Friday, December 30, 2022

Historic Motels

By Joe Pagac
There was a dark shadow on the lower right corner.  I lightened it as best I could.

Click on the photo for a larger image.

This aerial photo from BG Boyd Photography was taken November 12th:

Three days later — November 15 — Joe posted a photo on Facebook of himself and the mural in the background:



We posted another car mural of Joe's, at the same address, on December 27: Autos In Black And White.

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Autos In Black And White

By Joe Pagac, Stephanie Pagac Garcia and Lenka Vasiekova.



GM no longer manufactures Pontiacs. Thus, Quebedeaux Pontiac is now Quebedeaux Buick and has moved to E. Speedway Blvd. from N. Oracle Rd.

The mural is located at 1430 N. Oracle Rd.

Click photo for a larger image.

On October 28, Joe posted a photo to Facebook showing himself in front of the mural:



Next time, December 30, we'll wrap up 2022 with another Joe Pagac car mural at the same address.

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Murals blog taking a long Christmas nap

I'm in Mexico this week and David's computer is in the shop. So we're giving you (and us!) a break this week for some last-minute Christmas shopping. See you on the 27th!

Friday, December 16, 2022

Black Bear Cubs

This mural was found on the North (rear) wall of the Black Bear Diner.

Black Bear Cubs Fascinated By A Monarch Butterfly

Artist Not Known












Click on the photo for a larger image.

A mural on the east wall of the Black Bear Diner was found on Dec. 4, 2017 and posted on Jan. 12, 2018.  You can find it here: Black Bear And Cub .

The mural being posted today is either a newer mural or one that I overlooked in 2017.

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Too soon for the birds and the bees?

Parents traditionally wait a while to discuss “the birds & bees” with their kids. I wonder whether Learning Tree Preschool & Daycare considered having a mural showing, say, bees and bugs?
The mural is on the west side of the building, next to the westbound lanes of 22nd Street, so this mural would be in your rear-view mirror as you drive by. Maybe that's why I didn't notice the mural until recently? It was easier to spot their mural along 22nd, shown in our December 17, 2021 post. The two murals look similar, so maybe the west wall was also painted by Wagon Burner Arts.

Here's a closeup taken from the right (south) end, near 22nd:
At the very south end of the wall are traces of the mural that used to be there. Here are photos from now and from March 6, 2011 (our post 22nd and the world and now:
I buzzed by on November 23rd.

Friday, December 09, 2022

Jessica Gonzales paints (& paints...) the Rialto

If you've driven along Congress Street into downtown from the east, you've seen two murals on the east side of the Rialto Theatre. (That was especially true years ago before there was a building blocking the view.) Joe Pagac used to paint most of them.

Now Jessica Gonzales paints here. BG Boyd Photography sent a photo from his drone of Jessica and her husband painting on November 16th:
To give you an idea of the murals that Jessica is creating, I picked a few from her Instagram page @jessicagonzalesart. They're in order from November 17, 2022 (the most recent) at the top to February 13, 2019 (the earliest) at the end.

(Update, June 30, 2023: There are more recent murals in today's post A few of Jessica Gonzales' many Rialto murals.)

November 17, 2022


October 3, 2022


August 31, 2022


May 5, 2022


March 7, 2022


January 30, 2022


August 1, 2021


…a break due to the pandemic…

December 13, 2019


February 13, 2019


The February 13, 2019 murals were her first.

The man and monkey in the photo above came from Joe Pagac, who painted the murals before Jessica. Here's a post with examples — from July 16, 2019 — A history of Joe Pagac's little man on the Rialto.

Tuesday, December 06, 2022

Joe Pagac mural we haven't published in five years

For some reason, this mural on Roadhouse Cinemas hasn't been on the blog since Joe painted it in 2017. I mentioned a newspaper story about it, A movie crew chases outlaws chasing a train, but then forgot to go see it until September 20, 2022:
It's high on the wall, so I used the digital zoom on my phone camera. It doesn't have the quality of a real (optical) zoom, but the photos look okay shrunken for the Web:

Thanks to BG Boyd Photography for this aerial photo taken February 23, 2022:
(It's a wide panorama, so the straight line of the building front looks curved.)

