Shaina Joel chalk art shows Italian actress Sophia Loren.
This morning, about an hour before the 2014 Festa opened in Little Italy, I walked up and down Date Street taking photographs of the incredible chalk art being created for the annual Italian-themed event. Numerous artists were already busy, their works at various stages of completion. Italian chalk art is also called Gesso Italiano. It’s bold, bright and colorful–a pure delight for the eyes. Over a hundred thousand people will converge on downtown San Diego to admire the amazing art once the festival opens.
I have included the entrant names in the captions of each image. Enjoy!
Looking east along Date Street in San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood during 2014 Festa.Bijan Masoumpanah chalk art shows face of classic Roman statue.Shawnet Sweets chalk art depicts a colorful, whiskered person.Squid In My Tea chalk art being created during 2014 Festa event.Jennifer Ripassa chalk masterpiece is a fantastic female warrior.Salgado chalk art shows Romulus and Remus, mythical founders of Rome.Team Parada chalk art eyes appear on a downtown San Diego street.Squadra Terun depicts a wonderful face with Gesso Italiano.Gary Simpson unfinished chalk artwork of Madonna and child.Aaron Hernandez uses bright colors in this distinctive chalk art.Here comes a cool sight! Some interactive 3D street art!Lilianai Mai created three dimensional chalk art for Festa visitors to enjoy!Brianna Cunha chats with a young person about her fun dog chalk art.Sumart chalk art is very colorful in the Sunday morning light.Lauren Minadeo is working on a chalk art portrait.Valerie Michelle awesome chalk art contains grapes and a dog chef!Team Arcala creating some chalk art that includes the Fiat logo.Killer Queens chalk art of Mario Kart!Moe Notsu was having fun creating this beautiful chalk art masterpiece!Cecelia Ramos Linayao has created many large scale solo works.Stained glass Madonna from Milan Cathedral will be reproduced.Cecelia is well underway creating the amazing 20 by 30 foot chalk image.John Vaughn chalk art seems a bit misty and mysterious.Art Within Reach is creating a landscape of trees using chalk.Lisa Pierre-Davis uses a long stick with chalk tip to outline her work in progress.Holly Lynn Schineller chalk art is an homage to the future.Tonie Garza chalk art of several tender, beautiful faces.Tiffany Garza is the daughter of Tonie! Her chalk art is really fun!Mercedes Molloy shows Disney’s Lady and the Tramp with Gesso Italiano.Chalkolate is creating another awesome Mario using colorful chalk.John Vilotti chalk art of a stylish face.Team Arancio reproduces a classic Cinzano advertisement using carefully applied chalk.East Meets West and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in Italian!Byron Houston weaves a windblown flag of Italy with a small stick of chalk.Kira Lewis-Martinez chalk art of a classic Nativity scene.Lisa Bernal Brethour chalk art reproduces sketches of a famous botanist.Lisa Bryson chalk artwork is brimming with yummy pasta!Team Noni produces unusual abstract chalk art showing biplanes over a cityscape.Unknown artist has drawn Dracula using chalk a few weeks before Halloween!After bending over a lot, I stretch and look down Date Street at the talented artists.Movingarte is floating a chalk gondola on the dry asphalt canvas.Ciao! masquerade chalk art is suitable for the Festa festivities in Little Italy.Michael Zamora puts the finishing touches on a chalk urn.United Souls is creating a colorful chalk mosaic that looks like stained glass.Jason D Slagle chalk art Vespa is definitely very cool!Team Tini-Monster is creating The Muppets including Kermit the Frog!Megnificent is bringing a bold face into existence using chalk.Team Pinoy chalk art shows face of Jesus on a bible.Another look down the street at the absolutely amazing, inspiring art event.
