The San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park now has a cool exhibit called Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea. Trash collected from beaches has been creatively converted into sculptures representing healthy marine life!
Plastic bags, bottle caps, toothbrushes, fishing line and all sorts of undegradable garbage harm life in the ocean. Everything from plankton to fish to whales can be adversely affected.
This exhibition of art, created by Washed Ashore, an organization based in Oregon, seeks to raise awareness of the problem. Volunteers have created these sculptures from plastic litter collected on the Oregon Coast.
The San Diego Natural History Museum has pieced together an immersive experience that wows visitors. Today I walked through an underwater scene filled with jellyfish, anemones, colorful fish, crabs and other fantastic representations of nature’s living wonders.
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If you love art that portrays coastal California landscapes and wildlife, you’ll love a free exhibition now showing in Balboa Park’s always wonderful Spanish Village Art Center. Simply step into Gallery 21!
The exhibition is titled Where the Sea Meets the Sky.
Three artists have beautiful pieces on display. I forgot to ask, but it appeared most or all of the art is available for purchase.
Ira Cosmos is Ukrainian born. She has contributed to the Art for Ukraine initiative. I noticed today that at least one of her beautiful paintings is dedicated to Ukraine.
During my visit, I was personally drawn to the ceramics created by Elena Miller. They’re organic, complex, full of life.
Approach Gallery 21 and you’ll notice a huge butterfly outside!
Friendly local artist Karen Haub was present and working on a canvas when I poked my head into the gallery. Her paintings are full of life, too, and bright California sunshine!
She described her plein air coastal landscapes as in the style of California Impressionism.
Make sure to visit Balboa Park’s Spanish Village Art Center this week. The exhibition ends soon.
Where the Sea Meets the Sky continues in Gallery 21 through July 13, 2026.
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In the middle of Balboa Park’s colorful Spanish Village Art Center, a whale is flukes up, ready for a dive! The whale’s surprising presence has a story behind it. A whale of a tale!
A Whale of a Tale is the title of the sculpture, which was created by Sergey Gornushkin, member of the San Diego Sculptor’s Guild. I was told the sculpture was placed in Spanish Village Art Center about a month ago.
The artist has provided an explanation for his creation in a sign at the sculpture’s base. It describes Sergey Gornushkin’s trip to Guerrero Negro in Baja California, where he and his son encountered over 30 gray whales. The friendly giants came right up to their boat, looking artist and son directly in the eye.
A very real and magical tale!
A Whale of a Tale seemed strangely familiar when I spotted it today. Turns out I shared photographs of this sculpture when I first saw it a year ago displayed in downtown Vista. Click here to see that.
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Five years ago I posted photos of public art in the heart of Del Mar Village, all part of a City of Del Mar Temporary Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit. Today, during a walk down Camino Del Mar, I noticed those older sculptures are gone–but I happened upon two newer ones! Here they are!
The first is optically fascinating. Its geometry seems to change depending on the angle of view. It’s titled Cloud 7, and was created by Peter Mitten. I walked a little around it taking several photographs…
The second sculpture I discovered is titled Planar Head. It’s by artist Ron Tatro. This one is fun to walk around, too. Check it out!
More information concerning the 2025-2027 Temporary Outdoor Sculpture Program can be found at this Del Mar Foundation webpage. It includes a downloadable art map, just in case you want to walk about and make your own cool discoveries!
On that webpage you’ll also learn these sculptures are for sale.
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If you go to the San Diego County Fair this summer and enter through the main O’Brien Gate, you might notice this statue to one side of the Will Call window. It’s a bronze representation of Don Diego, legendary host and goodwill ambassador of the old Del Mar Fair.
The sculpture, created by artist Maher Morcos, was unveiled at the Del Mar Fairgrounds back in 1985. It is dedicated to Spanish actor Tom Hernandez. For 37 years he portrayed smiling Don Diego, a character based on historical late 1800s Del Mar landowner Don Diego Alvarado. Tom used to greet fair-goers with a friendly “¡Bienvenidos Amigos!”
Tom Hernandez was greatly missed when he passed away in 1984. Over the years his character Don Diego had become a true San Diego icon.
