Playing Tourist for a Day

Oh my gosh, thank you so much to the person on the Picasa help forum who told me how to download the older version of Picasa and get rid of the "upgrade" so I can go back to posting again. whew! Anyway, last Saturday, I had the day off work, so I decided to play tourist. I'm a native San Diegan, and I too often forget to take advantage of my own backyard. I took the trolley downtown to the Convention Center to attend the Originals craft fair (formerly the Harvest Festival). On the way there, I had to change trains at the American Plaza station (an Industrialist architectural wonder) and from the window of the Contemporary Art Museum I could see an exhibit on grafitti. The museum is literally AT the trolley stop, so I made a point of checking it out. I love aerosol art. The photo here is from a magnet I bought. Cool, huh? The large sculpture to the left is kinetic, and is called, Hammmering Man. 


Art by WriterzBlok. Members of this group are also responsible for the exterior of the Artist and Craftsman Supply art store, as pictured on my San Diego Craft Resource Guide. 


WriterzBlok has also participated in painting a banner across the Santa Fe Train Depot while it is being renovated. The beautiful Depot is going to be the new site for the Museum of Contemporary Art (the musuem also has a site in La Jolla that looks out onto the ocean). An informational plaque says WriterzBlok On the Wall is a timeline of diverse artistic styles used by aerosol artists since the 1970's. These banners were created in partnership with WriterzBlok, a non-profit organization in southeast San Diego that provides neighborhood youth with technical skills in the visual arts. Artists included in the making of this project are Daze, Jason Halley, Huge, Jeremy Hunt, Izzy, Brian Lagermann, Kuya, and Sake. 


This front portion looks as if it were painted on the side of a train. See the windows? 


Detail of one area of the banner. 


Detail on the art store exterior. Hard to see because my photo is dark, but it's a dinosaur. I love how they work around and incorporate elements of the building. 


Another detail from the art store exterior. 


More San Diego stuff. This is the tunnel at the Old Town trolley station. A plaque says it was designed by artist Paul Hobson. Archaic Passage celebrates the architectural history of Old Town from Native American to Contemporary times--art materials used: carrizo cane, wood, stucco, adobe, brick, clay, rock and decorative tiles. Geological strata-like wave reflects significant architectural style.  


Sculpture outside the Civic Center, representing a ship's bow cutting through the waves. I forgot to make note of the artist's name and the title of the piece, but will post that info later if I can find it.