Platt College San Diego has made progress since yesterday.Canyon Crest Academy creating a classical image with chalk.Torrey Pines High School National Art Honor Society made a character out of Italian food!Cathedral Catholic High School team still working hard on the chalk masterpiece.Santa Fe Christian High School seems finished with scene on a Venice canal.Roosevelt I.B. Middle School created a fantastic Venetian scene with chalk.Joan MacQueen Middle School is getting started on their Festa chalk art entry.Washington Elementary STEAM Magnet School is half finished an hour before Festa opens.Torrey Hills Elementary kids created some really amazing chalk artwork!Lincoln Acres Art Program chalk art is actually an optical illusion of Mona Lisa!San Pasqual High School chalk art promises to look fantastic.Just a flower someone drew on the asphalt for no reason other than pure joy.Mount Miguel High School students work on a window that seems to open into heaven.Lidia F. Vasquez has made great progress on her latest eye-popping masterpiece!Teresa Elliott abstract eyes and face rendered with Gesso Italiano.This happy sun and moon are just there on the street for no apparent reason!
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Super cool mural in University Heights has colorful butterfly lady as centerpiece.
In the past I’ve glimpsed this super cool mural in University Heights, a neighborhood northeast of downtown San Diego. Finally I stopped to photograph it!
The psychedelic spray paint street art is splashed on a wall of a small, local grocery store on Park Boulevard. The images are extremely vivid and look almost brand new. After a close inspection, I noticed the mural is signed: DEXR EYEMAX PERSUE KUYA FIZSIX 2013.
A bit of research on the web uncovered an article about this awesome artwork. The grocery store owner had painted over a rather dull mural that had become very old, when the group of local street artists approached him. The artists asked if they could use his wall to give birth to a unique creation. He said yes!
And to his great delight, this awesome unplanned mural, painted in two days, is what he got!
Smiling sun or moon and other fantastic, psychedelic faces and cosmic images.This fierce two-faced tree seems ready to spring off the wall!Magical blue gnome and banjo-playing frog are fun elements in this awesome mural.Bold spray paint street art adds color to a small grocery store on Park Boulevard.
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Adventure is out there! Just attach a bunch of balloons!
Okay, here’s a quick pic of some rather simple street art. I saw this colorfully painted utility box while walking up Bankers Hill a few days ago.
I love the symbolism in the image. A riot of small uplifting balloons whisking one’s home and carefully controlled life away on a carefree, restoring breeze was a theme that I really enjoyed in the Pixar movie Up!
Tomorrow I’m planning on a long walk. No telling where my legs will take me!
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More Bart Club street art shows up at SILO in Makers Quarter.
Today I randomly walked past SILO in Makers Quarter in East Village. This downtown San Diego special events venue is chock full of super cool street art murals, as you might have seen in this blog post. Well, I was just walking along, peering through the fence, and… WHAM! More crazy Bart Club street art! It seems to have popped up in various different locations!
Crazy, creative, funny renditions of Bart Simpson on a wall.Bart Simpson’s head seems to transform into anything the human mind can imagine!SILO in San Diego’s East Village is bursting with awesome, colorful street art.
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Sketch of female face and buildings, on Sixth Avenue bridge above Interstate 5.
Just before sundown yesterday I spotted these small unfinished works of art while I walked over the Sixth Avenue bridge that spans Interstate 5. They were down near the ground right next to the sidewalk, beneath the chain link fence overlooking the freeway.
I wonder who sketched these small scenes. Was it an art student? Are these works in progress? Are they the doodles of some inspired passerby, or a creative homeless person?
Had it not been for my blog and my endless quest for new material, I probably wouldn’t have noticed these faint drawings.
Mysterious unfinished street art of woman holding hamburger.Stylish figure on couch with vase seems the work of a practiced artist.A miniature horse runs along a sidewalk in downtown San Diego.
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Six dogs on a colorful mural on F Street in downtown’s East Village.
Here are some photos of outdoor art that I’ve discovered just wandering about the streets of downtown San Diego’s East Village. Enjoy!
Exotic faces, car and flowers along sidewalk in San Diego.Utility box dedicated to Tweet Street park.
The park itself is located up on Cortez Hill, just steps from where I live!
Summer swallowed us whole, written randomly on a step.More fun street art in East Village.Cool smile, horn, coffee and heart.Bold graphics on wall of Lucky’s tattoo parlor.Jumbled, eye-catching mural on a fence on F Street.
This fence borders SILO, which contains a ton of awesome street art, which I documented in this blog post.
