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                                        Front Entrance

By Ignacio Garcia

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

                                Front Entrance Continued

By Ignacio Garcia

 

 

 

 

 

                                        

                                            East Wall

By Ignacio Garcia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Click on any photo for a slideshow of larger images.

Neighborhood art on Vine Avenue (some hidden)

On November 12, 2023, I got mail from a homeowner in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, Micheal Hailey. There was a new mural, plus a small piece of art, painted by Ignacio Garcia. Micheal wrote:

The mural is on an exterior wall [of my home] and is visible to the public. Ignacio and I felt that anyone should be able to see it. My neighbors are supportive and you are welcome to come by any time to see it.

The mural is on the west side of Vine Avenue, north of the corner of Waverly Street. A rough street address for your GPS is 2001 N. Vine Ave. I stopped by on February 4th:

Just north of the mural is a small work of art that Ignacio installed toward the end of 2023:

Micheal wrote more about it later:

The scorpion was done by Ignacio. He placed that there a few months ago and has created many others that look just like that but with varying colors. It glows in the dark. It is his intention to hide them all over town.

I found a video on Ignacio's Facebook page showing him with a lot of his different scorpions:

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:

Rosa's Resistance

".... the forge of perseverance...."

By Ignacio Garcia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click for a larger image.

You're being watched on Congress Street...

Ignacio Garcia's new mural covers the entire front of Tierra Antigua Realty's downtown location. It's bright and big, so (as you can see!) it really stands out from across Congress Street. But it's also surprising when you're walking from the west side toward the east:

BG Boyd Photography, who specializes in drone photography, sent this aerial photo (thanks!):

Drivers passing by should be nervous. :)

Yoeme Unidos

"The Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area is proud to commission another heritage mural that focuses on empowering indigenous youth to take the expressive traditions passed down from their communities and their own artistic style to paint their understanding of traditional stories, cultural figures and epic histories in a collaborative mural."

Two professional muralists worked with seven Pascua Yaqui youth to paint this mural.  The names of the seven are: Jennay, Erik, Juliette, Raul, Santi, Johnny and Elijah.

The professional muralists are Ignacio Garcia and Anitra "Yukue" Molina

Click for a larger image.

The mural is on the west wall of the Sonoran Stitch Factory located on W. Rillito St.  The mural is seen from N. 15th Ave.  A previous mural appeared on this wall on 10/19/2015 as Near Richey Elementary.

To further explain; the Yoeme are originally from Sonora Mexico around the Yaqui River.  They are more commonly known in the U.S. as the Pascua Yaqui. The Yoeme are the only Native American tribe that has never officially surrendered to either the Spanish colonial forces, the Mexican government, or the United States. 

Several updates from Jerry Peek: I made a note about a post and video I saw on Facebook July 1st showing the mural in progress and finished. (The unveiling was June 26th.)

Here's a clickable link to open the Facebook video page in a separate window: https://www.facebook.com/100010592835349/videos/791951158630194/

The original video is by BG Boyd Photography. You don't need Facebook to see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUdP5uApIAc

There's more information about the mural and the two professional muralists on this page, Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Murals: https://santacruzheritage.org/yoeme-unidos/

Murals being made, part 66: La Mujer Empoderada

At sunrise on November 11th last year, I was mural-hunting downtown when I saw this mural in progress at the corner of 5th Avenue and Congress, the east side of the One North Fifth Avenue building:

On February 18, Ignacio Garcia described the mural on his @ignacio_garcia_art Instagram account. (If you don't have an account, you can probably click on that link and scroll through… but don't click/tap on any photo because you'll be asked to log in.) He wrote:

A small treasure for downtown tucson at 1st N. 5th St, from LoveBlock Partners, who also have businesses such as the HUB Restaurant, Little Love Burger, and the AC Hotel, wanted a piece that represented female empowerment and the increase in female leaders throughout Tucson. The mural represents strength, leadership, and the beauty of boldness.

Titled “La Mujer Empoderada” The Empowered Woman.

BG Boyd Photography sent this photo of Ignacio at work taken (according to data in the photo) February 9th…

… and posted this video on YouTube:



Here's a link to that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX7jrI8k5Hg.

David Aber sent this photo of the finished mural on February 21:

Update (April 7, 2024): On a walk through downtown today, I noticed that Ignacio also painted part of the building's south wall, along Congress Street:

Monsoon in a Bottle

If you're driving along West Ft. Lowell Rd. you can't miss this very large mural on the north side of the street.  I took these photos on Nov. 23, 2021.

By Ignacio Garcia

Fig-Eater Beetle on a watermelon

Tarantula Hawk

Monsoon in a Bottle

Click on any photo for a slideshow of larger images.

 

Update (July 8, 2024): Jerry Peek took a closeup photo of the interesting scene at the bottom of the right central part of the bottle: a scuba diver and underwater pickup truck:

 

Benjamin Franklin

North wall of Frey Financial by David Aber. Look closely as there are many subtle details.

By Ignacio Garcia

I visited the mural on February 25th and took several photos — including these two close-ups:

Click on any photo for larger and sharper images.

Murals being made, part 63: Connections

This mural of a young girl is on the campus of the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona. "It represents the diversity of southern arizona and the purpose of the foundation to connect people of all walks of life to learn and grow together." David Aber took the photo:

By Ignacio Garcia

This aerial YouTube video from BG Boyd Photography shows the mural in progress:

(To see the video full-screen, click the square at the lower right corner after it begins playing.) If you can't see the video above, here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzoJP923RaU

Flying Televisions

In 1965, Flash TV and Appliance Store had a commercial in which TVs were thrown from the roof. 

