Día de Los Muertos on Grant Road

The "Day of the Dead" is an opportunity to remember and celebrate the lives of departed loved ones. It is often celebrated on Nov. 1 to remember children who are deceased and Nov. 2 to honor the adults who have passed.

The artists are Monty Ses Esposito, Retro, Sketch 71/Rickey A Bush and Sal Sawaki; all working with Wagon Burner Arts.

Found at the SW intersection of N. Martin Ave. and E. Grant Rd., Tucson, AZ

La Calavera Catrina ("Elegant Skull") on the left next to "Sugar Skulls". Sugar Skulls are made of sugar and are placed on graves and altars in honor of deceased loved ones.
(Update: See the note farther below.)

La Calavera Catrina (the "Elegant Skull").  Also known as Mexico's Lady of the Dead.

 

Mariachis (a street band in Mexico)

La Calavera Catrinas
Note the dog and cat.

 

Update: KGUN9 TV interviewed muralist Monty Ses Esposito, one of four artists who painted the mural.

Update:  The Sugar Skulls panel — the right side of the second photo in this post — was replaced in Jan. of 2022. The “sugar skulls” were “chuckleheads” — the four artists who painted the mural. Left to right, they were: Ses, Sketch 71, Retro and Sal. Below is what replaced the panel:

Update: To give you an idea of how big the mural is, here's an aerial view from BG Boyd Photography (thanks!):

Click on any photo for a slideshow of larger images.

Dia de los Muertos on the UA Mall

I saw a video on Instagram of this very temporary mural being made, so I drove over near sunrise the next day (October 21st). Because it was on the ground, it was hard to get a photo that showed the whole thing. This is the best I could do:

Luckily, mural photographer extraordinaire BG Boyd got last-minute permission to fly his drone overhead the next day, just after sunrise:

Thanks as always, BG!

Update (October 27, 2021): BG Boyd sent information about this style of floral mural (below). I found examples by searching online for Alfombristas Mexicanos (click there to run a search with DuckDuckGo, which is much more private than Google). The page alfombristasmexicanos.org has lots of photos. Here's what BG sent:

Alfombrismo (flower art carpet) is a collective cultural expression of ephemeral art originating in the community of Huamantla, Tlaxcala, Mexico. This art expression arises from the pre-Hispanic worldview of offering to nature and the close relationship with the Matlalcuéyetl mountain from whom the community obtains resources to survive. After the process of miscegenation, veneration and gratitude are directed to the Christian divinity that they identify with the benefits of the Matlalcuéyetl as The Virgin Mary who assumes the generosity of nature and mercy for those who need it most, for which she is named Virgin of Charity.

Alfombristas Mexicanos (Mexican Carpet Makers) is a civil and collective group based on the carpets of Huamantla. This group develops cultural projects, to develop collective spaces as possibilities of coexistence, exchange, appreciation, and imagination.

Alfombristas Mexicanos develops carpeting projects as an inclusive cultural expression in which diverse individuals can contribute and be integrated from the creative process to the artistic culmination of the work. This artistic expression is a current dynamic in a constant transformation and innovation that adapts the form and resources from a local community which is giving time, materials and contributes to a visible purpose to a transcendental expression.

Avenidas de los Muertos celebration and Spy vs. Spy

A mural along 4th Avenue in South Tucson advertises a celebration (just before Dia de los Muertos) and vaccine clinic:

The last photo above shows bits of another mural underneath it. We don't have photos of that.

If you've read MAD Magazine, you probably recognize these characters from the middle of the mural:

It's a cartoon pair of spies who are always trying to destroy each other. (I'm not sure what they have to do with a celebration in Tucson.) There's more info in the fandom.com article Spy vs. Spy. And here's a YouTube Spy vs Spy video:



I stopped by the mural yesterday morning, October 21.

Daily Wildcat article about mural feast at Hotel McCoy

The Daily Wildcat is a great newspaper produced by UA Journalism students. It's worth following (also, if you can, donating to keep the lights on and the presses rolling). The September 30 article Hotel McCoy: An art space and a place to stay, by Sohi Kang and Bellah Nelson, is a long and interesting read with plenty of photos.

This blog has lots of photos of the hotel's murals. You can see them all by searching for posts labeled "Hotel McCoy" (click there).

You could drive right past this

This mural is on a shed in front of Project Insight, on the south side of Fort Lowell. It's easy to miss:

For some reason, most mapping programs wouldn't show the location, but here it is in Bing Maps: 1038 E. Ft. Lowell. I rolled by (and made a U-turn!) on June 28, 2021.

See this mural & stop in

Next to the front door of & Gallery (pronounced “and gallery”) is this mural by @ahhdehleenart (click there to see her Instagram page):

(As always, you can click on the photo for a bigger view.) Here's her signature:

I walked by & snapped this on August 10th.

"Living" TUCSON AZ mural

On the north side of the parking lot for Antigone Books has been a book mural by Jessica Gonzales. There's a new mural slowly taking shape on the west side of the lot — which is actually on another business:

It's a “living” mural, like the first living mural a couple of blocks away: It's divided into small spaces, each of which can hold a little mural painted by an artist. Here's the whole mural closer up:

Next, the parts of the mural people can paint, from left (south) to right (north):

I took these photos on August 10th. More of the spaces are probably filled in by now.

Update: You can follow this mural, as well as the other one, on Instagram @TheLivingMural. The coordinator, Jason Lee Nolan, calls this “the stained glass wall.” For example, here's a call to artists on August 23, 2021.

Greetings from ARIZONA

I found this mural on Sept. 19 on the east wall of 5809 E. 22nd Street, CBD Super Store. The mural is actually for American Legion John P. Burns Post 36, which is on the other side of the parking lot (at 5845 East 22nd).

And yes, our Tucson sky is that blue.

Mural by Monty Ses Esposito, Sketch 71/Rickey A Bush, Sal Sawaki with Wagon Burner Arts

Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

Update (July 4, 2022): Monty Ses Esposito also painted a mural nearby.

Stewart Boot Company

Danny Martin is painting lots of murals! (You can see more by clicking on his name next to “Labels:” at the end of this post, and even more on his Instagram @dannymartinart_ [with an underscore _ on the end].) Here's one on a side street in the city of South Tucson:

I took the photos on July 23rd.

St. Luke's Home

In May of 2018 I took photos of two murals on an L-shaped wall at the rear of an assisted living facility named St. Luke's Home.  I recently discovered that these photos never made it to The Tucson Murals Project.  I drove by St. Luke's on Aug. 18, 2021 to confirm that the mural still exists.  While the street address is 615 E. Adams St., the murals can only be seen from E. Lee St.

Here are the two photos (better late than never):

 

 

Click on either photo for larger and sharper images.