Murals being made, part 46a: Tucson's biggest

Muralist Joe Pagac is painting a mural on the south wall of the Epic Rides building on Stone Avenue just north of 6th Street. When finished, the mural will be the largest in Tucson (so far!) at 122 ft. wide and 33 ft. high. He aims to finish the mural before his wedding, April 22nd.

This is the first of two blog entries showing the progress as he paints the mural. The second entry — part 46b — will be online after April 22nd, we hope. (Joe must hope the same!) As you'll see below, at least one schedule challenge came up as he worked.

The first three photos below are by David Aber. They show the beginning of the mural with a reporter from KGUN 9 holding the mock-up.  See the report by Jennifer Martinez.

Jennifer Martinez in front and Joe Pagac in the far background on Mar. 27, 2017.

Status on Mar. 27, 2017

Status on April 3, 2017.

Next, from Jerry Peek:

David had been to the site two or three times by April 3. He mentioned to me (Jerry) that, when he was there a few days before, there didn't seem to be much progress on the mural. When I talked with Joe on my first visit, April 7, he said that he'd been sick the week before.

Though an experienced muralist must have a good idea of when the mural should be finished, this big work must be an amazing challenge. (I think Joe's next-biggest mural is probably the one behind Borderlands Brewing. There are three blog entries; if you follow the links from Joe Pagac finishing Borderlands Brewing mural, you should be able to see it in progress. Or, viewing all eleven entries from April, 2015 might be easier.) Anyway, Joe had a lot to finish here at Epic Rides — in just two weeks!

April 7: The mural, Joe (on the lift), and admirers

Place Joe in the next photo for a good idea of the size of this mural.

The mural at 5 PM on April 7th. (Joe is still working.)

April 8th, noon: Working on the bottom half of the left side

April 9, 9 AM: The top of the left side looks finished

Detail from the right half

The javelina's bicycle near the left edge of the right half
(we'll be following this detail as Joe paints)

We'll have more when Joe finishes — or maybe before.

Update (June 12, 2017): Part 46b, posted today, shows Joe's progress between April 12th and 25th. He seems to be finishing it up, so we're expecting the final photos to be online by the end of June.

Update (July 2, 2017): As I was updating Joe Pagac's Wikipedia page, I notticed that the pronunciation of his name was different than what he's put on his Facebook profile and that it didn't mention much about his mural work. From there, I found a Kickstarter page promoting this mural project. The original sketch shown on the page is a lot less polished than the gorgeous mural he produced, but he drew enough backers to finish the job!