This is Ignacio Garcia's version:

By Ignacio Garcia

Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

Tucson destroyed!!

(April Fools. :) Ignacio Garcia painted the last hours of Tucson on Fangamer at the northwest corner of Speedway & Rosemont:

I was almost abducted :) on February 25th.

Welcome To Tucson

This photo was taken on Oct. 22, 2020 at the corner of E. Broadway Blvd. and S. Park Ave.

Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

Update from Jerry Peek: In case you found this “mew-ral” (sorry :) while you were looking for the “Greetings from Tucson” murals, here are two:

• New @ 1st & Arcadia
• Greetings

A previous mural at this location was posted March 29, 2010: Baby Birds on Broadway

Ignacio Garcia honors a fallen soldier

Marisol Arana sent photos and a video that she and her husband Roberto Flores took of a new mural by Ignacio Garcia. It honors a Fallen Soldier, Gregory Wedel. Here's what she wrote in email:

Gregory was a Deserter to the Military Had gone missing days before getting out of the Army. So when Soldier Vanessa Guillén went missing and searches began for her , his body was found Aug. 2019 . Buried close to where later Vanessas body was also found. Vanessas story was everywhere in the media , news and getting so much attention his mother was feeling a little desperate and forgotten. So a member of a group called “Voices of the voice less” (Andrea Diaz) asked we do a mural for his mother. For days and weeks they looked for a wall and no luck so I knew I was miles away but I decided to offer our wall for it and that’s how it all started. Gathering the funds for it wasn’t easy either but we made it happened and Ignacio the artist also donated some of his time since the go fund never reached its goal. Below is a little copied piece of Gregorys obituary. We are military parents and have a active duty that’s currently deployed so fully feel for Military.

“During his time in the military he went from Ft. Leonard Wood to Korea. After serving in Korea he was assigned to Ft. Hood. He then served in Kuwait and then returned to his base in Ft. Hood where he lived until his death. He received the following awards while serving in the United States Armed Forces; National service medal, Global war terrorism expeditionary medal, Global war on terrorism service medal, uwait Defense service medal, Army service ribbon, Overseas service ribbon, Army achievement medal 2nd award, Army good conduct medal, Certificate of achievement 2nd award, and Driver mechanic badge.”

…

He went from awol, to deserter , and when his remains were found they had such a hard time taking that off his record. He was obviously murdered and never went awol. His family fought for his honors until they made it right. He finally had a funeral almost a year later and was buried with all his honors.

This video and the photos below it show Ignacio painting.

Video: KGUN9 interviews Joe Pagac and Ignacio Garcia

KGUN9 TV starts their story Growing mural scene earns Tucson national reputation with a interesting video interview with Tucson muralists Joe Pagac and Ignacio Garcia.

The rest of the article says some things I don't agree with. For instance, it says Tucson has “a dozen artists credited with nearly 60 murals throughout the city.” We easily have more than 100 artists, and this blog has around 1,500 murals (though not all of them still exist). It mentions the City of Tucson's mural map, which shows 25 of those murals… this blog's mural map shows many hundreds.

It's great to spread the word about Tucson murals! I wrote to KGUN9 and suggested they check this blog to find more murals and muralists.

Tranquil Lady: Banner mural #1 of 5

Photographed on 9/15/2019

This is the first of a series of five murals commissioned by Banner-University Medicine during 2019. Read more in the This is Tucson story Tucson is getting 5 new murals this summer painted by notable Arizona artists.

Painted by Ignacio Garcia

Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

2019 Downtown Murals Project, 1 of 4: Danger! ¡Piñatas!

Ever been chased by a piñata? Ignacio Garcia's mural in the alley near The UPS Store on Sixth Avenue was inspired by a childhood memory of being chased by bulls on a family trip to Redington, Arizona. It's also the opposite concept of hitting a piñata, he said. Those quotes are from the This is Tucson article Downtown Tucson is getting 4 new murals this spring. The article also shows the whole mural from Ignacio's design, which is good because the narrow alley makes it just about impossible to photograph the whole thing head-on. [Note from 2022: See the update at the end of this post.]

On April 16th, 2019, I caught Ignacio painting the right (east) end of the mural:

A story by KGUN9 TV, The making of a mural: what's in the works in downtown Tucson, says the boy is from a picture of Garcia's 8-year-old son.

Fast-forward to November 24th. Here's the mural, which was finished in the spring:

A couple of closer shots:

See how one of his flip-flops has flown into the air and that there's a shadow behind it? There's also a shadow of the power pole near the end of the alley.

And last, the credits:

Next time, the second of four from the 2019 Downtown Murals Project.

Update (February 22, 2022): BG Boyd Photography, which specializes in drone photography, sent this aerial photos taken on February 14th:

He sent a second photo, taken from straight above, that I edited with my favorite photo editor GIMP to make it appear as if you're directly in front of the mural:

(As always, you can click for a larger view.)

Thanks, BG!

Update (May 1, 2024): Ignacio posted a sweet video on Facebook of his son seeing himself in the mural for the first time:



A direct link to the video is: https://www.facebook.com/100010592835349/videos/281399325047894/