Embroideries that Record History – San Diego

This is not a record of an historical event that includes people but rather a “Snapshot in Time” of the beautiful city of San Diego.  In 1983, my husband and I visited this most interesting city.  While there, I found a black and white line drawing poster designed by Chotre and dated 1979.  I knew that it would make a wonderful textile collage.  We spent most of the next few days driving around identifying the buildings in the poster.

Considering that this is a “snapshot” taken 39 years ago, I know that there will have been many changes in the city though the well known buildings will be much the same – I hope.

This is a fabric collage and most, but not all of the stitching techniques are applique.  Here is a guided tour of the top half of this time dated presentation of this magnificent city.

Starting at the top right hand corner firstly, there are two items of whose meaning I am uncertain.  The blossoms could be tropical and the yellow circles could be hot air.  The building is Mission San Diego de Alcala which was founded by the Spanish in 1769.  It is the oldest mission building in California as the Spanish gradually moved north from Mexico.

The giraffe is represents the San Diego Zoo.  Eucalyptus trees were imported from Australia.  They were intended to supply wood for railway ties but the wood proved to be unsuitable.  Instead, the leaves fed the koala bears in the zoo. I do not know if giraffes eat eucalyptus leaves.

We think the tower is the lookout on the mast of a tuna fishing boat.  The brown roof is that of the Jewish Synagogue.  The Catholic University really does have a light blue dome as is illustrated here.

The five arches and red tiled roof represent the five museums in Balboa Park. The dark blue area, we think, represents the clear night skies where the stars are visible.  Is this the moon or a baseball for the San Padres Baseball team?

The central area includes the downtown skyscrapers. There will be many more of these buildings now. Remember that this was 39 years ago. A snapshot in time.  We enjoyed a wonderful few days there and I treasure the memories.

Please share this with your friends who live in California and know San Diego much better than I do.  I will happily include corrections of this information.

Bottom half of the picture will be posted tomorrow.