Comic-Con logo beneath “Odi The Coyote: Defender of Books” will be available at all San Diego Public Library locations starting Thursday, July 20!
I asked a gentleman at the front desk of the Central Library if I could trade in my boring old library card from many years ago and get one of these collectible cards. Yes! While supplies last!
The Central Library, an easy walk from the San Diego Convention Center, also has a tiny exhibit near the main entrance during Comic-Con. Here’s one pic:
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
Do you love the look, feel, and smell of words on paper, bound handsomely together for your own bookshelf?
I love to stumble upon dusty old books at a swap meet or rummage sale. Turn the pages and the author still speaks. The cover and interior artwork can be fantastic. One might find interesting notes or thoughts scribbled by past readers. And, if you’re lucky, there will be a beautiful bookplate inside.
What’s a bookplate? It’s a label readers affix inside their books to indicate ownership. They can also be used for book signings by authors.
The Mission Hills-Hillcrest/Harley & Bessie Knox Library currently has a display case full of handsome bookplates near its front entrance. They come from the San Diego Public Library’s Special Collections.
Here are a few examples:
The Mission Hills-Hillcrest Branch Library opened in 2019. Its grand opening was preceeded by one of the most wonderful events I’ve experienced in San Diego: the epic Book Pass!
Hundreds of neighbors transported hundreds of books from the old branch library to the newly built library. Every book passed from hand to hand about a mile down Washington Street. I took photographs of that incredible event, which you can see here!
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 