My long walk in Oceanside last weekend resulted in many cool photographs. First, enjoy two murals at the corner of Civic Center Drive and Horne Street.
The first mural was painted on the west side of the Northern Pine Brewing Company building. It’s by artists Gloria Muriel and Matthew Perdoni.
On the north side of the building is a long, very colorful mural. Cars parked on the street close to the artwork caused me to take photographs in sections.
The artist is Isabel “Chavela” Figueroa. The mural’s title is The Sacred Offering (La Sagrada Ofrenda).
…
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.
Amazing wildlife murals are now being painted at the Oceanside Transit Center! Passengers walking under the tracks to catch a train are in for a big, wonderful surprise!
These photos were taken from the steps descending to either side of the train tracks, and inside the tunnel that connects platforms.
I see the artists are JustJon Art (@just_jon1), Ground Floor Murals (@groundfloormurals), Victor Rodriguez (@tone_dog), Maxx Moses (@maxxmoses777), and Signe Montefalcon Ditona (@signeditona).
Unfortunately, none of the artists were working on the mural when I happened by.
It appears as if this fantastic project is approaching completion. One guy who works at the Oceanside Transit Center told me the artists have been at it for a couple months.
Feast your eyes on this!
…
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 found two new murals in El Cajon’s very cool Arts Alley!
The Arts Alley is located in downtown El Cajon north of Main Street, between Magnolia Avenue and Sulzfeld Way. I visited the colorful alley in 2020 and 2022. See those photographs here and here.
Look what I discovered during yesterday’s walk!
ART HEALS
…
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.
This big mural in El Cajon might be a bit faded, but it’s still awesome. Today’s Children Rise is the message spray painted on the east-facing exterior of Collision Masters Auto Body Shop!
The distinctive artwork was completed years ago by graffiti artists DyseOne, Hasler, Brave and Shark. I’m not sure exactly when.
I got a glimpse of the mural today for the first time. I was walking down West Main Street. A friendly guy at the body shop guided me through the busy facility so I could get unobstructed photographs. Thanks!
By the way, I found other cool murals during my walk in El Cajon, so stay tuned for more!
…
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.
Yesterday I walked through Shhh Pavilion: The Hopekeeper.
What’s that?
Shhh Pavilion: The Hopekeeper is the unusual name of a very cool sculpture that rises in recently opened Progress Park. Progress Park is located in downtown San Diego near the waterfront, at the corner of Broadway and Harbor Drive.
The beautiful new park is part of the Research and Development District (RaDD) complex. The sculpture is part of the RaDD Artwalk. It was commissioned by IQHQ, through the City of San Diego Art in Private Development program.
The creator of this very unique public art is gt2P (Great things to People), a Santiago de Chile based collaborative studio collective.
This unusual sculpture is a geometric structure that utilizes something called Voronoi tessellation. The mathematical concept is nicely described on this webpage.
Until recently, the new park was surrounded by a construction fence. But yesterday I noticed the fence was down. So I had to walk under and through the sculpture with my camera!
…
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 series of new murals was recently installed in San Diego’s downtown Civic Center Plaza! A security guy told me they were put up several days ago.
The cheerful, colorful murals contain images of landmarks in different parts of San Diego. I recognized Balboa Park, Gaslamp Quarter, East Village, Downtown, Marina, Barrio Logan, and San Diego Bay.
The artistic design and illustration is the work of Maximo Escobedo and Alma Vasquez Escobedo, of Maximo Creative Communications. The new artwork refers to Civic Center Plaza as “Plaza Central.”
Bright bubbly images have also been scattered upon the plaza’s walking surface. The once dullish-grayish space now appears more alive. You can see what I mean in the next photograph…
How many San Diego landmarks can you recognize?
…
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.
Check out this collection of photos! My camera was aimed at amazing chalk art at this weekend’s Galbani Bella Vita Fest in Little Italy!
