My artist friend Shirish Villaseñor (@shirishtheartist) and her partner Richie were painting the windows of Sweet Things Frozen Yogurt for Comic-Con 2025 today. They were putting the finishing touches on some super fun Pokémon artwork!
How many of the Pokémon characters do you recognize? I easily got Pikachu, but Squirtle’s cool sunglasses almost fooled me!
For many years now, Shirish has embellished the yogurt shop’s window with kid-friendly pop culture imagery. If you go to Comic-Con and walk past the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, you’ve no doubt seen her art!
This afternoon, Shirish and Richie will begin decorating the windows of nearby Starbucks. The subject? Scooby-Doo!
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
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.
There’s an art gallery in Oceanside that you might not know. I stumbled upon it by sheer coincidence the other day.
This surprising art gallery is located inside the historic Sunshine Brooks Theater building, the home of the Oceanside Theatre Company. Very fine works by regional artists hang in the lobby and down a hallway.
The current exhibition of the Brooks Theater Gallery is Black Perspectives 2. The exhibition’s inspiration was the arrival of Juneteenth. This theatre webpage explains that the gallery features previous exhibitors and new POC artists sharing their vision of Black history, culture, family and community.
Incidentally, these fine art pieces are for sale. You can support the artists!
The exhibitions in the gallery change fairly often. Next time you pass by the Sunshine Brooks Theater in downtown Oceanside, why not step through the door as I did and take a peek. You might be surprised!
A few more examples in the gallery…
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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 X.
I was walking along Coast Highway after the big Oceanside Independence Parade when I noticed an absolutely amazing piano in front of the Sunshine Brooks Theater building. I had stumbled upon the Miss Mary Project!
The piano, named Miss Mary, was recently painted by artist and arts advocate BJ Lane. Its new permanent home is the Sunshine Brooks Theater, home of the Oceanside Theatre Company.
Anybody walking along the sidewalk was invited to play the beautiful piano. How could anyone possibly resist?
The Miss Mary Project was initiated by the daughter-in-law of the piano’s beloved namesake, whose spirit lives on. You can find more about the project by reading various blog posts here.
You’ll learn that BJ Lane, as she carefully painted, was thinking about movement, music, and the energy of the performers that will eventually emerge on Miss Mary’s panels.
Also: At its heart, The Miss Mary Project is more than a painted piano. It’s a gathering place for purpose, restoration, and connection.
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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.
Some fine art can be enjoyed by those visiting Liberty Station in Point Loma. Eight artists who work out of studios at Liberty Station are exhibiting canvases that celebrate San Diego and our local fishing industry.
Most of the displayed pieces can be purchased. They’re all quite good, too.
The Summer Solstice Exhibit can be found in the lobby of the Dick Laub NTC Command Center building and runs May to July 2025.
While you’re at Liberty Station, just roam around. There’s so much to see and do!
(While wandering about today, I discovered a little-seen mosaic from Liberty Station’s history as Naval Training Center San Diego. I’ll blog about that next!)
A few more pieces in the Summer Solstice Exhibit…
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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.
In San Diego? Would you like to watch skilled artists create Japanese ink paintings? Would you like to learn this traditional Japanese art?
Head over to Balboa Park tomorrow, Sunday, June 22, 2025, when the 22nd Annual Art Exhibition by Friends of Sumi-e resumes in Room 101 of the Casa del Prado!
I swung by today. I love the simple elegance of this unique art form, and whenever I see there’s an exhibition of Japanese brush painting (called sumi-e or suiboku-ga) in Balboa Park, I can’t miss it.
The participating members of Friends of Sumi-e are always delighted to demonstrate their craft. Today Gaye Lingley showed me how to create an orchid. Here she is, near some of her exhibited artwork:
And here she is creating the orchid. She told me learning Japanese ink painting is never ending. I thought: isn’t that true of any art form?
The orchid is finished. A few strokes of the brush have created depth and subtlety:
Meanwhile, instructor Naoko Ozaki was holding a demonstration across the room….
You can see how, six years ago, Naoko created an incredibly beautiful flower here.
