Tag: oceanside

Emojis, memes and emotion in Oceanside.

Much of social media is geared toward eliciting an emotional response. Much of art serves the same purpose. An exhibition of art in Oceanside fuses the simple emojis and memes of social media with framed artistic creation.

Neon Afterlife is the title of the exhibition. It can be freely viewed in the Oceanside Museum of Art’s annex gallery inside The Seabird Ocean Resort & Spa, a short walk from the beach and Oceanside Pier.

Pieces by Southern California artists Magz Yang, Jon Savage and Evyn Hewett utilize the “language” of Gen Z and today’s digital pop culture–an increasingly illiterate culture saturated with adrenaline fueled gaming and provocative short videos.

These works of art, like many of the images on one’s phone, might arrest shortened attention spans. They produce an emotional response by using simplistic symbols and bright colors. It’s as if the small screens people endlessly scroll have been splashed onto the gallery walls.

I do love the creativity. And I smiled when I noticed fun is made of the pretentious of much social media.

Does an emoji or meme suffice for life’s complexity?

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Skull and crossbones created at Oceanside beach!

A hot day for mid-March. I stayed near the beach–in Oceanside. As I walked out onto the Oceanside Pier, look what I saw! Someone was digging a huge skull and crossbones into the sand!

Turns out the friendly, creative guy was David. He was working on his pirate Jolly Roger flag design in the sunshine, while people strolling along the beach would stop, look and chat.

He’s been making artwork in the sand like this for several months, he told me. He’s created perhaps a dozen such works at the beach.

He told me there’s another guy who makes cool designs using a garden rake. That sounds awesome, too. Perhaps I’ll stumble upon that one day.

Here’s what I saw around noon as I walked out on the pier:

After I ate lunch, I returned to the pier and saw this:

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Unique printmaking art exhibit in Oceanside!

The subject matter for art is infinite, and sometimes it seems like the different paths for creating art are beyond count. That is certainly the case in a current exhibition at the Oceanside Museum of Art. Matrix multiplied: hybrid approaches to printmaking demonstrates that amazing art can be produced by utilizing multiple printmaking techniques.

Eighteen artists are featured in the exhibition. Many of their pieces incorporate different techniques, ranging from traditional handmade printing methods to digital technology. They are truly unique!

No particular theme is depicted among the pieces. You’ll see abstracts, portraits, landscapes . . . art books, hangings, sculptures . . . all produced in ways you might not have imagined. The exhibition is a celebration of artistic skill and creativity!

Go check it out through August 2, 2026!

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Exhibit celebrates Irving Gill’s architecture in Oceanside.

The Oceanside Museum of Art occupies a building that was designed by renowned architect Irving J. Gill. They soon will be expanding into an adjacent building also designed by Gill. So it’s appropriate museum visitors can now enjoy an exhibition titled Modern Simplicity: The Architecture of Irving J. Gill in Oceanside.

Irving Gill is a name you might recognize. His architectural work can be found all around San Diego. He’s considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture. Twelve of his buildings throughout Southern California are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (In nearly thirteen years of blogging, I’ve photographed much of his work. To find those past blog posts, click here.)

As the exhibition webpage explains: The City of Oceanside is home to several notable examples of Gill’s later work, including two landmark buildings that define the east-west axis of the Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA) campus: the former 1934 City Hall and the original [1929] Fire Station #1 and police station.

In Oceanside he also designed the Americanization School (1931), the Nevada Street Kindergarten (1931), the Blade Tribune building (1936), and several others. The exhibition documents his buildings with fascinating information and historical drawings and photographs.

The exhibition explains how Irving was inspired by Southern California’s climate and stripped architecture of unnecessary ornament and focused on pure geometric form.

People might not realize it, but many buildings and houses around San Diego were greatly influenced by the vision of one man: Irving J. Gill. In Oceanside–and now at the museum exhibition–that inspired vision comes to life.

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Oceanside Museum of Art expansion sneak peek!

This Sunday, March 1, 2026, the public will have a rare opportunity at the Oceanside Museum of Art. During a free Open House, between noon and 4 pm, the public will enjoy a sneak peek at the museum’s planned expansion into historic Fire Station Number One!

Here’s the event webpage with details.

There will also be art workshops, refreshments, and a presentation concerning architect Irving Gill, who designed the 1929/1930 fire station (also called Oceanside Engine House and Police Station), and the original 1934 City Hall and Library buildings.

(One of the museum’s current exhibitions concerns Irving Gill’s many contributions to architecture in Oceanside. I’ll be blogging about that soon.)

