The Thinkers un-Tagged

A twenty-year Tucson tradition is the mural called “The Thinkers.” It's just east of 4th Avenue on the south side of 6th Street. Randy showed it during 2009 in the entry Mural Montage: A Tucson Favorite.

In the last year or so, a tagger trashed the mural with huge graffiti garbage. Maybe the same criminal was the one who also tagged a great mural half a block farther west along 6th. Anyway, The Thinkers was one of my favorite Tucson murals… I was angry and heartbroken.

Then, this past weekend, Allison Miller posted to Facebook that the original artist, Eleanor Kohloss, had repaired the mural. And Eleanor replied:

I raced downtown the next day to get photos (partly with the hope that I'd get there before the same tagger came back to vandalize the same mural again). I made it.

First, the whole mural:

Next, three photos from left (the east end) to right (west). The middle photo is mostly the bus stop which was added — very unfortunately — since the mural was painted in 1996. (Wouldn't a simple bench have done the job? How about moving this artistic bus stop a couple of blocks farther along 6th Street?? Sigh.)

Although you've really gotta stand in front of this mural to appreciate it, here are a few parts that were easy to photograph. (The dog/people and their “thought bubbles” are mostly intertwined, so it's hard to snap just one part of the scene.) The first one is at the bottom of the left third:

This couple, thinking of each other, are above the bus stop roof:

And in the middle of the right half:

Update (August 21, 2016): Eleanor wrote on Facebook “I had lots of help from Allison Miller who besides being a mom, full time employee at [Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum], mural artist in her own right, and VOLUNTEERS to repair tagged murals. She climbed up and repainted the figures over the bus shelter the time before this last tag. It is such a fragile wall, we have been looking into coatings but it might not be able to withstand the power wash to remove the spray paint.”

Update (August 19, 2022): I got email from a man named Douglas and his sister Vickie. He wrote: “My mom is the waitress holding the plate. She worked at Caruso's restaurant for 32 years.I worked there as well a couple summers as a bus boy when I was in high school in the late 70's. My brother worked at the bar next door. Everybody called her Mom.” Here's the part of the mural showing Mom:

Later, Doug added: “I did read about Eleanor Kohloss who painted the mural in 1996 that she captured some locales (my Mom) as well as some are fictional. My brother did tell me that Mrs. Kohloss asked my mom if she could put on the mural. My mom was honored to have her do that.”

Now all we need are stories about the other zillion people on the mural! I'd really like to meet Eleanor some day.