What Was Oro Valley Thinking?
I have often admired Oro Valley's public art efforts. I even produced a video of public art in Oro Valley, which you can find on my YouTube Channel. This latest attempt, however, tanks.
Oro Valley has a beautiful new shopping area called the Oro Valley Marketplace. Smack dab in the middle of this strip mall in the desert are two water tanks. Someone decided, "Hey, water tanks are unsightly. Let's paint a mural on them. Better yet, make them look like massive Giant Saguaros."
As I discovered, the great idea of painting the tanks was mutilated by someone else's idea to surround the tanks with an 8-foot-tall stucco fence. Drivers can only see the tops of the tanks! Why not some type of fence so visitors can see the art work from top to bottom? What a waste to spend all of that tax money for well-painted tanks and then hide most of the work.
I got the best shots I could get and cropped the cactus flower for better effect. I even stood on the concrete pillar of a light pole to get shots of the tanks without the wall in front of them. But if you drive through the Oro Valley Marketplace, I'm sure you'll have the same thought I did: Here's a satellite map.Update (August 7, 2020): There's another painted tank in today's entry Tanked.
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3 comments:
Cool idea, great art, and saguaros do hold a lot of water after all, but I have to agree with you that its too bad the fence/wall is obstructing a lot of the work.
I was trying to find a specific tile mural that is at the intersection of Oracle and Lee. Imagine my delight when I found your blog of other murals here in Tucson! This is such a treat. Thanks for your documentation!
-Fellow Tucsonan
September 5, 2021. Now disappointingly they seem to be murals of the color beige.
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