The last time we showed this spot on the blog was on May 5, 2012, in Winsett Park mural (before) being restored. That post said that the mural would soon be restored. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos for years. Google Maps Street View has photos of the north side, though.
There's a tree near the middle of the wall that makes complete photos difficult. Here is Google's photo of the north side during May 2015:
By August 2016, the north wall had been repainted. Most of the design had changed, but you can see that the skateboarder was still there, now in color. Here's a photo from August 2022:
I went back earlier this month: May 12, 2023. Although the gates were closed (as usual), I found that I could take a photo from near the ground, looking up — and the tree wouldn't block much of the mural:
(Sorry if that makes you a bit seasick!) I also zoomed in to catch the far (right) side:
BG Boyd Photography is building a searchable database of Tucson murals at TucsonAZMurals.com. I realized that there's no reason for me to take photos of a mural if he already has some. He agreed that I could share his photos to this blog when I don't have a photo of my own. That'll usualy happen on Fridays. In this series of posts, I'll add clickable links below the photos so you can find the original in his mural database at https://tucsonazmurals.com/murals/. Thanks as always, BG, for helping people find Tucson art!
Today's murals are on the end of storage buildings at Tucson Self Storage on Golf Links Road. Unless you rent a unit there, though, you can't get close to the murals… you can only see some from the fence outside. But BG did it! He also caught an aerial view from his drone:
Even if you aren't stopping at Seven Cups Fine Chinese Tea, you can't miss this mural by Jodie Chertudi on the east side. It's as long as the building:
(As always, you can click on any photo for a slideshow of larger views of all photos.)
I'd actually been keeping an eye on the mural for a while. On December 31, 2022 — when the mural was almost finished — Jodie had an “in progress” sign to the right of the mural, near the restaurant entrance:
But wait, there's more! 😍 On May 10, 2023, I stopped by to take photos of a temporary mural at the next building west of Seven Cups. They're posted in Had a crash? Get a mural!. In the background, on the west wall of Seven Cups, I spotted a bit more of the mural from the east side:
A week ago — May 15 — The DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun Museum posted that painting by Tucson artist Ted DeGrazia on their Facebook and Twitter accounts. The Facebook caption was:
Because DeGrazia had interned for both Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, many of DeGrazia’s older works were patterned after them. The influence it had on the Tucson artist, in both style and subject matter, is evident.
When I spotted people painting a mural at Dan's Toy Shop on the southeast corner of Ft. Lowell & Tucson, I couldn't stop… so I made a note to come back. I remembered the business name and that the mural was of a vehicle. What did that have to do with toys?
When I went back to take a closer look (above), I found out. Dan's Toy Shop repairs Toyota… and Lexus and Scion. Here's the overview:
In the background was a corner of the west side of Seven Cups Chinese Teas. I'd already taken photos of the new mural on the other (east) side of Seven Cups. Thanks to Jodie Chertudi, who painted that mural, I found out that Dan's mural is temporary: They painted it because someone crashed into the window at the front of their shop. Once the window is back, the mural will be gone. So there it is!
(Next week, I'll have photos of both sides of Seven Cups.)
Update (May 20, 2023): Jodie later pointed me to a Facebook Reel showing herself and Miguel Flores (@t_bones_in_az on Instagram) painting the mural: https://www.facebook.com/reel/949002449571732. The caption over the reel says “A vehicle crashed through the front door of Dan's Toy Shop back in December and we were asked to add some color to the temporarily boarded up plywood. Thank you to @danstoyshop1957 [on Instagram] for letting us experiment and try out some different techniques with this one.”
This blog started in July, 2006. We have very few murals before that time… and I'm guessing that founder Randy Garsee, a popular TV newscaster, was busy enough he probably didn't have time to post every Tucson mural he'd seen.
(I'd love to put more photos of historic Tucson murals on this blog! If you have photos of murals that the blog might not have or know where to get them, please use the contact form at the right edge of any page… tell me where to find a copy of the photo online or how to reach you to get it.)
When I met artist Curtis Alan Kiwak during the artists’ Open Studios Tour last month, he mentioned that he'd worked on one mural in 1999 or 2000. Here it is — enlarged from a photo of his, so it's a bit fuzzy:
Finally found the only photo I have of the one mural project which I ever was part of in either 1999 or 2000. Knew nothing of mural making! I was working at Child and Family Resources when Martha Rothman and Susie Huhn asked me to help create a mural for the Liberty neighborhood. I drew it on the wall with charcoal and magic marker in one day. A crew of volunteers from Lucent Technologies came on the next day. I would mix paint hand out colors pointed to were to paint. [After working] 8 to noon, we had 3/4 of it painted. The next Saturday it was done and became a mural till it got torn down a couple of years ago.
I replied to ask for more details. He sent a Google Maps Street View photo of the empty lot where the building and the mural used to be:
And he wrote:
This is where the building was until they tore it down to make a new building- Child and Family Resources Inc. had grant money to help the Liberty Partnership to do the mural. The Liberty neighborhood had a Community Center down the street, there were Headstart classrooms. But I did do the work in 2000. … I have the original drawing I submitted in my studio buried somewhere .
Thanks so much for filling in a piece of Tucson's long history of murals, Curtis!
Our previous post, Ready to Rock (the Spot), gave background about the Rock the Spot parking lot painting weekend in October, 2022. Here are more photos and a video of the lot during and after painting.
Thanks to BG Boyd Photography and his Tucson Murals Database, tucsonazmurals.com, for the photo above of Rock the Spot in progress. He also has a YouTube video of the parking lot before and after:
The photos below show most of the murals finished… though a few are still being made and there's equipment scattered around the parking lot. I took these photos early on Monday, October 17, 2022. Unlike most of our posts, I haven't edited these photos very much. (There are too many photos — 34 of them! — and some of the angles I took them from make editing tough to do.)
If you have trouble reading some graffiti letters, Graffiti Empire's Graffiti Letters A-Z tutorial could help. It shows 26 styles of lettering and explains how to write (draw) the letters. You can also search online for something like: graffiti lettering.
The photos start from Danny Martin's mural at the southwest corner, which had already been in that place for a while. I move generally clockwise. In the middle, I detour down a narrow passage that connects with Scott Avenue and two existing murals there (Tawt you taw a puddy tat? and citrus & quail). I wind up at the southeast corner — where a new mural, Three Sisters / Las Tres Hermanas, has been finished in the past couple of weeks (so it isn't in these photos from last year).
Some of the photos are wide views that cover several murals. Those are followed by individual photos of all (or most) of the murals in the wide view. Sometimes there are close-ups of a particular mural.
Here goes!
Another Rock the Spot is coming later in 2023! The date should be announced in September.
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Jerry Peek's images are public-domain. For non-profit use, he'd appreciate a mention of his name and JerryPeek.com. For profit, please ask first from the contact form above; give the title of the blog entry, which image, and what you'd like to do.
For full-size versions of these shrunken photos — for instance, to print in a magazine — Jerry has them.
(Jerry is a volunteer who loves to show you murals, and your kindness will help him go on.) Thanks for reading!
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