Friday, December 02, 2022

"I am Tucson" mural in its first home (Murals being made, part 73)

Our November 29 post I AM a re-born TUCSON mural showed this Ben's Bells mural…
…in its new location at the Tucson Convention Center. The photo above was taken in the mural's original location, northwest of the corner of Broadway & Stone — likely on January 25, 2014. Thanks to Ben's Bells for that photo.

Before and after original mural was made

Courtesy of Google Street View, we can rewind to March 2011, from the northeast (Stone south of Congress), before the mural was started:



Below is the same view in July 2013. Although the color is washed out, you can see the mural on the sunlit side of the structure:



That structure (a ventilation tower for the parking garage underneath, I believe) had Ben's Bells murals on three sides. Below is a view from the southeast (Broadway at Stone) in May 2015:



This blog has photos of the other two Ben's Bells murals on the structure in Murals being made, part 8 (Kindness, part 3) and Ride on, Tucson.

Original mural being made

Now on to 2012, when the “I am Tucson” mural was being made. Thanks much to Monique from Ben's Bells for collecting and sending the historical photos below. The dates came from data hidden in the photo (which can be wrong if the camera's clock wasn't set correctly).

On August 22, 2012, the mural had been outlined onto the refinished side of the structure:
On August 24, 2012, the mural was starting to take shape at 8:05 AM:
Later on August 24, at 6:58 PM, the crew had done a lot…
… but there was more to do, like the rays of sun near the top left:
Here's the finished mural again:

Goodbye to the original mural

I dialed Google Street View back to June 2018. It shows the plaza with the murals. Street View also showed that, in April 2019, the new building which would replace the plaza was taking shape. The photo below shows the scene sometime between those two dates. It's looking south from near Congress toward Broadway; Stone is at the left edge. I've outlined the structure, with at least one of the murals still on it:

In its new home

As we showed last week in the post I AM a re-born TUCSON mural, this is the mural in its new home at Tucson Convention Center:

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

I AM a re-born TUCSON mural

On September 22 and 23, 2022, Vivian Moore MacKinnon took photos of the Ben's Bells I am TUCSON mural being re-installed at its new home, TCC (the Tucson Convention Center):

The last photo above shows Chad Borseth, the Mural Coordinator for Ben's Bells.

Victoria Sasnett of the Arizona Daily Star made this video interview with Chad showing the mural being made: Watch Now: Ben's Bells recreates "I am Tucson" mural at TCC. One of the things you'll see is that the new mural isn't an exact copy of the original. For instance, volunteers have been making new pieces to use in the mural. Chad also places a small piece without checking any detailed map. (I'm guessing there isn't a detailed map… the reconstructed mural started from a chalk outline.) Also, KGUN9 TV News covered the mural reconstruction in a video: Ben's Bells brings 'I am Tucson' mosaic mural back to downtown.

I stopped by near sunrise on October 17th (so the shadows would be soft when I stood close) to photograph the whole mural:
Next, a photo of the mural taken September 7, 2012:
When you compare that original mural to the new version at TCC, you'll see that the right end of the original is missing from the new version, the mountains are higher, and the one line of writing is now two lines. (As always, you can click on a photo for a slideshow of larger views.) I'm guessing that the color of the bottom half isn't as brilliant because it's not facing the sun.

Here's an overview from Google Street View, looking west from Stone between Broadway and Congress, in April 2016:



The color in that photo is washed-out. Below is a much better photo, courtesy of Ben's Bells… probably taken January 25, 2014. As always (except for Google Street View photos, that is), you can click for a larger view:
Another post, coming soon, will have photos of the original mural being made in 2012.

Now the mural is finally in its new home!