Tag: public art

Mural on National City Public Works building!

This beautiful mural was painted a couple months ago. It decorates the National City Public Works building at 1726 Wilson Avenue, next to the 18th Street underpass of Interstate 5. The vibrant public art is a positive vision of life in this South Bay community.

The mural was the work of the Vision Culture Foundation and their team of inspired artists.

The building and other nearby walls had previously been the target of taggers whose vandalism required repeated removal, at the expense of the city.

National City Vice Mayor Marcus Bush helped drive an effort to paint beautiful murals on the walls, instead, providing graffiti artists with a chance to earn money while creating enduring public art!

This awesome project aims to create murals all around National City!

A young gentleman whom I met during my walk told me the long wall along 18th Street opposite this mural was also painted as part of the same project. The spray painted art appeals to kids with Christmas images from Toy Story, the Grinch and more!

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Rey Mysterio performs 619 in Logan Heights!

Legendary wrestler and San Diego hometown hero Rey Mysterio is performing his finishing move, the 619, in Logan Heights! I saw him in action today!

Yes, that’s him in a newly completed mural at the corner of Commercial Street and 30th Street, a short distance east of Petco Park where WWE Survivor Series: WarGames (2025) will be held tomorrow!

The mural which pays tribute to lucha libre debuted two days ago and Rey Mysterio himself showed up with his daughter Aalyah to admire it. And sign it! You can read an article about that cool event here.

If you come by to check out the mural, make sure to look at the west side of the same SA Recycling building. There’s a second mural depicting the Rey Mysterio family! I posted photos of that mural here (along with photographs of this newest mural’s early outlines).

Both murals were painted by local graffiti phenom Daniel “Dentlok” Angeles and a team of helping artists.

Will Chula Vista native Rey Mysterio show up at tomorrow’s Survivor Series in San Diego? I’d say that’s highly probable! I see his son Dominik will be wrestling against John Cena, who is retiring after his own legendary career!

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If you’d like to see San Diego through my lens, find the “Follow” box in the sidebar to receive new posts in your email, or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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Sea Level sculpture at Coronado Boathouse.

Is that a kelp forest growing in Glorietta Bay Park, in front of City of Coronado Club Room and Boathouse? No! It’s an Urban Tree!

Sea Level, a mostly copper sculpture created by City College student Kim Ogburn for the 2010 Urban Trees exhibition along San Diego’s Embarcadero, depicts a kelp forest and the native marine life it sustains. Colorful fish swim beneath the imagined water; birds thrive on the surface above. Read an article concerning this amazing artwork’s creation here.

Sea Level was installed in front of the Boathouse at 1985 Strand Way in 2012. It is part of the City of Coronado Public Art Collection. I happened upon it during my latest walk in Coronado.

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If you’d like to see San Diego through my lens, find the “Follow” box in the sidebar to receive new posts in your email, or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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The Economy of the Absurd at Museum of Us!

A sculpture was recently installed at the Museum of Us in Balboa Park. You can see the new artwork when crossing the Cabrillo Bridge, about to enter the west archway of the California Quadrangle. Look up toward the second floor’s outdoor balcony!

The sculpture is titled The Economy of the Absurd. It was created by Marcos Ramírez ERRE, an artist from the Tijuana and San Diego region who has created large-scale public works since the 1990s. It’s part of the newly opened Museum of Us exhibition Race: Power, Resistance & Change.

The museum’s About the Exhibit page explains: The exhibition Race: Power, Resistance & Change shares stories of how the construction of race has shaped laws, institutions, and daily life in San Diego and the broader multinational region.

As a plaque on the balcony near The Economy of the Absurd explains: This sculpture is composed of hand tools, assembled into a rising form within a steel frame that resembles the local U.S. Mexico border wall.

A number of other plaques are also located on the balcony, including one featuring the poem Refund by past San Diego Poet Laureate Paola Capó-Garcia. It is all part of the overall exhibition.

When I spied the new sculpture yesterday while walking through Balboa Park, I had to go check it out!

Here I am proceeding out onto the Museum of Us balcony…

(Photographs of views from the balcony before installation of this exhibit can be found by clicking here.)

Visitors are encouraged to contribute to a digital map. The map is of cultural centers and programs across San Diego’s diverse communities. You can participate by clicking here!

Imagine my excitement when I found that one of the plaques, concerning the public mural in Lemon Grove of the “Lemon Grove Incident,” features two photographs that I took for Cool San Diego Sights and a mention of my website!

Finally, here’s the short poem Refund…

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If you’d like to see San Diego through my lens, find the “Follow” box in the sidebar to receive new posts in your email, or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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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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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!

Soaring birds Crossing Paths in Coronado!

If you happen to glimpse two birds soaring in the sky above Coronado, take a closer look. You might have spotted Crossing Paths, a tall, shining kinetic sculpture!

This beautiful public art can be found between the Hotel del Coronado and the Coronado Shores condominium buildings, standing next to the beachside boardwalk.

Crossing Paths was created by artist Amos Robinson and is now part of the City of Coronado Public Art Collection. It was installed in 2022.

The wind freely turns the arms of the sculpture, redirecting the flight of two silvery birds.

To discover more sculptures around San Diego by artist Amos Robinson, click here and here and here and 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!

Zoo animals memorialized in San Diego mural.

This beautiful mural was completed earlier this year in San Diego’s downtown East Village neighborhood. It memorializes three San Diego Zoo animals that passed away in 2025. It was painted by Ground Floor Murals.

I had a nearby errand this afternoon, so I swung by to see it. You can view the mural near the corner of Market Street and 16th Street, behind the Brikho Fuels gas station, on the south side of the Ace Uniforms building.

The zoo animals remembered are Kalluk the polar bear, Nicky the Masai giraffe, and Maka the Western lowland gorilla.

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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!

Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Barrio Logan!

A printed banner duplicate of a very famous mural by Mexican painter Diego Rivera can be seen in San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood. Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon at Alameda Central Park) decorates the exterior of the M & R Transmission building at 1775 National Avenue.

The original mural, painted by the artist between 1946 and 1947, can be viewed at the Museo Mural Diego Rivera in Mexico City.

The mural depicts famous people and events in the history of Mexico, passing through the Alameda Central park in Mexico City. It features many historical figures, including Hernán Cortés, Benito Juárez, and Frida Kahlo. The central figure is La Catrina, a skeleton figure symbolizing the connection between life and death.

I took these photos a few weeks ago, when I walked through Barrio Logan.

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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!

Many amazing murals at Balderrama Park in Oceanside!

If you enjoy viewing beautiful outdoor murals, you’ll be astounded by those in Oceanside at Joe Balderrama Park. Over 45 murals decorate structures throughout the public park, including the Balderrama Recreation Center and Chavez Community Resource Center!

The murals, completed late last year, primarily celebrate the Hispanic and Indigenous heritages of many who live in the neighborhood. Diverse other backgrounds and ethnicities are included, too. Bold cultural imagery is intermingled with messages of hope.

The lead artist was renowned muralist Joanne Tawfilis. A couple dozen local artists and many local school children contributed to the massive project!

Here’s a good article about the Balderrama Park murals’ origin and dedication.

I walked around the park last weekend and was totally wowed. Take a look at these photographs! The collection of bold murals might not be on the immense scale of San Diego’s world-famous Chicano Park, but the experience is similar in many respects.

I proceeded with my camera in a counter-clockwise direction. I’m afraid I missed one mural on the tennis courts fence because someone was seated directly in front of it and I didn’t want to intrude.

Here we go…

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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!