Street Art in San Diego

I am a visual person. I hate to say I am an “art lover” because that sort of implies that I love visiting museums and looking at a bunch of classic paintings and stuff. Museums are fun in small doses, but I much prefer moving through the world looking at stuff that catches my fancy than spending hours in a dark building looking at pieces other people think I really should love and want to see.

I have really come to enjoy street art/murals. But what exactly is “street art”? A fancy name for graffiti? If you really want to know, click here. As an article about ten of the best places to find street art in SD on the SanDiego.org website says, “Muralists and street artists are the tricksters of public art. They play with scale, making familiar objects giant. They slip in visual puns and sly references, simultaneously secret and bold as a howl. They create monuments to people and moments they deem heroic.”

In my opinion, street art is fun. It’s colorful. It can really liven-up run-down areas and add visual interest to an otherwise hum-drum scene. It’s a creative way to grab attention as an alternative to an ordinary sign, e.g., for businesses.

On previous visits to the area, I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of street art in San Diego (SD). Hubby doesn’t share my appreciation for the medium, so I figured my extended solo visit would be a great time to explore the art of SD in addition to the local beer and street taco establishments. And that’s exactly what I did.

I visited many different areas in and around the city. I  captured hundreds of images during that time, many of which I shared on Facebook and Instagram. The focus on street art was a departure from the type of travel pics I usually share. Later, one of my friends said she hadn’t enjoyed my SD posts as much as she’d likes pics I’d shared from visits to other places because she doesn’t like “graffiti” and stuff as much as I do. That comment tickled me. I wasn’t offended because I know that art, like beauty, really is in the eye of the beholder. Travel photos are art, too, right?

San Diego is a big place. Rather than just wander around aimlessly, hoping to get lucky, I figured I’d do a bit of research to find concentrations of art in the city. One of the areas I chose to visit was Chicano Park in Barrio Logan. According to the SanDiego.org website, “The park is home to the largest concentration of Chicano murals in the world with more than 80 paintings on seven acres dotted with sculpture, gardens, picnic tables and playgrounds.” That website can give you a very succinct and explanation of the history and cultural significance of Chicano Park.

If you’d like to know more about this very unique spot, I encourage you to visit this website, which “…supports MAS 350B: Mexican American Studies – Chicano History at San Diego State University. This class involves the study of the history of Chicanos since 1848, using Chicano Park as a point of departure for research and study. The main emphasis of the class will be to survey the major themes of Chicano history that are suggested by the murals of Chicano Park in Barrio Logan San Diego, and to do research on the park in order to contribute to its preservation by revealing the rich artistic and cultural legacy its embodies.”

If you are interested in the meaning behind the murals, this page has links to explanations for key murals in Chicano Park.

I’m glad I visited Chicano Park and Barrio Logan without any human companions. It really gave me the opportunity to meander aimlessly around the park and surrounding neighborhood, lingering as long as I liked. That’s important as there was so very much to see.

I have so many images from that day, I decided to create a slideshow for sharing. One blog post is just not the right place to share 100+ images. I’ve posted my top-10 favorites within this post. The rest can be seen in the slideshow embedded at the end.

A Google map is embedded below so you can see all of the ramps leading to/from the bridge. The map will help you better appreciate the number of different support pylons photographed.

My slideshow and collection of photos is not all-inclusive. It really is an impressive site. If you ever visit SD and like street art, I encourage you to visit, allowing a few hours to take in the sights.

We probably spent several hours just moseying around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I share this next image more for the story behind the recent controversy surrounding the mural than for the mural itself. Although I DO love this shot for its multiple murals and interesting angles.  You can read the full story of the controversy if you like.

In a nutshell, many people who don’t know the history of the area misinterpret the meaning of “yonkes” and are offended. It’s a prime example of Americans whining about ridiculous stuff AND displaying their language ignorance at the same time.

Yonkes is a Spanish slang term. It does not mean “yankees” (referring to white people) or “honkies” (again, referring to white people). Just because it kind of resembles yankees and honkies, those are English words. Yonkes is local-ish Spanish slang that means junkyards.

People really can be so narrow-minded and stupid. I must admit, I love it when their narrow-mindedness makes them look even more ignorant than they already are.

Finally, one of the things I also loved about the art in and around the park is that it isn’t all expertly rendered. Some pieces are artistically superior to others by far. There are quite a few that are downright bad. Some were clearly done by children. But they’re still there, because this is a place that’s for the people of the neighborhood. All of the people. Even folks that are less artistically talented than others have a right to express themselves and be heard.

I really do like that the works encompass the full spectrum of skill levels, however, some of the pieces made me chuckle. Like the family of three in this next image. That family, which is painted on a wood cut-out positioned on the ground behind those plants, looks like a family of zombies to me. The kids more so that the man. In my opinion.

 

If you’d like to see the slideshow images more closely, I also created a Google Photos album to share.