Friday, March 31, 2017

"Plants for the Southwest", a nursery

The nursery is located at 50 E. Blacklidge Dr.  However, the mural is on a separate, but attached, bldg. at 2936 N. Stone Ave.  Artistry by Rock "CYFI" Martinez and his assistant, Fernando Leon.
Front of bldg. attached to the West side of "Plants for the Southwest"

South side of 2936 N. Stone Ave.
Click on either photo for larger and sharper images.  Photos taken on Mar. 5, 2017.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Santa Rita High School

Santa Rita High School.  Home of the Eagles.
Photo taken on March 5, 2017.  Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

South Tucson tilework on the True Tucson blog

I just discovered the blog True Tucson. The story The art of tile, South Tucson style has a series of photos of the tile work next to streets in the city of South Tucson.

The Tucson Murals Project blog has some of those murals and others too. (To see them, use the search box at the right edge of the TucsonArt.info murals page and search for: South Tucson. Or zoom into South Tucson and scroll around its murals on the map:



You can see a bigger version of the mural map by clicking there.

Monday, March 27, 2017

Smitty's North Wall

This is the third and last wall around Smitty's Car Wash.



Photographed on Feb. 14, 2017.  Click on any photo for a slide show of larger and sharper images.

Friday, March 24, 2017

Smitty's West Wall

This is the second of the three walls around Smitty's Car Wash.



Photographed on Feb. 14, 2017.  Click on any photo for a slide show of larger and sharper images.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Smitty's South Wall

Several photos have been posted to this blog of murals found at Smitty's Car Wash.  There is also a wall around three sides of the car wash and this, the South wall, is the first of the three.



Photographed on Feb. 14, 2017.  Click on any photo for a slide show of larger and sharper images.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Music murals around the house

This home has murals of musicians. It's at 1121 West Fresno Street; Google wouldn't let me search for the location.

By the front door is a guitar made of iron. I grabbed this fragment from one of the photos you'll see below: the man holding what looks like a slice of bread (a sandwich?) with a bite out of the top. The bread has the caption "Yours truly Jack Smith" that's mentioned below.
Mark Fleming has contributed a number of photos to this blog. He sent these on March 5th (which is the same day his camera data says he took them). He wrote:

On West Fresno Street between Grande and Westmoreland, [this is a] private home, [we got] owner's permission. The murals can be seen from the street.

We asked permission to post on [this blog]; he said yes, we offered our names he did not reciprocate. One of the murals reads "Yours truly Jack Smith."

He's an oil painter and only does murals on his own home.

Let's see that mural and the other four:

Thanks a lot, Mark, and welcome back to the blog!

Friday, March 17, 2017

Morrow Residence, a (very!) 3-D “mural”

This blog normally shows “flat” art, but we make exceptions every once in a while. These walls are nowhere near flat!

"Armed with Styrofoam, rebar, aluminum foil, stucco, chicken wire, railroad spikes, cactus skeletons and his imagination, Gary Morrow began creating his version of a desert scene, one that is gradually encircling their house and yard."  "It'll be done when I'm done being alive.", he said.
Source: Arizona Real Estate News
West Wall on N. Park Ave.
South Wall on E. Gifford St.
Entry Gate on West Wall
West Wall - looking thru a rebar fence at two aliens descending from a spaceship
South Wall Detail
Cliff dwellings with tiny ladders and saguaros.  
Behind the wall is the alien space ship with a Pterodactyl on top.
More South Wall Detail
Photographed on Feb. 8, 2017.
Click on any photo for larger and sharper images.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Monday, March 13, 2017

Santa Theresa Tile Works re-revisited


Santa Theresa Tile Works has made a lot of public art in Tucson! Some of it is on this blog. More is on the public art page of their website. I'll post more here as time goes on.

I'm often around their building (at the corner of 6th & 6th), going to contemporary galleries in the area, so I see their tile work a lot. I missed this mural, but David Aber didn't. It's on the south side of the building.

