Tag: photography

A sculptural monolith made for shady sitting.

During my visit to Liberty Station in Point Loma yesterday I noted several works of public art that I hadn’t seen before.

The one I liked best is titled Tessellation #1. It’s a sculptural monolith with a bench for sitting in the shade of magnolia trees. This beautiful work of art, made of hand-cast tessellated concrete and wood timber, was created in September 2019 by local artist Jason X. Lane.

Tessellation #1 was installed in Liberty Station’s ARTS DISTRICT by the NTC Foundation in partnership with the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park. You can find it on the west side of the Dick Laub NTC Command Center building. (It’s located across from some sheltered seats where people are encouraged to interact with each other–more intriguing art brought to Liberty Station by Mingei that I blogged about here.)

I particularly love how Tessellation #1 fits within its surroundings. It’s like some sort of ancient throne or monument, discovered unexpectedly among living trees. To me the entire effect is strangely pleasing.

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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!

Holiday art exhibition at Liberty Station!

Today is Christmas. Needing to breathe fresh air, I headed to Point Loma a little before noontime and enjoyed a walk through quiet Liberty Station.

A number of festive displays have been installed around both the North and South Promenades for the holidays. The outdoor exhibition is titled Salute the Season. Most of the artwork you see in my photos was created by artists whose studios occupy what used to be barracks of the old Naval Training Center San Diego.

Some of this artwork seems very loosely tied to the holiday season. But no matter. I enjoyed seeing the color, creativity and expression.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays From Liberty Station, by artist Nina Montejano. Plywood, acrylic, metal, varnish spray. A Christmas tree with ornaments depicting Liberty Station’s history as a former Naval Training Center.
Thrown Into the Clay, by artist Leah Shaperow. Pottery and acrylic paint. A hike into the canyons and natural areas in San Diego.
Celebrate, by artist Leslie Pierce. Acrylic mixed media. Includes a stylized Twiggy in a Santa hat and a surfer on a sled!
Together We Are, by Outside the Lens. Photography. Students express their unique voice.
Christmoss Wonderland, by Hakkai Aquascape Design Gallery. Preserved moss, Tom Barr’s Manzanita Wood, dragon stone, black mountain Seiryu stone, spider woods, sand, elephant skin stone, pebbles.
Bird on a Branch, Mingei International Museum, Jeremiah Maloney. Plywood, epoxy, LED lights, maple. Inspired by the quote: “It is one of the virtues of beauty that it has this power: to make one forget one’s self and so put an end to strife.”
Armistice – A Reflection on Peace, by artist Colleen Veltz. Tactile acrylic painting on plywood, wreath of olive leaves, plywood box pedestal benches.
Ornamental, by artist Amber Schnitzius. Stoneware clay, glaze. The colors of the holiday season, made out of many positive messages.
A Feminist Feast, by Women’s Museum of California, Duane McGregor. Computer graphics, mixed media. On a large banquet menu are feminist takes on traditional holiday dishes.
Peace Wreath, by artist June Rubin. Outdoor latex paint and metallic gold latex paint on wood. A wish for peace.
The Wishing Box, by artist Steffi Dotson. Plywood and glass. A small token of joy and hope for all who encounter it. There is light at the end of the cycle of darkness.

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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!

Is this what the Wise Men saw?

See that tiny, tiny dot in the night sky directly above the photographer’s knuckles? People are calling it the Christmas Star. Astronomers call it a great conjunction, when the two largest planets in our solar system–Jupiter and Saturn– appear very close together to eyes viewing from Earth.

Today is December 21, 2020, the Winter Solstice. I took this photograph with my little camera from the Cabrillo Bridge in Balboa Park shortly after dark. That’s downtown San Diego you see on the left.

The last time Jupiter and Saturn were in conjunction this closely (and could be seen in most of the Northern Hemisphere) was the year 1226. You’ll have to wait sixty years to see it again. I suppose I won’t be around.

I’ve read and heard conjecture that the biblical Magi were guided to Bethlehem by the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on the year of Christ’s birth. Some believers claim the timing would have been about right.

Can you make out that miniscule dot? Is that the same “star” the Wise Men saw?

Another good question might be: Is a light from far away what the wise see?

Jupiter and Saturn will continue their orbits around the sun, as will the Earth, long after you and I and every worldly thing we have done and hold dear has vanished, turned to dust, to be swirled by an unseen finger, transformed into something else.

Great conjunctions will continue hundreds, thousands, millions of years into the future. A billion years from this moment–give or take a century–there will be another Christmas Star.

Firefighters Sculpture at San Ysidro fire station.

Over the years I’ve photographed several works of public art located in front of San Diego fire stations. This weekend I saw another example. A very cool sculpture stands near the entrance of San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Station 29 in San Ysidro!

Firefighters Sculpture is the title of this piece, which was created by Jeri Deneen in 2005. The artist is part of Deneen Powell Atelier, a nationally recognized, award-winning San Diego landscape design firm that has undertaken major projects locally and across the nation. Their work can be enjoyed at the United States Botanic Garden and United States National Arboretum, not to mention inside the San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park.

