Another mural representing the artwork of Rafael Lopez can be spotted on a parking lot wall in East Village. Appropriately called Joy of Urban Living, this mural is also part of the Urban Art Trail project in San Diego. An unknown prankster seems to have added the funny image you see in the third photograph.
Here’s a better photograph that I snapped at a later time…
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Should you ever ride the San Diego Trolley up Park Boulevard between the Market Street and City College stations, you might notice this large, colorful mural on a building wall. It’s called The Strength of the Women and is based on the work of noted local artist Rafael Lopez.
This mural is part of the Urban Art Trail, a project in San Diego whose mission is to beautify areas that have been unfortunately neglected and subject to urban decay. Along this section of Park Boulevard you’ll find many homeless people.
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Perhaps you’ve attended a Padres game at Petco Park, gazed eastward along Imperial Avenue and seen a huge, gigantic mural on a building several blocks away. I’ve got the pics!
The amazing work of art, one of the largest glass mosaic murals in the world, adorns the Villa Harvey Mandel affordable housing building, a part of St. Vincent de Paul Village. The mural measures 43 x 72 feet and was created by the artist Italo Botti.
St. Vincent de Paul Village, located in East Village, offers assistance to the homeless population of San Diego. It has been run for decades by the one and only Father Joe Carroll, known and well-loved by many appreciative San Diegans.
Here’s a portion of a nearby plaque…
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Bibbey’s gift shop, which sells sea shells, rocks and other great stuff, is located across the street from the Imperial Beach pier. It’s hard to miss. The building is one big crazy mural! Check out the wild creativity which blends images from television, movies and the popular culture.
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On F Street, one block west of SMARTS farm (see my last blog post), San Diegans can enjoy a huge public mural. Created by the Museum of Outdoor Photographic Art (MOOPA), the photo ArtWall covers the upper portion of the old Jerome’s Warehouse between 14th and 15th Street.
The mural features the work of three photographers. Matt Black’s photos feature a village in the Mixteca, an impoverished area in Mexico. Susan Madden Lankford’s photos show the streets of San Diego and contain many diverse portraits. A simple photo of a cone flower in the center of the mural, linking north and south, is the work of Polly Lankford Smith.
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If you’re walking around Balboa Park and feeling adventurous, you can sneak into a portion of the San Diego Museum of Art and enjoy a stunning indoor mural. Just enter the unlocked door near the Sculpture Garden’s outdoor cafe! Like the sculpture garden, this area of the museum is free to the public!
The 70 foot mural is named En Busca de las Delicias de la Tierra/In Search of Earthly Delights. Created by Writerz Blok, an innovative graffiti mural organization, it was painted by young artists Sake, Daze, Izze and Krown. Pieces from the museum’s collection of Mexican modern art were used for reference and inspiration.
Here are a few pics of interesting (and sometimes mysterious) faces found in downtown San Diego.
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San Diego’s Urban Corp is a nonprofit dedicated to providing a high school education and green job training to young adults. Whenever I ride the trolley to work, I usually see a number of youth in green uniforms disembarking at the Old Town station. They’re heading off to begin another day developing new skills, while working to improve San Diego’s environment.
A long, colorful mural was recently painted along Jefferson Street, right across from the Urban Corps. You can find this public art near Rosecrans at Interstate 5.
Here are some pics I took as I walked north!
Folks heading up Park Boulevard beside Balboa Park often turn their heads as they pass the amazing, enormous mural painted on the side of the WorldBeat Cultural Center.
The WorldBeat Cultural Center, based in a former water tower, is a multi-cultural arts organization that promotes and preserves the African and indigenous cultures of the world through music, art, dance, education and technology. The center is also used as a venue for concerts and other special events.
Last Saturday I walked around the structure and took some pics of the huge, colorful mural. It completely spans the outside wall of the cylindrical building.
UPDATE!
After posting these photographs, I did some research and learned a little more about this amazing mural that celebrates Egyptian, African, and Indigenous cultures.
Nearly all of the artwork was created by Mike Watson, otherwise known as AIR MIKE. He was the original artist at World Beat’s first location on Hancock Street, before moving to the repurposed water tower in Balboa Park under the leadership of Makeda Cheatom.
I also learned the King Tut artwork was contributed by muralist Mario Torero and a group of students.
Here are more pics I took with a different, better camera in early 2021…
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Here’s one last group of cool pics from Chicano Park. These photographs begin near the center of the park, then we move west under the Coronado Bay Bridge.
The junkyards referred to in the above photo used to be numerous in this area.
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