Mural wall with nine lives

The southeast corner of Kolb and 34th — a few blocks north of Golf Links — has a wall built (I believe) by the homeowner. It has changing murals. In the past few months, someone ran a car into the wall — probably going to or from the carwash next door. The wall has been fixed; now it needs a new mural. I'll try to keep in touch and post new photos when it's finished.

David Aber posted photos in July 2020 with the mural(s) back then. See Graffiti Mural, Part I and Graffiti Mural, Part II.

For another year or two, I saw the mural shown in this Google Maps Street View from July 2023:



The photos below show the mural before the wall was smashed — August 4, 2024 — starting from the left (northwest) end, past the angled corner (southwest) to the right (east) end:

After the accident, on November 4, the middle (the fourth photo above) looked like this:

By December 13, 2024, the wall had been finished:

I'll post an update once I find a new mural there.

Tileography panels at Community Foundation

Their website cfsaz.org page “Who We Are” says “The Community Foundation for Southern Arizona connects donors to the causes they care about, serving as a vital link between philanthropy and the community’s needs.”

There's outdoor art around their buildings and changing art exhibits inside their co-working space. One art display is panels made by tileography. The website www.tilography.com describes the process and shows examples. One place you'll see tileography in Tucson is along Broadway Blvd. just east of downtown around the Rattlesnake Bridge.

There are eight tileography panels with portraits of Tucsonans. Enter at the door to the south of the tall mural shown in our June 25, 2021 post Murals being made, part 63: Connections. Then walk along the passageway:

The panels are numbered One through Eight, starting near that entrance. At the end of this post are a plaque with descriptions of each panel, then the text from it.

^^ Panel One ^^

^^ Panel Two ^^

^^ Panel Three ^^

^^ Panel Four ^^

^^ Panel Five ^^

^^ Panel Six ^^

^^ Panel Seven ^^

^^ Panel Eight ^^

The plaque after Panel Eight:

From Google Lens, with corrections by me:

FACING THE COMMUNITY 2001-
Artist/Photographer: Stephen Farley
Tilography by Richard Young and Tom Galloway

Panel One
Jannell and Marlene Davis
Community Food Bank

Panel Two
Louie Oviedo and Paul Kaye
Primavera Builders

Panel Tiuree
Yasuhiro Nakatani, M.D.
Kino Community Inspital
Early Intervention HTV Services Crinic

Panel Four
Bang Romano, Veil Fotey & Beth Marquart
Pastime Players

Panel Five
Garrick Woods, Hae Ryoung Lee & Rebeca Ortiz
Tucson Youth Symphonia

Panel Six
Selina Mendoza, Bruce Stewart &
Abran (?) and Daniel Lopez Nunez
Pueblo Gardens Neighborhood Association

Panel Seven
Richard Higginbotham and Johnny Gibson
PRONeighborhoods

Panel Eight
Ana Sarmienito (?)
Native American Education Program
Challenger Middle School

I visited on July 22, 2024.

The (almost) latest at 191-197 East Toole

It's hard to stay up to date with the weirdly-shaped building at the weird intersection of 6th Avenue, Toole Avenue, and Alameda Street downtown. I've been there so many times that I've lost count. But new murals keep popping up, so we keep posting! I took these photos during the second half of 2024.

Southwest side

This is the side of the building along Toole Avenue. First, the whole side on November 10:

As always, you can click on a photo for a larger view. We've shown parts of this side of the building in our page called Layers of murals: histories of a few walls, the section Southwest side of 191-197 East Toole (along Toole).

A couple of things have changed since our last post on January 17, 2024. One is at the middle of the wall: the front of Studio One. Here are the whole front and a closeup of the door on July 21st:

Near the right (southeast) end is the BLX skateboard and tattoo shop. July 21st again:

The south end of the wall is new…

…but the south corner (between the southwest and southeast walls) hasn't changed:

East side

The curb between the building and the 6th Avenue underpass has been painted. (Maybe it's been that way for years and I didn't notice because I was focused on the big murals along the wall). Next are a view from near the building's south end, then closeups from front (west) to back (east):

You can find phootos of the east wall, next to the curb, over the past 20 years or so, in East side of 197 East Toole. It's part of our page Layers of murals: histories of a few walls.

Music Box Lounge

There's just a bit of color in Danny's musician mural:

Closeups:

I was there July 22, 2024.

Underwater on 5th Street

That mural at Kids World Preschool stands next to 5th Street:

I drive by here a lot, but I'd never noticed the mural until July 22nd. (“Yes, officer, I was paying attention!” 😁)

Sushi, then Kava, or vice versa? Whatever. 😎

Two new places next to each other opened at about the same date… and they seemed related to me, as if they have the same owner. One is calld The Kava Bar, at 4376 E. Speedway. The other is in the other half of the same building, Sushi-Kito Restaurant at 4380 E. Speedway. I vote for getting sushi first, then relexing (or whatever) with the kava. (If you haven't heard of Kava, here's a medical article — likely to be pretty conservative — from Cleveland Clinic: When It Comes to Kava, ‘Natural’ Doesn’t Mean Safe. I'm sure there are different choices and alternative opinions.) I was there July 16, 2024, as remodeling was wrapping up, so the murals may be a bit different now.

The Kava Bar has a simple mural on the north end of the west side:

The front of Sushi-Kito looks like this (with Kava Bar at the right edge):

And the mural on the east wall:

I rollled by on July 16, 2024.

Murals being made, part 83: Third mural at Southern AZ Transportation Museum

On May 8, 2024, we posted photos of two murals at the train station downtown in Southern Arizona Transportation Museum. Since then, Bill Singleton has finished the third and final mural showing passengers coming off the train in the mid-1900s. This is Bill finishing the third mural on July 13, 2024:

Next are two photos showing all three murals, then just the new third mural. I took these on July 21st:

(As always, you can click on a photo for a slideshow of larger views.)

Here are six closeups from left to right. I took them July 21st. The two mariachis are portrayed by Bill's sons:

Around the corner from the first and third murals are railroad employees. Here's the one to the left of the first mural on July 21:

And the employee on the right end July 21st:

When I was there on July 13th, this part of the mural didn't have a shadow — only an outline:

The murals are rich with detail — and historical accuracy. Bill told me how much research, and discussion with experts, happened before the design and painting — and also, I think, during the painting. This story from ThisIsTucson.com (and the Arizona Daily Star) has more: This new mural chronicles the arrival of the railroad in Southern Arizona.