According to the San Diego Civic Art Collection web page here, Firefighters Sculpture is “formed from a two-dimensional, trapezoidal panel of weathered, Cor-ten steel perforated with laser-cut figures rendered in a graphic “stencil” style. The sculpture depicts three firemen kneeling in profile as they work together to hold a fire hose. The nozzle of the hose spouts “water” which is represented by a vertical glass shard, translucent during the day and illuminated from within at night…“

To see more public art at San Diego fire stations, click here and here and here!

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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!

Christmas carol performance at Waterfront Park.

Early this afternoon people converged upon Waterfront Park to listen to Christmas music, including many favorite carols.

I walked up a few minutes after the performance began. The festive Christmas Carol Sing concert was put on by the First Presbyterian Church of San Diego, with joyful music provided by their Westminster Orchestra.

I walked around the group taking these photos, often capturing the County Administration Building and tall ships of the Maritime Museum of San Diego in the background. I then settled in to listen for a while.

Many of the adults I saw were smiling. Many of the children were dancing.

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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!

Holidays and Chula Vista shop windows.

As I walked through Chula Vista’s historic downtown yesterday, I peered into shop windows up and down Third Avenue.

Looking back out at me were colorful signs of the holiday season!

I saw Christmas trees, wreaths, beautiful ornaments and works of art, Hanukkah decorations, Nativity scenes, and multiple Santa Clauses!

On a late Saturday morning not too many people were about yet, but as I walked along I noticed eateries were beginning to set up on the sidewalk for the lunch hour. It appears to me the Third Avenue Village would be an ideal place to do your small business Christmas shopping!

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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!

Beautiful art painted on The Nola in San Ysidro!

This September I enjoyed a special tour of murals that had been painted in San Ysidro for an international cross-border exhibition of urban art. You can revisit those photos by clicking here.

Today during my walk along West San Ysidro Boulevard I noticed one of the murals, which had been a work in progress at the time, is finished!

The stylish artwork is by Filipino artist Mary Jhun. It beautifies an historic apartment building called La Nola, located across the street from The FRONT Arte Cultura gallery.

I learned that The Nola is presently being renovated. The front of this building will be stuccoed so that it more closely resembles its original appearance.

I also learned that artist Juan Carlos Galindo, known as GRVR, who participated in the same cross-border exhibition, will be adding his unique graffiti-like artwork to this very cool building as well!

As an extra added bonus, please enjoy these photos of new street art that I found in the vicinity of The Nola. They were painted by Gerardo Meza, whose fun art can be found all over San Ysidro!

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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!

Sunrise photos at the Georgia Street Bridge.

Yesterday morning I walked from Hillcrest to the top of the Georgia Street Bridge to watch the sunrise over North Park.

After a few quiet minutes, with the daylight gradually increasing, I walked back down to Park Boulevard and headed east along University Avenue under the bridge, where I photographed the plaque from the historic structure’s construction in 1914.

According to this page of the City of San Diego Digital Archives: The Georgia Street Bridge was built in 1914 in one of the city’s earliest suburbs, crossing over busy University Avenue where streetcars once traveled. The bridge’s basic design is Romanesque Spandrel Arch with Mission Revival styling. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. The bridge recently completed a major renovation that included seismic and structural retrofitting.

As you can see in my photos, I then ascended the bridge again from the east, while gazing down at early morning traffic below. The second-to-last photo with the two buses is from the top of the bridge, looking west into Hillcrest’s Egyptian Quarter.

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Christmas lights brighten historic house in Bankers Hill!

The historic Forward House in Bankers Hill is brightly lit with Christmas decorations once again! This amazing holiday display has become a tradition in San Diego!

The Forward House, located at the intersection of 1st Avenue and Ivy Street, was built in 1905 for John F. Forward Sr., who would become San Diego’s mayor from 1907 to 1909. The historic house is now home to American Security Mortgage.

I walked through Bankers Hill as night fell to see these fantastic Christmas lights. I wasn’t the only one snapping photos!

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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 morning walk on Balboa Park’s West Mesa.

This morning I enjoyed a stroll through Balboa Park’s West Mesa area, from Marston Point up to El Prado.

The sun had just risen and was sending horizontal rays through leaves and across green grass. Few were about. Just some walkers, joggers, squirrels, birds.

A walker and a squirrel ahead.
The squirrel got a good look at me before scampering up a nearby tree.
More walkers heading in the opposite direction.
I was tempted to sit for a moment in the early sunlight.
Sculpture of Kate Sessions near Balboa Park natural beauty. She was responsible for much of it.
Regarding a pine cone.
Who left these shoes here? Why?
Looking back as I walk on.
I became aware of squawking above me. A huge flock of parrots was passing overhead, high above the eucalyptus trees! They look like tiny dots in this photograph.
These two little birds–white-crowned sparrows, I believe–were content to sit on the low wall along El Prado.
People and pooches hang out at Nate’s Point Dog Park.
Looking south toward downtown San Diego from the west end of the Cabrillo Bridge.
Several twisty old Australian tea trees can be viewed along El Prado near the lawn bowling greens.
It’s still early morning. Electric scooters at the ready in Sefton Plaza, near the west entrance to Balboa Park!

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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!