Murals being made, part 77: TUCSON is back

There's been a mural on the south side of the building on Stone, just north of Speedway, for at least 18 years… maybe longer. The wall in the photo above was painted in 2023; there's lots more about it farther along in this post. Thanks to Kevin Blow — from England, UK — for the photo.

The years 2006-2022

The wall first appeared on this blog in Randy Garsee's August 8, 2006 post How to Ruin a Mural:

Randy wanted to promote Tucson murals to visitors as well as Tucsonans. He wrote that a dirty, vacant lot in front of a mural was a bad idea.

By 2010, Rock “Cyfi” Martinez had painted a mural on the wall… still with a vacant lot in front. See New mural, same lot. (Cyfi was also leading an urban art festival called WintaFresh just north on Stone. Our first post about it was Winter Fresh in July (?!) on July 6, 2011.)

On January 1, 2015, the blog showed a new mural that spelled T-U-C-S-O-N in big letters:

The post with that photo, TUCSON, has close-ups of the original letters and the artist who painted each one.

By May, 2019 — more than ten years after Randy's complaint — there was a Popeye's restaurant directly in front of the mural that blocked the view from Speedway! (Google Maps Street View shows the restaurant went up between June 2018 and May 2019.)

By February 15, 2022, the mural had faded. The post TUCSON is fading… shows the sad scene.

Ready to restart: April 2023

A bit more than a year later, a new mural was coming. This Google Maps Street View shows the empty wall in April 2023, ready to be painted:

Jerry's photos on May 23, 2024

From the west end (near Stone)

From the east end (away from Stone)

T by Kati Astraeir

U by Donovan White

C by Coda One

S by Ruben Urrea Moreno

O by Salvador Duran

N by Johanna Martinez

After May 23, artists kept painting. As you can see above, some artists had farther to go than others.

Artists' progress photos

Thanks to artist Ruben Urrea Moreno and Johanna Martinez for the 140 (!) photos and videos they shared with me. I picked 22 of them. There are three videos; the rest are photos. They aren't exactly chronological; I put them in an order that felt good to me. Thanks, both of you!

Finished: December 16, 2023

The next time I stopped by was mid-December. The mural was done. (At the top of this post is a photo of the whole mural by Kevin Blow. I'm not sure when he took it.) My photos are below: first from the right (east) end, then letter-by-letter from the left end. I've also included some close-ups; they're always underneath the photo they're taken from. Again, the artists were: T=Kati Astraeir, U=Donovan White, C=Coda One, S=Ruben Urrea Moreno, O=Salvador Duran, and N=Johanna Martinez.

TUCSON is fading...

Back on September 28, 2014, the mural at the northeast corner of Stone and Speedway looked like this:

There are close-ups of each letter in our January 1, 2015 post TUCSON.

Fast-forward to November 10, 2021. I saw this ghostly artwork from Rappel Studio (click there to visit) on Facebook. Rappel Studio is Doug Rappel, who also paints watercolor:

Commenters were lamenting that the mural had been covered by the new Popeye's fried chicken restaurant — blocked completely, I thought they meant. I mentioned that to David Aber, my co-editor on this blog. He drove by and said that the mural was still there. So I stopped by on December 14th and snapped these photos:

We know of several TUCSON and ARIZONA murals, each different. We have photos of four (after you click, you can use your browser's "back" button or arrow to come back here):

• “"Living" TUCSON AZ mural” on 329 E. 7th St. (near Antigone Books) (October 12, 2021)
• “Greetings” on 5809 E. 22nd St. (October 8, 2021)
• “Greetings” on 406 North 6th Avenue (April 26, 2017)
• “TUCSON” on Speedway & Stone (January 1, 2015)
• “New @ 1st & Arcadia” (October 05, 2013)

If you've seen other TUCSON murals, please let us know! You can leave a comment below — anonymously, if you'd like — or there's a contact box at the right edge of this page.

The Boxyard

This mural (I've named it 'Floaters') depicts 8 of the 10 shipping containers used for casual dining at "The Boxyard".

By Joe Pagac

This mural (I've named it 'Grimace') is painted on the end of one of the shipping containers.

By Donovan White.

Both murals were photographed on 9/15/2019.  Click on either photo for larger and sharper images.

Hotel McCoy II

These photos were taken poolside on Oct. 15, 2018.

Depiction of the Mission San Xavier del Bac. Holding services since 1797.

"The Old Pueblo" by Kurt Schlaefer

"Scuba Man" by Donovan White

Sneaker by Denz

Sunny Day by Alyssa Robinson

The Duke (John Wayne) by Sean John Cannon

Click on any photo for a slideshow of larger and sharper images.