He took the photo December 11, 2015.

Like much of their work, this mosaic has a lot of detail. You can click on the image for a much larger view. Unfortunately, Blogger's image viewer seems to squash tall photos to fit your window and doesn't let you scroll up and down to see detail much better. So I've added a version rotated to the left to help you click and see more detail:

Our previous entry Santa Theresa Tile Works revisited, has more…, as well as links to previous blog entries. The entry Wheat Scharf Associates shows a work nearby the one that David photographed (above).

P.S. Please let me know if you like this “sideways” trick by leaving a comment below. (You can remain anonymous.) If it's popular, I'll do more as time goes on.) Thanks.

Friday, March 10, 2017

On the beach on North 1st Avenue

I spotted that mural July 29, 2016, on the south side of Hotline 4 Auto pre-owned auto sales.

Update (October 28, 2022): Today's post shows a new mural here.

Wednesday, March 08, 2017

Cycle Down to 5 Points Bikes

Five Points Bikes has had a mural for some years now. I cycled down 17th Street on May 14, 2016. On the southwest corner of 17th and Stone (on the north wall of their humble building) and found that bright but humble mural.

The mural has changed a bit since August 23, 2012. If you'd like to see, click there.

Monday, March 06, 2017

Main & University #3

The murals on this corner keep changing. (You can see the corner on our 2015 entries from February 23rd & February 26th.)

In the previous two blog entries, I showed only one mural. When I came back on May 14, 2016, there were four murals:

The mural closest to the corner has “LIVER” in it. I think this is the mural space that you saw in the previous two entries. I straightened it, and squashed it to look square, with my favorite free Photoshop-like editor The GIMP.

The dogs in all four murals are running toward the liver by the corner.

No matter what, I'd bet that these four are by Wesley Fawcett Creigh and Jenna Francine Tomasello.

Friday, March 03, 2017

Murals being made, part 45: Charity Glass & Tint

Just over a year ago — March 12, 2016 — I rolled west on Grant Road. I was almost to Country Club when I spotted a bright blue mural with an artist painting the east wall. As you can guess :), I pulled over.

I believe his name was Richard Taplin. I snapped a few photos, wrote down his contact info (which, unfortunately, I can't find), and planned to come back to see the front of the building. Then David Aber pointed out that he'd gotten a photo of the front of the building; it's in our December 26, 2016 entry.

Since then, I called a man who I guess is the owner of Charity Glass and Tint. (They have a unique business mode. Their "About Us" page tells more. They also support public murals!)

If you know how to get in touch with Richard, I'd be glad to add his contact info here. And I'll try to stop by the business to find out more about the artists.

Wednesday, March 01, 2017

Little-seen mural after six years of desert sun

Experienced Tucson muralists will tell you that west- and south-facing walls can be brutal on murals. Ceci Garcia, of Raices Taller 222 Gallery & Workshop, told me last month that priming a wall for the desert sun before painting it is really important to keep it in one piece. A few years ago, as he was repainting his faded mural on the south side of the La Pilita Museum, Martín Moreno told me how strong Tucson sun can wash out colors.

Last month, as I was looking through mural photos I'd neglected, I ran across some 2016 photos of a mural on the west-facing wall along a vacant lot. I'd last photographed them in May, 2010; if you'd like to see them, check out Hidden but worth the trip. Here are two closeups of the wall in March, 2016. First is the left half; the right half is second:

(The colors may be a bit different due to different photo editor settings. Also, as always, you can click on either photo for a larger view of both.)

I was surprised that the mural looked almost as good as it had six years ago. One homeowner had put up a shed that rose above the wall, and that shed was tagged, but the mural didn't look vandalized. I hope nothing's happened in the year since.

By the way, the left half of the wall has a rock (?) with SSA Broadway 2009-2010. I'm guessing that they were the artists and/or sponsors. Great job, folks!