The super colorful artwork is titled The Beacon. It was painted in 2022 by artist Paul Mericle. His astounding creation decorates a wall at Red Door Interactive, a marketing agency that recently moved to this location.
I took photographs of the mural from the Market Street sidewalk during a stroll through the neighborhood.
Enjoy!
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Did you know there’s a bridge over a freeway in San Diego that is also a musical instrument?
Drivers passing over State Route 94 on the 25th Street bridge might not realize they are traveling beside an interactive chime rail that pedestrians with a good stick or (better yet) metal rod can play!
Called the Crab Carillon, this musical feature of a very unique bridge is part of the City of San Diego’s Civic Art Collection. The Crab Carillon, created by artist Roman de Salvo in 2003, features 488 individually tuned chimes spanning the full length of the bridge, which can be played by passersby.
De Salvo commissioned Joseph Waters to compose a short, sophisticated palindrome, which sounds the same played forward or backward. The title refers to the way that crabs scuttle from side to side, similar to the movement of those who interact with the artwork.
As I walked south down 25th Street from Golden Hill toward Sherman Heights, I happened to find a piece of broken wood on the sidewalk. Perfect! I thought. Up ahead is San Diego’s musical bridge! Now I’m ready to play the Crab Carillon!
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
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 large, bold mural in San Diego’s Golden Hill neighborhood shows a praying nurse and reads: Essential – Bless The Healers. It can be seen on the side of a building on the southwest corner of 30th Street and B Street.
I discovered the mural yesterday. I hadn’t walked this way in quite a long time. Given the message, I suppose the mural was created during the COVID-19 pandemic. But I don’t know exactly when it was painted, or by whom. Leave a comment if you know!
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
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!
Perhaps you’ve seen the fountain sculpture in Chicano Park. It stands on a colorful tiled base in a splashing basin under the Coronado Bay Bridge, not far from the skatepark. The symbolic public artwork was created by artist Raul Jaquez.
It’s hard not to see the duality in this work of abstract art. On one hand, female; on the other, male. On one side, spiritual calaveras (skeletons) holding a sun with the ollin symbol (representing change); on the other, flesh and blood living people holding a baby.
The unifying symbol appears to be a heart-eagle, ready to be released. The eagle is destined to take flight and rise above all, both the living and dead. At least, that’s my interpretation.
There are a few other sculptures in Chicano Park, but this striking work in the fountain, to me, is the most elaborate and artistically interesting. It is quite beautiful.
Back in 2015 the aging sculpture was restored during a major Chicano Park improvement project.
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
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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!
There’s a beautiful park open to the public in La Jolla that features expansive views of the Pacific Ocean, sunshine and outdoor sculptures! It’s called the Art Park!
The Art Park is a new feature of the renovated Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla. It’s not to be confused with the museum’s Edwards Sculpture Garden, which is located just below the Art Park. (I recently blogged about the Edwards Sculpture Garden here.)
As you walk into the Art Park, north of MCASD’s main entrance on Prospect Street, one large COR-TEN steel sculpture is very hard to miss. It’s titled Hammering Man at 3,110,527.
The motorized depiction of a worker whose hammer rises and falls repeatedly is by artist Jonathan Borofsky. It was created in 1988.
Drawn into the park for the beautiful ocean view, your curious eyes will discover a sculpture in the greenery titled Juchiteca de pie (Standing Juchiteca). The bronze female was created in 1966 by Costa Rican-Mexican artist Francisco Zúñiga. He has been called one of the 100 most notable Mexicans of the 20th century.
Another fine sculpture by Zúñiga can be found in a quiet corner of the UC San Diego campus. See it here.
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
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 ever driven down Catalina Boulevard in Point Loma, and wondered about some colorful public art on the façade of City of San Diego Fire Station No. 22, here are a few photos that you might enjoy!
These four vertical murals, together titled Firefighters, were created in 2018 by Roberto Delgado. Silkscreen and airbrushed porcelain tiles form abstract, layered images of Point Loma firefighters fighting fires in the community, at different times in history.
The artwork is based on historical and contemporary photographs. On the left, eyes can’t possibly miss the Old Point Loma Lighthouse! I also see a tall ship down in San Diego Bay, and what appears to be a tuna fishing boat. If you can discern more than me, leave a comment!
The fire station was dedicated in 2018, replacing an old station built back in 1942.
Just for fun, I also took a couple of photos with the electrical box directly in front of very cool Fire Station No. 22!
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
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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!
When I stepped into the La Jolla Recreation Center’s small auditorium the other day, I barely noticed the game of ping pong that was in progress. That’s because my eyes were immediately drawn to a large, incredible mural on one wall above some vending machines.
The mural, painted in 1929 by renowned artist Hugo Ballin, is titled Progress of California.
I found this article. It explains how the mural was originally located at First National Bank, which opened in La Jolla in 1930 on the corner of Silverado Street and Girard Avenue. The mural was placed on the wall above the vault door. When the bank was demolished, a decision was made to move the mural to the La Jolla Recreation Center, where the public could freely see it.
Hugo Ballin is best know for his work in Los Angeles, including murals at Burbank City Hall, Griffith Observatory, LA County General Hospital, and the Los Angeles Times Building. During the era of silent movies, he was art director for Goldwyn Pictures.
As you can see, his Progress of California mural depicts people from different periods of history, including Native Americans, Spanish explorers and missionaries, 49ers during the Gold Rush, and pioneers.
Rising at the right end of the mural is Balboa Park’s iconic California Tower, which was built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego.
I did my best to take good photos without interrupting the game of ping pong…
Restoration of the historic Progress of California mural was performed in 2000.
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
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 thought-provoking sculpture can be found at Liberty Station in Point Loma. Created by San Diego artist Trevor Amery in 2021, the wood sculpture, Archive and Witness, stands in front of the Dick Laub NTC Command Center.
A nearby sign explains that Archive and Witness takes the form of…a fallen tree in a forest…Through…decomposition and decay, it…provides a home to animals and insects…The fallen tree is not the end of a life cycle; it is a transformation as well as a beginning…
The slab from the dead tree, whose tree rings represent a finished life, seems to pulse outward with abstract rings symbolizing future life. At least, that’s the way I see it.
It was interesting to read that artist Trevor Amery’s father was stationed at the old Naval Training Center San Diego here years ago. The human world, like a forest, is interconnected in surprising ways.
Archive and Witness stands where the Mingei International Museum’s Nikigator sculpture stood while that Balboa Park museum was undergoing its renovation a couple years ago.
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
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 very beautiful mural near the front entrance of the Living Coast Discovery Center in Chula Vista that was painted fairly recently. I saw it a couple weeks ago when I visited Sweetwater Marsh in the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
The very colorful mural, depicting native wildlife and plants, decorates a roll up door behind a group of outdoor picnic tables. I took these photos.
I asked a Living Coast Discovery Center employee about it, but she didn’t know who the artist was. If you happen to know, please leave a comment!
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
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 large mural paying tribute to Mexican UFC Flyweight Champion Brandon Moreno was painted a couple months ago in San Ysidro!
The artwork was created by Mode Tijuana (@mode.awc). It shows the victorious mixed martial artist Brandon Moreno draped with the national flag of Mexico.
Drivers exiting from southbound I-805 onto San Ysidro Boulevard can’t miss it.
The mural, made possible by the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce and Border Public Art Committee, is on the same freeway wall as a big colorful LOVE mural that I blogged about 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!
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