The statue is 16 feet high and weighs 1,500 pounds. At its base is a plaque, which I will transcribe here…
DON DIEGO
GOODWILL AMBASSADOR OF THE DEL MAR FAIR 1947-1984
TOM HERNANDEZ SERVED AS THE OFFICIAL HOST OF THE DEL MAR FAIR, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EXPOSITION, FOR 37 YEARS. HE PORTRAYED DON DIEGO, THE MAGICAL FIGURE WHO APPEARED EACH YEAR TO ESCORT THE FAIREST OF THE FAIR AND PRESIDE OVER THE DEL MAR FAIR.
DEDICATED BY THE 22ND DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION JUNE 20, 1985
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Within the Context of Time: May-ling Martinez and Coralys Carter is an exhibition of art now showing in La Jolla at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library.
As its webpage explains, the exhibition explores memory, time, and family history through two distinct yet deeply resonant artistic practices . . . While Martinez uses symmetry and balance to shape her assemblages and drawings, Carter plays purposefully with off-kilter constructions and hand-spun details . . .
The variety of pieces seem like memories that vaguely return in dreams and daydreams. Hair, baskets, racquets, tools, shells, fabric, a projector screen and other common everyday objects are often combined, just as memories can suddenly surface and strangely intertwine.
Evocative, mysterious, beautiful, and often melancholy, these two artists create frameworks from which one can begin to ponder the edges of the human experience: the vastness of time and memory alongside the mundanity of daily life.
I can’t describe the exhibition with words better than that.
This is visual art, meant to be absorbed not through words but with searching eyes. When you enter the Athenaeum, turn left at the front desk and walk into the Joseph Clayes III Gallery, then add the experience to your own memories.
Within the Context of Time: May-ling Martinez and Coralys Carter continues through July 25, 2026.
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Perhaps you’ve seen these two sculptures standing in front of the La Jolla Historical Society‘s Wisteria Cottage. They were installed back in February as part of the cottage’s current Space Maker exhibition.
If you notice these sculptures seem unusually geometric, it’s understandable. Space Maker celebrates the intersection of art and design. When I first saw the two sculptures, they appeared like forms that arise from some complex mathematical equation.
This first sculpture is titled Blue Ocotillo. Made of steel, it was created by artist Christopher Puzio in 2026. Christopher Puzio describes his art as blurring the lines between sculpture, craft and design.
Blue Ocotillo reminds me of a matrix or a crystal lattice. It now stands on the lawn in front of the Wisteria Cottage courtesy of the Quint Gallery.
(In 2017 I photographed similar sculptures by Christopher Puzio outside the San Diego Central Library’s 9th Floor art gallery. See those photos here.)
The second sculpture is titled marine layer and was created by Miki Iwasaki in 2026 using Corten steel.
Miki Iwasaki lives in San Diego. With architectural experience in places like New York and Los Angeles, he has created his own art pieces and furniture designs. He often explores new materials and methods.
The Space Maker exhibition ends in about a week (running through June 7, 2026), and when it does these two fascinating sculptures will be removed. So admire them in this beautiful outdoor setting while you can!
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This big, incredible work of drywall screw art depicting the Statue of Liberty is on display today and part of tomorrow in the hangar deck of the USS Midway Museum. It’s titled Lady Liberty.
Lady Liberty is a work in progress, created by veteran Joe Pisano. It honors all those who’ve served in the United States Armed Forces.
Perhaps you’ve seen other examples of his unique, patriotic drywall screw art here and here.
Lady Liberty will be completed and standing tall at the coming Memorial Day ceremony on Mount Soledad, then will make its way to the San Diego County Fair where it will be displayed in an exhibition hall.
What you see in my photographs is the completed top half. The many drywall screws are installed by hand into the underlying wood, often by people visiting the work of art. Many who participate are veterans.
When completed, dog tags representing those who’ve sacrificed will be mounted near the base of Lady Liberty.
Medal of Honor hero Royce Williams is recognized in a special way. His dog tag is installed next to Lady Liberty’s torch!
A time capsule will also be installed in the work of art, to be opened on July 4, 2076, our nation’s 300th birthday. You are invited to write a letter to be enclosed in the time capsule. Read what’s in my final photograph for details!
A football player has run through the shelter at a City Heights bus stop for a touchdown! Now he simply must leap over a trashcan!
This unexpected sculpture stands at the eastbound bus stop on University Avenue near 45th Street.
I asked someone who works on the same block about the strange sight. He indicated the football player statue was placed here by the nearby taco stand. A few weeks ago there was a moose on the sidewalk!
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