Well-known Tucson muralist needs help (and 20 of his murals)

Daniel Buckley, who contributes art and history posts on Facebook every day, wrote that muralist Carlos Valenzuela could lose his home and art studio. The post includes 20 photos of Carlos's work… you'll probably recognize a lot of it as the ceramic tile murals that line main streets, and at the little city's borders, in South Tucson.

I'll try to include the Facebook post in the box below. If it doesn't work, here's a link that should open it in a separate window or tab: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/AFTnuk636tvednc4/

2019 Downtown Murals Project, 2 of 4: La Madre

Racheal Rios and Carlos Valenzuela painted that dreamy scene above two benches just across the sidewalk from Alameda Street. It's not much like the original design, which you can see (unless the photos have been updated) in the pages Downtown Tucson is getting 4 new murals this spring (from the Arizona Daily Star's This is Tucson).

David Aber caught the mural painting in progress on May 4th, 2019, when the title he heard was “Families Belong Together, Water and Thorns”:

(As always, you can click on a photo for larger views of all of them.)

The two benches are surrounded by scenes with “you are my other me” in English and Spanish:

The credits are on the side of the right-hand bench:

Next time, it's down the street a block to two side-by-side murals.

Near La Frontera Arizona

I rode by this mural on June 1st. It's in front of the parking lot for La Frontera Arizona, 502 W. 29th. The muralist was Carlos Valenzuela.

Streetside masks

Máscara is Spanish for "mask" — which explains this street-side mosaic mural along the north side of 29th Street, just west of 7th Avenue, in the city of South Tucson. Carlos Valenzuela created it.

10th Avenue (On The Edge of South Tucson)

SUPER South 10th Avenue

By: Jerry Peek

One good spot for a quick mural overload is on South 10th Avenue, just as you cross into the city of South Tucson at 25½ Street. (From 22nd Street in Tucson, turn south at the light onto 10th Ave.) They're everywhere: on your right and your left, and on a couple of side streets too. So, drive slowly or park on a side street and walk back for a closer look.

First, on the left (the east side), is this collection of food and beverages -- possibly intended to start you thinking about all of the restaurants and taquerias farther south, after 10th turns into 12th:



Half a block farther, at 26th: the sun, the moon, and a star — by Carlos Valenzuela:


The Tucson Electric Power substation at 27th has a full block of wraparound mural. Here's some of the show -- including three pirate ships whose captain, I think, was named Columbus:




Galloping horses at 27th, and floating lots-of-things at 28th:



There's more! But I'll leave that for you to discover... and wrap this up with a way to (partly) wrap a mobile home in a mural -- including a saguaro, and many saguaro blossoms -- at the corner of 10th and 36th:


Update (October 1, 2014): A July 23, 1994 article in the Tucson Citizen, Cultural Art, covers murals along this section of 10th Avenue and has quite a bit of information about Antonio Pazos' mural at the Tucson Electric Substation on 27th Street.

Update (September 7, 2015): Much more detailed photos of the power station murals at 10th Ave. and 27th St. are in today's entry, 10th at 27th revisited.

Update (January 7, 2016): Mark Fleming sent more-detailed photos of the mural with running horses.