Interested in Japanese brush painting? Want to learn how to do it? Check out the Friends of Sumi-e website here!
Some of the beautiful work on display this weekend:
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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.
A popular attraction at the San Diego County Fair is the Exhibition of Fine Art on the first floor of Grandstand East. The fair’s theme in 2025 is our love for pets, so it isn’t surprising many of the fine art entries depict beloved animals.
The exhibition is extensive and broken up into many categories based on media and subject matter. Artists who’ve submitted their work, hoping for a blue ribbon, are from many walks of life all around San Diego County. When I checked out the exhibition, I couldn’t help noticing pets were a common subject, and not just dogs and cats. I saw rabbits, parrots and other critters!
There are pet portraits, pets painted humorously, pet abstracts! If you have a pet or simply love animals, the art will definitely put a smile on your face.
I photographed random examples that I really like…
Look who I met as I left the fine art exhibit. Woof and Meow!
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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.
I recently walked past Dog Beach in Del Mar and was surprised to see the Dog Memorial Garden and its hundreds of painted rocks had vanished.
Today I learned what happened to the special memorial garden, which is also called Gwen’s Garden. It was relocated to the Del Mar Fairgrounds, and now occupies the space in front of the Del Mar Historical Society’s Alvarado House!
I was told the Dog Beach Memorial Garden was moved because construction work is slated to begin on the nearby bridge.
If you’re going to the San Diego County Fair this year, make sure to visit the Alvarado House. The historic beach cottage is located to one side of the outdoor Paul Ecke Jr. Garden Show.
When you walk up the ramp to the Alvarado House, you’ll see many heartwarming photographs of the beloved rock garden at Dog Beach, before everything was moved.
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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.
Ocean Beach has a wonderful public art tradition that started in 1999. If you’ve visited this colorful seaside neighborhood, perhaps you’ve noticed.
The Murals of OB was the brainchild of local artist and activist Rich James. The idea was for the community to come together and create beautiful murals that would be mounted on walls and buildings around town. Over the years, many of these murals have been painted during the annual OB Street Fair and Chili Cook-Off.
This webpage describes the many murals and includes a walking tour map.
During my own walks, I’ve noticed that some of these community murals celebrate important Ocean Beach anniversaries. I’ll now share four that I’ve found.
The first mural (my previous and following photo) celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Ocean Beach Farmers Market.
The popular farmers market got started back in 1992. (Here’s a timeline of certain OB events.) The mural was painted in 2017.
Today, in 2025, people swing by the market every Wednesday, from 4 pm to 8 pm, on the 4900 block of Newport Avenue.
The next two photos show a mural that celebrates 100 years of the Ocean Beach Woman’s Club. It was painted in 2024.
Learn about the club’s fun events and philanthropy at their website here.
The next three photos are of a mural painted in 2012. It celebrates 125 years since Ocean Beach was founded in 1887.
Curious about the image of Wonderland on the right side of the mural? You can read about the short-lived amusement park and the very unique history of Ocean Beach by clicking here.
Finally, the fourth mural I’ve photographed celebrates the 50th anniversary of the OB Pier. The artwork was painted by many hands in 2016.
I happened to take photos back in 2016 during the pier’s big anniversary event. See that blog post by clicking here!
So, you might ask, what does it look like when people in the Ocean Beach community come together to paint one of these amazing murals?
In 2015, it looked like this…
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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.
The Clairemont Town Council is for the birds . . . in a good way!
This fun street art can be found in Clairemont on electrical boxes at the intersection of Balboa Arms Drive and Mt. Abernathy Avenue. Painted seagulls are shown lounging at the beach, boating, biking, and otherwise enjoying the Southern California lifestyle!
As I looked at this art, I noticed it contains an emblem indicating it’s a project of the Clairemont Town Council.
This web page describes how the Clairemont Town Council Foundation has a Public Art Program, which includes the painting of transformer boxes in San Diego City Council District 2.
One of CTC Foundation’s aims is to encourage the development of vibrant residential communities. This particular neighborhood behind a shopping mall features many apartment complexes and, I’m sure, residents who smile at humorous street art!
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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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