Today I was shown a model of the museum with its future expansion. The model, located near the museum’s front counter, is in my first and last photograph. One can see how the Oceanside’s old fire station and police station, adjacent to the existing museum, will become a substantial addition!

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Have a blind date with a book in Oceanside!

In Oceanside, it’s easy to arrange for a blind date . . . with a book!

For your blind date, simply head over to Jane & Evie’s Used Books at 323 North Coast Highway and choose one of the plainly wrapped packages pictured above.

Beneath the mysterious wrappings you’ll discover a book!

Will you fall in love with it?

You can’t judge a book by its cover. Particularly in this instance. Fortunately, there are written clues on the wrappings that provide an idea of what you might find inside. (You get a beautiful bookmark, too!)

Every five dollar purchase helps to fund the Oceanside Public Library. What’s not to love?

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Love endures at old Oceanside cemetery.

Beloved Wife and Mother

Beloved Husband and Father

In Loving Memory

Gone, But Not Forgotten

In Memory, From Daughters & Sons

Our Little Angel

Her Love Lingers

These are a few of the loving inscriptions on stone that linger in Oceanside’s old Oceanview Cemetery.

During a recent walk down South Coast Highway, I redirected my feet and wandered through the 3-acre resting place, originally called the I.O.O.F. Cemetery, established in 1895.

As a blogger who’s always searching for interesting sights, I was wondering if some “famous” person might be buried here.

Shame on me for thinking that way. I had missed the central message of a cemetery. It’s that we all might be mortal, but loves lives on.

Are you curious about the history of this old cemetery? A State of California resource document includes:

From its inception in 1895 until about 1950, when Eternal Hills Memorial Park opened in Oceanside, Oceanview was the primary non-denominational cemetery in Oceanside. During its heyday in the 1920s, 30s and 40s there were well over 1000 burials at Oceanview… over 1100 obituaries have been compiled, by the Oceanside Historical Society, of people interred at Oceanview… Oceanview contains the remains of veterans involved in every war or conflict from the Civil War to World War II, inclusive. Those interred at Oceanview range in age from just a few hours old to Agapita Soliz whose family claimed she was 110 years old at the time of her death in 1941. Many of Oceanside’s pioneers and merchants, dating back to the 1880s, are interred at Oceanview.

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Another beautiful mural in Oceanside!

I spotted this beautiful mural during my last walk in Oceanside. It decorates a wall on San Diego Street, between Lemon Street and Dubuque Street, about a block away from Balderamma Park.

The side of the wall that faces an alley depicts the Virgin of Guadalupe among prickly pear and other cacti. It also appears to be a neighborhood shrine. People have left fresh flowers.

The other side, facing San Diego Street, has been painted with colorful scenes, so full of life.

I couldn’t ascertain who the artist is. If you have any information, leave a comment.

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A quaint, old 19th century chapel in Oceanside.

I was exploring the neighborhood near Balderrama Park in Oceanside when I spied this quaint old structure at 1510 Lemon Street. I had stumbled upon the historical 1893 St. Mary’s Chapel.

The location of today’s much larger St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church, near the Oceanside Civic Center, is where this old chapel was originally built. The wooden chapel, affectionately called the Capillita, was completed in 1896.

The city of Oceanside was incorporated a few years earlier, in 1888, when its population was only 1000.

After the city had grown and a larger church was built in 1927, the chapel served as Parish Hall. The small chapel was later moved to its present location. It was restored in 1977.

You can read about its history here.

The St. Mary’s Chapel remains very active, as I saw during my walk. A service was being held inside, and I didn’t want to intrude.

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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!

Junior Seau mural in his home town Oceanside.

A beautiful mural in Oceanside’s Balderrama Park remembers and celebrates home town football hero Junior Seau.

The legendary NFL linebacker attended Oceanside High School and spent most of his life a resident in San Diego’s North County.

He played with the San Diego Chargers for 13 seasons, helping to lead them to Super Bowl XXIX. His play seemed superhuman. He would become one of the most popular Chargers players of all time.

Junior was active in the community, plus a surfer and restaurateur. He was loved by everybody.

His untimely death was so tragic, believed to be caused by repetitive head trauma while playing the game.

The Oceanside mural, painted by Ground Floor Murals, captures the beautiful soul of Junior Seau.

Another fantastic mural depicting Junior Seau can be viewed in San Diego on El Cajon Boulevard. It was painted by the same artists.

You can see those photographs by clicking 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.

Feel free to share!