Help wanted: finding each mural's story

It's been five years, and a few months, since former Tucson television news anchor Randy Garsee started posting mural photos on this blog. (You can click to see our first post, then use your browser's "Back" button to return.) A year later, I joined. As time went on, Randy asked me to take over much of the blog, and keep it updated.

Fast-forward to today: We have hundreds of mural photos online (and even more on the "unpublished" pages), but most of those have just the location and few other details. That's been my plan for when the weather cools this autumn: to go out and re-visit murals, ask people nearby what they know about the story, and share what I find online (on this blog and in other ways).

For more than a year now, Melodi King has been working on a second way for you to find murals and information about them: a clickable map and, especially, a database of info about each mural (name of artists, year painted, and much more).

Why was the mural painted? Who are the people in the mural? Everything we can learn will help to build the story of each of Tucson's murals (including murals that have been lost).

You can help, too. Do you or a neighbor have a mural on an outside home wall that everyone can see? Are you at a business, church, school, or any other building with a mural open to the public? Do you travel past a mural every day and have come to know either a story behind it or someone who does? If that sounds like you — or if you'd like to do some hunting in your own neighborhood — would you please let us know? For instance:

• Put the info into the comment box by the mural post here on this blog. (If you aren't sure whether we have the mural, please send me a note, tell me where the mural is and a bit of what it looks like.)
• If you'd like to send your comment privately, use the short TucsonArt.info comment form. Please fill in the Subject box with at least the word "mural".
• If typing in a long story isn't your thing, or if you'd rather just talk, please give me a call at (520)302-4402. (I'm pretty busy, so I might need to call you back a bit later. If you get my voicemail, please tell me that you're calling about murals — and mention a few good days and times to reach you.)

The info you share will help us build a database of Tucson muralists — and also help both visitors and residents see much more of Tucson's fantastic murals.

Thanks!