Public art enriches the urban landscape by engaging the eye, mind, and spirit, and fosters dialogue about how our city could look and feel. A city rich in public art creates a museum without walls. Public art assists in creating the aesthetic and design standard for the community.

Please take a moment to look through our slideshow of public art projects located on City property and private developers' projects. Or, if you prefer, click here to view a complete listing of all public art projects.

QUICK TIP: Mouseover any image to pause the slideshow at any time. Use the page links below the slideshow to manually navigate back and forth through the projects.

Additional art pieces can be found throughout the city of Escondido. Click here to view some of them.

Blue Granite Shift – Mathieu Gregoire (1994)

Located at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, center courtyard area and the great lawn.

A series of granite stones shifting from natural boulders to refined and polished geometric shapes. Water flows from a large weeping rock and ends in a formal geometric pool at the entrance to the Great Lawn.

Blue Granite Shift Blue Granite Shift

Community – Jeff Lindeneau (1990)

Located at West Valley Parkway and Tulip, adjacent to the Gateway Shopping Center

Two cast bronze triangles containing the silhouettes of human figures stand atop two parallel copper clad and granite slabs facing each other, connoting a passage way.

Community Community

Corona – Nancy Louise Jones (1988)

Located at Auto Park Way North End

Cerulean blue painted aluminum column.

Corona Corona

Eucalyptus Leaf Court – Christine Oatman (1991)

Located in Kit Carson Park, Southern Kit Carson Park entrance, adjacent to the adult softball fields and tree lake

Five giant eucalyptus leaves, cast in bronze and painted silicon. The leaves form an inlay in the road, a backrest, a bench, and an archway.

Eucalyptus Leaf Court Eucalyptus Leaf Court

Fountain – James Hubble (1989)

Located at Trinity Episcopal Church, 9th Avenue and Chestnut

Cast in bronze, it is a memorial to Joyce and Irvin Malcolm, prominent supporters of the arts and the preservation of Escondido.

Fountain Fountain

Hekklik – Peter Mitten (1990)

Located at the Escondido Transit Center, West Valley Parkway

A precast concrete and cast pigmented concrete series of rectangular slabs, creating an open passage/valley that one can walk through, sit on, or walk around.

Hekklik Hekklik

Herb – T.J. Dixon and Jim Nelson

Located at Las Ventanas Village, South Escondido Boulevard

A cast bronze figure of a gas attendant standing next to a powder-coated replica of an old gas pump.

Herb Herb

Monuments to Time in the Corridor of Life, Art and Culture – Mooslin, Sandra Rowe, and Steven Stucky (1998)

A series of interactive works in the eight block central core of downtown Escondido, creating a visual link from downtown to the Great Lawn, adjacent to the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. The locations are the center medians of Grand Avenue from the hospital to Centre City Parkway, the four corners of Maple and Grand, outside of the Mitchell Room, and the sidewalk from City Hall going into Grape Day Park and the Great Lawn.

Monuments to Time in the Corridor of Life, Art and Culture Monuments to Time

New Leaf – Dan Dykes (2011)

Located at South Centre City Parkway near Felicita Avenue

Combining three tons of bronze and stainless steel, 18 feet high and thirteen feet long, the shapes dramatically merge together, culminating into a curved stainless steel mesh form at the top. Light passes through the mesh, illuminating the veins of a leaf captured inside the mesh. The green patina represents Escondido’s agricultural past, the stainless represents modern manufacturing, and the stainless steel mesh at the top symbolizes the history of Escondido coming together to form a new leaf.

New Leaf New Leaf

On Those Who Came Before Us – Marsha Judd (1991)

Located at Felicita Town Center, Centre City Parkway

A series of natural stones in a line, resting on the lawn at the shopping center.

On Those Who Came Before Us On Those Who Came Before Us

Pillars of the Community – Wick Alexander (2000)

Located at South Escondido Boulevard

The project consists of multiple locations on South Escondido Boulevard. The project includes nine pillars, reflecting the California Arts and Crafts movement, three murals and sundials, and historic street names sandblasted onto the surface of the sidewalks. They start at the southeast corner of 6th, continuing at the northwest corner of 7th, the northwest corner of 8th, both northeast and southeast corners of 9th, the northwest corner of 10th, the northwest corner of 11th, the northwest corner of 13th and the southeast corner of 15th. There is a piece located on the southwest corner of 8th and South Escondido Boulevard and one on the southwest corner of 10th and South Escondido Boulevard.

Pillars of the Community Pillars of the Community

Queen Califia's Magical Circle – Niki de Saint Phalle (2003)

Located at Iris Sankey Arboretum, Kit Carson Park, the sculpture garden by this internationally renowned artist is 120 feet in diameter. An undulating wall of eight playful snakes encloses a mirrored maze, a center courtyard with eight large totems, a center figure of Queen Califia atop a 13-foot five-legged eagle, and an egg shaped fountain. Exploding with color, every surface is covered in a wide range of mosaics. For further information, the Web site is www.queencalifia.org.

 

Queen Califia's Magical Circle Queen Califia's Magical Circle

Reflections on Downtown – T.J. Dixon (1990)

Located on Grand Avenue, in front of Felipe's Restaurant

The cast bronze figures of a mother and child sitting on a park bench.

Reflections on Downtown Reflections on Downtown

Sculpture – James Hubble (1995)

Located at 221 West Crest Street

A cast bronze abstracted shape.

Sculpture Sculpture

Shifting Threshold – Joan Irving

Eight rectangular glass and steel panels perched on top of poles placed at multiple locations on East Valley Parkway. The center median at Hickory; two gateway pieces mid-block on the north and south side of East Valley between Ash and Harding on the landscaped areas adjacent to the sidewalk; center medians at the East Valley and Rose intersection, the Midway and East Valley intersection, and the center median at Citrus and East Valley.

Shifting Threshold Shifting Threshold

The Bakers – T.J. Dixon (1993)

Located at 2069 Aldergrove Avenue

Three full-sized terra-cotta male figures representing the process of baking bread.

The Bakers The Bakers

The Cutting Wedge – Christopher Lee (1989)

Located at 488 East Valley Parkway and Hickory

A single tall wedge made of quartzite, laminated glass, and aluminum.

The Cutting Wedge The Cutting Wedge

Time Disc – Jess Dominquez (1991)

Located at Woodcrest Retirement Home, 1255 North Broadway

Cast bronze disk embedded with found objects.

Time Disc Time Disc

Vinehenge – Nancy Moran and Valerie Salatino, Nature Works, Inc. (2004)

An interactive public art project located in Grape Day Park

The whimsical project includes a grapevine climbing structure with hidden secrets for children to find, a slide decorated with giant purple grapes with mosaic details, benches in the shape of oversized grape leaves and a perimeter of rocks reminiscent of the rocks in the hills around Escondido. The play sculpture is intended for children of all ages and abilities. It is ADA compliant. For further information, the Web site is www.natureworksinc.net.

Vinehenge Vinehenge