Guitarist tops the Rialto

For seven-plus years, if you were driving east out of downtown on Broadway you saw, at the top of the Rialto Theatre, Bill Walton riding a jackalope. Here's the story in photos from 2016: (Downtown) Murals being made, part 35: Ignacio Garcia.

Just over a week ago, January 29, Ignacio was putting the finishing touches on a new mural that covered (as he called it) “Jack and Bill”:

Here's a video from his Facebook account December 21, 2003 that shows the change:



The mural is called La Guitarrista: the (woman) guitarist. An Arizona Daily Star article from yesterday, February 8, tells the story — and lots of news about Ignacio's career and other plans: Tucson mural: Giant guitar player replaces jackalope-riding Bill Walton downtown.

Next, a few more photos of Ignacio working on January 29th. (I wasn't with him up there! I was in the parking lot in front of the mural, using a camera with a great zoom lens.)

Closeups of the mural:

The Star's article says the mural was inspired by 17th century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer’s “The Guitar Player.” A Wikipedia article The Guitar Player (Vermeer) has this photo from Wikimedia Commons:

I used my photo editor to crop that photo to just the face. Was the whole image sharp? If you click on the photo below for a larger view, you can see the cracks in the paint:

The finished mural — lit by downtown lights — last night, February 8th: