Peppi's House

This mosaic is on the front of Peppi's House.  It is the Tucson Medical Center's Hospice.

The "house" is named for Rose "Peppi" Grosse, a philanthropist who volunteered at TMC before developing cancer and enrolling in TMC's hospice program. One of her final decisions was to donate $1 million for a new hospice building. She was 73 when she died on May 22, 2000.

 Click for a larger and sharper image.

Our January 12, 2012 entry, also named Peppi's House, shows an earlier version of the mural and two other murals nearby.

Murals being made, part 61: Arizona Picture & Frame, west side

Last time, we saw the south wall of the former McGoldrick's Picture & Frame along Speedway. This time, here's the entrance from the parking lot on the west side. The entrance used to look as plain as the Speedway side did two years ago. When I got there on February 9th, Jessica Gonzales had painted the area around the doors and half of the portal in front. The portal was under construction, too; the "ENTRANCE" letters above had been removed:

Later, Jessica wrote on Instagram that she'd finished. I stopped by on March 3rd as construction around the murals was wrapping up:

She dated her work 2020 although it was finished in 2021:

Arizona Picture & Frame, south side

In June, 2019, the south (Speedway) side of the former McGoldrick's Picture & Frame looked like this (in Google Street View):



Boorrrrr-ing!

Jessica Gonzales has transformed the look of the store — now called McGoldrick's Arizona Picture & Frame:

Next, from left (west) to right:

I took these on February 9, 2021. I like the way she worked frames into the design. We'll see the west wall next time.

Update (March 22, 2022): Jessica also painted the right side of this wall — the southwest corner of the building. There are photos in today's post.

Ted DeGrazia's 1964 mosaic mural

Last week, on #ThrowbackThursday, DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun Museum tweeted about a 1964 mural by DeGrazia:

In 1964 artist #TedDeGrazia completed his first 96-square-foot mosaic mural titled “The Desert Medicine Man". This colorful mosaic is on permanent display just west of the gallery. Happy #ThrowbackThursday! #DeGrazia #GalleryInTheSunMuseum #Tucson #AZ #Mosaic #MedicineMan #TBT pic.twitter.com/n5CGUFTFlI

— DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun Museum (@DeGraziaGallery) April 8, 2021

Happy Throwback Thursday!

Evergreen Flowers

On February 7th, I pulled off of 22nd Street to find something on my map. I found myself in the parking lot for Evergreen Flowers. On the west side of the building — hidden unless you were coming from the west — was a mural of (you guessed it) flowers:

(There was something wrong with my camera. The whole mural has the same color of white.)

pure aesthetics natural skincare school

(The name on their sign is all lowercase letters.) This mosaic-and-mirrors mural is near the southwest corner of the building, at the end of the parking lot:

I spotted it on January 25th when I was next door at Blake's Lotaburger getting a green chile cheeseburger. (Yum. :)

Jessica Gonzales video

Jessica Gonzales painted her first large-scale public mural in 2016. In five years, she's created a number of strong, bright murals around Tucson. (If you aren't familiar with her work, you can see more of it with this search for Jessica Gonzales on the blog and her Facebook page, Jessica Gonzales Art.)

Andrew Emery Brown (click there to see his Instagram page) produced and edited this video, titled The Muralist, for Arizona Illustrated on Arizona Public Media:



If you can't see the video above, try this direct link to YouTube: https://youtu.be/PZJduxTDWuo.

Ashtanga Yoga

On May 9, 2020, the south side of the building on the northwest corner of Congress & Grande looked like this:

(You can see this photo, and closeups of the two murals, in the July 21, 2020 entry La Chaiteria, Part II.)

When I drove by on January 8, 2021, the door at the left side wasn't blank anymore. It had a new mural for Ashtanga Yoga Tucson:

Next, closeups of the two blocks at the right edge. I think they're artist info, but I couldn't find either account:

Tucson destroyed!!

(April Fools. :) Ignacio Garcia painted the last hours of Tucson on Fangamer at the northwest corner of Speedway & Rosemont:

I was almost abducted :) on February 25th.