SeaWalls — Old Beach — san diego
Kaaboo / SeaWalls Old Beach mural
Somehow — especially in a festival setting — I’m given the ‘weird’ walls. No complaints…. I seem to get off on that sort of thing.
Located in the heart of Ocean Beach San Diego, this mural painted on the side of the Wonderland Ocean Pub was no exception. Note the complexity of this building’s muti-faceted exterior. An octopus was the perfect compositional element to wrap its tentacled limbs around even the most challenging of architectural features.
POST KAABOO — QUICK AND DIRTY
This was a very quick and dirty wall, painted over the course of 3 days max. For those who’ve never had the pleasure of painting murals, that means really fast, especially so considering the fact that no spray paint or other such weapons of mass artistic construction were used. All brush, roller, and loads of good old fashioned OB elbow grease. Having a cherry picker helps in a really big way too
The project was a post KAABOO festival afterthought (if memory serves well), produced in partnership with SeaWalls: Artists for Oceans.
KAABOO is a three-day, end-of-summer music festival and contemporary art fair in San Diego. It features over 100 musical performances, fancy food, cocktails, comedy, dancing, and of course, loads of murals. Some alien invasion work from that SoCal party featured here.
Big shout out to Amanda Lynn for putting so much love into projects of this sort. Do yourself a favour and please check out her work. She is truly a master arts administrator and legitimately beautiful human being.
INSTALLATION ART
Murals of this complicated nature make their biggest impact in person. They straddle the territory of ‘installation art’ completely transforming the space they occupy. Check out this great article for more on that notion.
In the modern world where so many different art forms have been born, developed, explored and even forgotten over time, almost no other manifestation of art is so impressive and instantly mesmerizing as installation art. When you walk into a room where the majority of the space around you is actually a part of the artwork, you yourself become part of the art.
When you see something that shouldn’t quite be there and stands out in an obvious manner, and yet somehow fits in the surroundings in a peculiar way, you’re probably looking at another piece of art made by installation artists.
It offers so much more than a traditional painting, sculpture or any other kind of creativity would. It may engage you on multiple levels, activating your senses to experience art in a new way; touch, sound, smell as well as vision are explored to convey the artistry of installations.
Often, the focus is centered on the idea and the impact of it, rather than the quality of a finished product. Usually, installation art is a purely temporary work of art, but its impact, message and the notion behind it remain forever.
Some of the gallery photos have been scabbed from google maps, as you might well be able to tell.
The really good ones are from one of the most under celebrated photo and video talents on the planet, Yoshi (Yoshi Travel Films). This guy is a living legend…less a man, more a force of nature. I really can’t say enough about his work ethic and incredible all-seeing one eye.
The pic of the ladies dancing above comes from here.
