A shark has been spotted next to a gas station’s parking lot!
A gigantic shark was recently spotted swimming in the blue water next to a San Diego gas station’s parking lot! Here’s the photographic proof!
Okay, what you see is actually a very cool mural. And the shark is just a small portion of it. This awesome mural on a long wall by the gas station contains a bunch of surprising, colorful images! Check out the blue gravel path at the foot of the wall, enhancing the underwater effect!
Wondering where this public art can be found? In Little Italy, just north of downtown. Head up First Avenue and look to the left just before Elm Street. You can’t miss it!
This dolphin was also spotted next to the gas station!This seal doesn’t seem to mind the nearby shark.
This is a part of a very long mural decorating the north side of Interstate 8 in Mission Valley. It’s called Kids being Kids.
I took this photograph from across Camino de la Reina, not far from the Union Tribune building. I got a bunch of pics, but this is the only one that captures the artwork’s color and energy. Perhaps I’ll try again some other day.
UPDATE!
I took some more pics…
Beach balls bounce beside a busy San Diego freeway.Flying with arms wide across a lively public mural.Girl jumps on beloved mural beside Interstate 8.It seems that kids will simply be kids.Little girl is a delightful image in public art.Two young friends are one element in a fun mural.
In downtown San Diego, on Kettner and A Street not far from Little Italy and the Santa Fe Depot, you might spot this old advertisement painted on a building wall. It promotes Dr. Pepper and Hires Root Beer. According to some googling I’ve done, the colorful artwork was revealed when an adjacent building was demolished. Looks to me like this building was a soda bottling plant years ago.
View of faded Hires Root Beer ad from across street.
This large mural on the Arte Building on Sixth Avenue has become iconic in downtown San Diego. It was painted in 1989 by artists Kathleen King and Paul Naton and conveys a strong pro-multicultural message. Time has somewhat faded the once bold mural, but it still catches the attention of those venturing through the heart of the city.
America’s Finest City mural in downtown San Diego.
Street art flourishes on the sidewalks of San Diego. Many electrical transformers and utility boxes have been creatively painted to represent colorful scenes both real and imagined. Most have a primitive or folk art vibe. I’ll snap lots of photos for this blog!
Here’s a box downtown at Sixth Avenue and Elm Street that features an airplane and space shuttle zooming above clouds between planet Earth, the Sun and the Moon. At least, that’s what it looks like to me!
Here’s another photo of the fantastic mural shown in my previous post. It provides a wider view. This outstanding example of super cool street art can be found on the outside wall of Pokez, an artsy vegetarian Mexican restaurant in downtown San Diego.
The mural’s design is jam-packed with brilliant color, urban style and symbolism, and feels both organic and futuristic. It reminds me somewhat of the spray-painted “space art” you see occasionally being created by street performers in Seaport Village, the Gaslamp, or Balboa Park.
This might be the most awesome street art in downtown San Diego…at least, that I’ve seen. This fantastic, super vibrant mural adorns the east wall of Pokez, a popular vegetarian Mexican restaurant on E Street at 10th Avenue. The riot of neon bright colors is so crisp and exciting one just stands transfixed on the sidewalk, immersed in the rampant creativity.
As I photographed the spray-painted mural, a young lady walked by and commented that she really liked it, too!
A closer view of the colorful street art on Pokez.
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Here’s the right side of a tile bench painted by San Diego school kids. Check out my previous post for the left side and a brief explanation.
I love to sit on these fun tile benches near the Maritime Museum of San Diego and gaze out at the water. I have a weakness for this sort of inexcusable, lazy inactivity. Oh, well. Loafing wide-eyed on a sunshiny day is my personal definition of exciting urban living!
One of twelve benches featuring tiles painted by school children.
Here are more photos of the colorful benches along this stretch of the Embarcadero…
Celebrating the Big Bay, June 2004. Funded by The Port of San Diego.Lots of sun, beach and happiness.Kid artists contributed to tile benches along San Diego’s waterfront.Many young students chose to paint sailboats out on the Pacific Ocean.One of many tiles, painted by one of many hands.Some young artist made a silly fishy face that I really like!That big green fish is longer than that sailboat!Globs of color add a bit of variety to many fun images.Cool artwork produced by a young local student.Two happy figures seem to jump above flowers.Unique face of warm sun is appropriate in beautiful San Diego.
Along the Embarcadero near the Maritime Museum of San Diego you’ll discover a great walkway at the edge of the bay.
One can look straight down at gentle water lapping wood pilings, see small fish darting below like silver points of light, watch least terns wheeling in the sky and diving, see black cormorants hunting underwater like feathered submarines…and gracefully soaring pelicans, and sailboats racing, and a blue sky, and huge ships coming in carrying cars from Asia, and airplanes landing at Lindbergh Field, and a glittering downtown skyline nearby, and the distant lighthouse on Point Loma…
You get the idea. It’s an extremely interesting stroll at any time of the year!
Along the walkway, twelve colorfully tiled benches await those who’d like to sit. The tiles were painted by many local K-6 student artists in 2004, Celebrating the Big Bay, in partnership with the Port of San Diego and the San Diego Children’s Museum.
The benches contain pictures of the ocean, fish, fantastic sea creatures, gulls, whales, ships, mermaids, palm trees, and happy, smiling stick figure people, as envisioned by artistic children with a paint brush.
The above photograph shows the left end of one bench.
Below, someone fishes nearby…
Fishing on San Diego’s Embarcadero.A painted tile in a bench on San Diego’s Embarcadero.A red fish just swimming along in blue bubbles.A tropical fish with long spotted green fins.A very nicely rendered seahorse and colorful flowers.Beautiful work of art created by a local child.Creativity is splashed all over these tile benches.Eye-catching abstract design painted by youth.Fantastic tile artwork produced with many colorful painted dots.Here’s a green mermaid jumping rope atop the blue ocean!
Check out this stylish piece of art decorating the south side of San Diego’s Cruise Ship Terminal on the B Street Pier. The Trompe-L’oeil Mural painted in 2005 by artist Joshua Winer definitely has personality! I like how a bunch of stools have been randomly grouped next to the mural–as if they’re part of the scene! It’s a shame nobody was perched on one!
I considered cropping out the security camera at the top of the photo, but didn’t. It adds a somewhat disturbing dimension to the colorful bit of innocent nostalgia.
Here are some pics I took at a later time…
The lively Cruise Ship Terminal mural includes an elephant!Part of the fun mural shows fishermen with a big catch.Standing back a bit to provide a little context.
Cool San Diego Sights! 