All Photos By Gail
Tucked beneath the sweeping concrete ramps of the San Diego–Coronado Bridge lies one of the most vibrant and meaningful outdoor art environments in the United States: Chicano Park. When I visited San Diego last summer, I made a stop at this remarkable site in the Varrio Logan neighborhood — and quickly realized that this wasn’t just a park. It’s a living canvas, a cultural landmark, and a powerful piece of community history all rolled into one.
While the park includes cultural centers and small museums, the true stars here are the murals — bold, colorful works of art that stretch across massive freeway pillars and underpasses. The scale alone is breathtaking. Towering concrete columns become storytelling surfaces filled with imagery celebrating heritage, identity, and resilience.
Continue reading Chicano Park: A Colorful Cultural Landmark Beneath the Freeway →
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Photo By Gail
Euro-American traditions of landscape art tend to work differently from those of Native peoples, often picturing the land from afar as a space to behold. James Doolin (1932 – 2002) carefully studied the landscape to create Bridges (1989), spending a week at the off-ramp from the 110 Freeway to Interstate 5 in Los Angeles. Using principles that originated in European painting, Doolin designed an expansive vista in which a vast space is seen from a single vantage point. The small figure in the foreground — intended as a stand-in for the artist or viewer — also appears in many traditional landscape paintings. By applying these motifs to 20th Century Los Angeles, Doolin refers to the power of historical images in shaping our modern experience of place.
Photographed in the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles.
See More Cool Art From My Travels by Following Me on Instagram at @WorleyGigDotCom!
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All Photos By Gail
This past Christmastime, I traveled back home to California, where I spent many days of wild abandon exploring the southland like I had not since I was a resident, nearly 30 years ago. On a day spent scouring the many wonder-filled features of Downtown LA, I looked down from an overpass I was crossing on Grand Street and spotted this magnificent beast. The curved concrete sculpture features silhouettes of painted steel cars roller-coasting up the structure’s curve.
Continue reading Uptown Rocker By Lloyd Hamrol in Downtown Los Angeles →
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Photo By Gail
Photographed from a moving car on the Interstate 10 Freeway while traveling from Pasadena to Palm Springs, California over the Christmas Holidays!
Truck courtesy of Pink Transfer Moving & Storage of Monrovia, California.
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