The festival, produced by the ArtWalk San Diego team, is similar to the old Festa events held in San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood years ago. In addition to chalk artists decorating several blocks of India Street, there’s plenty of Italian culture, including food, live music and wine tasting.
The public can stroll through the festival for free, which many people were doing this Saturday afternoon!
Dozens of chalk artists have arrived from all over, including from out-of-state. Most are friendly and welcome a few words from admirers.
The event continues Sunday, October 19, 2025 from 11 am to 5 pm. Consequently, many of the artists when I walked by were still at work on their colorful chalk masterpieces!
Here are some of the Italy-themed chalk art creations, most of which are works in progress. I’ve included artist team names in the photo captions…
Artist team Graceful Meadow.Artist team Cecelia Linayao Fine Art.Artist team Madonnara.Artist team The Kim Sisters.Artist team Kimberly Canilang.Artist team Shawdell Smith Art.Artist team Team Arcala.Artist team MDFerrera Fine Art.Artist team Tonie Garza.Artist team Meg Beverly Canilang.Artist team Gutierrez Family.Artist team Steele Canyon High School.Artist team Maddalena & Rogalski.Artist team Kat Brown.
Look who else was present at the festival. Friendly people representing KPBS!
They told me they could use a little extra help now that federal government funding has ended. Check out their website if you’d like to help.
And a few tables down India Street I found ArtReach! They engage youth with art education and paint beautiful murals all over San Diego. You’ve seen many on my blog.
People passing by had created small works of art at their table, too!
…
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.
Liberty Station in Point Loma boasts many great works of public art. The Garden of Transformation, with its colorful, luminous butterfly, is one of my favorites! You can find it in the North Promenade near the Stone Brewing patio.
Sunlight shines through the monarch butterfly’s translucent wings producing a rainbow-like effect. It’s magical.
Garden of Transformation was dedicated almost exactly a year ago, in October 2024. The steel and dichroic laminated acrylic sculpture was created by San Diego artist Kaori Fukuyama. (Perhaps you’ve seen her Wave of Change on the front of the Target store in North Park.)
The small garden where this stunning butterfly lives is an official Monarch Waystation. The space contains milkweeds and other nectar plants. According to a sign near the art, between early spring and fall you might observe adult butterflies, young caterpillars, chrysalis, and other pollinators here.
A native seed library stands nearby.
The artist, in her statement, envisions “this installation as a welcoming space where people from diverse backgrounds can come together to observe monarch butterflies and learn about the conservation of this important species…”
…
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.
People in downtown San Diego have a special treat this weekend! Four metal sculptures by Ricardo Breceda (whose famous landmark sculptures can be seen around Borrego Springs) are on display in front of the San Diego County Administration Building!
Check it out!
There are two bighorn sheep about to butt horns, a giant coiling rattlesnake, and a fierce dinosaur on a flatbed! They’re on display in the sunshine on the grass near Harbor Drive. You can’t miss them!
Ricardo Breceda’s sculptures in Borrego Springs have won the artist international renown. He brought these four pieces here so residents of San Diego can enjoy some of his work, and so everyone is hopefully inspired to head out to the desert where over 130 of his incredible sculptures can be viewed. Here’s his website.
(Five years ago I photographed his Wild Horses public art installation in Vista, California. You can see those photos here!)
…
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.
These unifying words–in English and Spanish–are suspended in the sky above San Ysidro.
During my last walk up San Ysidro’s Cultural Corridor, I noticed this public art for the first time. According to a plaque, the painted steel sculpture is dated 2023. It’s by artist Janelle Iglesias, who lives in San Diego. It was commissioned for the residents of San Diego by the Commission for Arts and Culture.
Where is the Cultural Corridor you might ask?
San Ysidro’s alley-like Cultural Corridor extends north along Cypress Drive from San Ysidro Boulevard to the trolley tracks near the Beyer Avenue station. Walk up it and you’ll see many colorful murals.
At the north end you’ll pass under these words. They remind us that we all live under the same life-giving sun.
…
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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 