More artwork along F Street on the fence that borders SILO.More cool street art on F Street in downtown San Diego’s East Village.
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Two of three Bart Club utility boxes at Eighth Avenue and G Street.
At the corner of Eighth Avenue and G Street in downtown San Diego you’ll find the Bart Club. At this location, three utility boxes have been painted with whimsical versions of Bart Simpson’s iconic television cartoon face!
Street artists are openly encouraged to make their own contributions of Bart art.
Here are some images that I recently captured…
Bart Club on San Diego street corner has fun with Simpsons character.Bart Simpson looking like a yellow cactus.Bart now has become a banana.Bart Club features many crazy images.Another odd Bart Simpson on a utility box.The many fun faces of Bart Simpson.Another side of one utility box.Imagination run amok!Bart’s unique spiky hair seems plant-like.Pop culture street art in San Diego.Artists are encouraged to contribute!
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Funny Minion Captain America greets San Diego Comic-Con visitors!
I spotted some evil, scheming Minions in East Village during the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con. They were impersonating famous superheroes!
These cartoons painted on the windows of the Tilted Kilt were just plain silly, so I had to share them!
A truly despicable Minion tries acting like Superman for a change.A Minion was spotted in San Diego stuck on a window like Spiderman.Those are mighty big claws for a yellow single-celled organism!Minion impersonates Wonder Woman at the Tilted Kilt in East Village.Two eager Minions try against all odds to duplicate the Dynamic Duo.
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Ocean Riders bronze sculpture by Wyland has three dolphins.
Imperial Beach is in many ways a typical Southern California beach community. The Pacific Ocean and surfing are dominant themes. You see it in the local culture; you see it just about everywhere you turn.
The above photo is of a very cool sculpture just steps from the beach, in Imperial Beach’s Dunes Park. Ocean Riders, dedicated in 1996, was created by Wyland, a famous environmental artist who is known worldwide for his graceful depictions of marine animals.
Utility box on Seacoast Drive shows girl playing in the sand.Sea and Sky sculpture by Ken Smith.
The above sculpture can be found adjacent to the beach a short distance north of the Imperial Beach pier. In 2009, it was part of an Urban Trees exhibition along San Diego’s Embarcadero.
Fantastic mermaid and shark street mural in Imperial Beach.
This mural represents typical Imperial Beach street art. I found this on the side of a building on Palm Avenue.
Surfboard sculpture in outdoor museum.
You see in this pic one of 25 surfboard sculptures placed along Palm Avenue between 3rd Street and Seacoast Drive. They belong to The Imperial Beach Outdoor Surfboard Museum and represent the history of surfboard design dating from ancient times to 1985.
Shiny metal sculpture of abstract surfer on Palm Avenue.Cool surfboard rack on a bicycle near the beach!
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Cool art on a music store window on Garnet Avenue.
Yesterday I went for a very long walk through Pacific Beach and Mission Beach, two extremely popular beach destinations just a few miles north of downtown San Diego.
I began by walking west along Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach, from around Ingraham Street all the way to the beautiful and historic Crystal Pier. This stretch contains more bars, tattoo parlors, smoke shops and swimwear stores than just about anywhere else in Southern California. It’s a young, hip, beachy sort of place, that’s mostly laid back and unpretentious. You’ll see bikinis and skateboarders and tourists and families and surfboards atop cars and under arms just about everywhere you go.
You’ll also see a lot of very cool urban art: on walls, on windows, on rooftops, in alleys…all over the place! Here are some random pics I took as I walked westward in the sunshine…
Aloha Spirit mural on side of Pacific Beach building.Surfers and the ocean are major themes in this popular beach community.Mural shows lifeguard climbing a tower among palms.Funky street art between two buildings on Garnet Avenue.Pacific Beach public art features a large seagull.Street art in an alley behind a tattoo parlor.Hubcaps and tiles add flavor to a colorful local eatery.Another tattoo parlor embellished with bold swirls of urban art.Photo mural on a wall shows old Crystal Pier at west end of Garnet Avenue.Sunny Pacific Beach has a sunny utility box.Images of surfers and beach scenes are everywhere.
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Cool San Diego Sights! 