A couple weekends ago, as I walked east down Adams Avenue through the heart of Normal Heights, I took photographs of cool street art that I haven’t previously recorded.
Some of the artwork is newer, some older. What a person might discover in Normal Heights–or any dynamic community–is constantly changing. New art appears in front of your eyes one day, then fades or vanishes.
Cool San Diego Sights now features over 32,000 photographs, and it’s getting harder and harder to remember everything my camera has captured! But I believe the artwork you see here is new to my blog.
So just imagine you’re walking down the sidewalk on another sunny San Diego day, finding more and more colorful street art, making endless discoveries in the city…
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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!
A cool new mural was painted recently in Hillcrest! You can find it at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue.
Check it out!
The muralist is @dropdead.grace, an artist who is new to me.
This wall use to be the “canvas” for some great artwork painted back in 2017 for the now defunct Ion Theatre, which was located steps away. The Broken Heart Tattoo studio now operates where the small experimental Hillcrest theatre introduced many edgy, original plays.
I learned that the old Ion Theatre mural was badly defaced. If you want to see photos of that mural being created over a period of days, click here!
Here are two more pics of this new mural…
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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!
Earlier this year, sheets of plywood protecting certain downtown San Diego windows had been spray painted with colorful graffiti. A few days ago the same boards were reused and placed over windows again.
The original graffiti artwork has been scrambled and randomly reassembled in a bizarre but visually fascinating way!
REAL STREET ART!! (Turned upside down.)
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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!
I took photos of these colorful urban art murals several weeks ago during a walk along Imperial Avenue. They’re spray painted on the 1835 Creative Studios building, at the corner of Imperial and 19th Street, just east of downtown San Diego and Interstate 5.
Sadly, as you can see in a couple photos, many homeless people find refuge in this neighborhood. It’s a grittier part of the city, where one is likely to find all sorts of lively graffiti and urban artwork.
I believe I recognize the unique styles of both the first and last murals–very similar street art can be seen elsewhere in San Diego–but I’m afraid I don’t know the artists. I tried to decipher the signatures, to no avail.
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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!
An amazing mural honoring and remembering Lakers basketball legend Kobe Bryant, who passed away in a tragic airplane crash early this year, was painted this summer in Normal Heights. Today I walked down Adams Avenue and snapped a couple photos.
The purple and gold mural can be found on the east wall of El Zarape Mexican Cantina, next to a tiny parking lot, directly opposite a great Prince mural I photographed three years ago here.
I believe this Kobe tribute artwork was produced by graffiti artists Shark and Hasler.
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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!
Cool surfer mural in Oceanside at Bubbles by the Beach, by Nicholas Danger.
During my walk around downtown Oceanside last weekend, I came upon a variety of great murals!
In addition to the artwork of Artist Alley, which I shared here, I found these cool murals painted on buildings within a block or two of the Oceanside Civic Center.
Because my walk was somewhat random, I probably missed other murals in the heart of Oceanside. If I did, perhaps I’ll spot them on a future adventure!
Large mural behind building at Pier View Way and North Coast Highway depicts Oceanside attractions as postcards.
Oceanside Harbor and a surfboard.
Mission San Luis Rey and a windsurfer.
Oceanside Pier and a beach ball, blanket and umbrella. Wish you were here!
Mural painted at Johnny Mananas on Mission Avenue features tropical flowers and birds.
More of the very colorful tropical mural.
The beauty of Oceanside enhanced by a cool mural.
Large colorful mural on Civic Center Drive at the Star Theatre.
The beauty of the sea will always be with me. By artist Skye Walker.
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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!
A wonderful, very colorful new mural by San Diego artist Carly Ealey debuted today in downtown’s East Village! I just happened to walk up early this evening as the mural was officially unveiled!
Carly Ealey is a popular local muralist whose work can be seen all over the city. And you can see why! This new mural, at the corner of Ninth Avenue and G Street, is sure to bring many smiles to those who pass by.
I briefly met Carly and her model Dot, who were busy with the mural’s debut event and very nice to pose for the final photograph.
San Diego is so alive!
San Diego artist Carly Ealey poses with her smiling model Dot in front of East Village’s newest mural at Ninth Avenue and G Street.
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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!
Cool face of an East Village mural by Carly Ealey and Christopher Konecki.
I spotted a very cool face during my walk through East Village last weekend! It was spray painted in a nook that might be easy to miss.
The mural was created in 2019 by Carly Ealey and Christopher Konecki of Cohort Collective. If those names seem familiar, their fantastic art can be enjoyed all over the city. (They have another mural with a similar vibe and palette of colors on nearby Park Boulevard. See photos of that one here.)
You can find this cool face near the corner of 15th Street and K Street, not far from the entrance to the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition.
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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!
An astonishing abstract face painted on the rear of The FRONT art gallery in San Ysidro!
As you saw in my last blog post, yesterday I enjoyed a tour of the “Walls – Cross Border Urban Art/Muros – Arte Urbano Interfronterizo” outdoor mural exhibition in San Ysidro.
After Francisco Morales, Gallery Director of The FRONT Arte Cultura, provided a walking tour of the exhibition’s public murals, we took a short walk through The FRONT gallery building itself. When we stepped out back, where there’s a small parking area, my eyes opened wide. More amazing murals!
The dazzling abstract face, which appears to me like a joining of the technological and the spiritual, was painted in 2013 by two popular, well-known artists.
The left half was created by Gibran Isaias Lopez, commonly known as Isaias Crow. His work appears in several places on Cool San Diego Sights. A few weeks ago I posted photos of his incredible mural at Pacific Beach Elementary School here!
The right half of the mural is the creation of Jari “Werc” Alvarez, who was born in Cd. Juárez, Mexico and raised in El Paso, Texas. He spends a lot of time working in New York City. You might have seen a past mural he painted at San Diego International Airport. I took a photo of it four years ago here.
A second, very wonderful mural beside The FRONT’s rear parking area depicts colorful, smiling sea creatures. I learned it was painted years ago by lots of happy kids.
The FRONT Arte Cultura is a very cool gallery operated by the San Ysidro community organization Casa Familiar. The gallery hosts a variety of exhibitions, educational programs and community events.
Check out The FRONT’s website here. If you’re a lover of art, music and culture, you should listen to their series of podcasts!
The FRONT Arte Cultura is an art gallery in San Ysidro operated by the community organization Casa Familiar.
This extraordinary mural, created in 2013, can be found behind The FRONT art gallery, beside a parking area. The left side was spray painted by Isaias Crow, the right side by Werc Alvarez.
Francisco Morales, Gallery Director of The FRONT, smiles for a photo by this very cool mural.
Another fun mural beside the parking area was painted years ago by happy kids. I’ve never seen so many smiling sea creatures!
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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!
Today I went for a walk through Chula Vista. My camera really started clicking on E Street outside the Chula Vista Yoga Center.
If you recognize the distinctive style of this very colorful, abstract mural, that’s because it’s by local artist Maxx Moses, and you’ve seen other examples of his work on my blog. His artwork, which seems a fusion of familiar forms and strange, layered dreams, produces a feeling that is both cosmic and spiritual. Definitely fitting for a yoga studio!
Very cool!
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 