The Living Mural is evolving

The Living Mural on on 7th Street near 3rd Avenue — which is one of two “living murals” near 4th Avenue — has evolved since it was first created in 2021. The idea has been to divide a wall into smaller spaces where different artists can paint their own mini-murals. Artist and business owner Jason Lee Nolan has been involved with the mural from the start; his Instagram page @TheLivingMural has lots more information and closeups of some of the individual artists’ work. (That account also has info about the “stained glass” living mural across 4th Avenue.)

Three views, early to recent

Here's a composite photo showing the wall three different times: May 3, 2021 (the top photo); June 20, 2022 (middle); and February 14, 2023 (bottom). (I actually took the last photo on September 20, 2022, but when I stopped by on 2/14/23 the mural hadn't changed.) As always, you can click for a larger view:

There are closeups of the first photo above in The "living" mural. See details of the second photo in Living Mural still alive in June. The last photo shows the wall after Pen Macias, The Desert Pen, painted a new mural on the left end of the wall. There's a photo of just that mural in Desert Pen's mural is alive.

A single theme

On Friday, June 24, 2022, the day the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Jason Lee Nolan — an artist leads the mural team (and owns Black Crow Tattoo across the parking lot) — posted to Instagram his proposal for the next phase of the Living Mural. Click there if you'd like to see the whole post. Here are parts of it, a mixture of some words from both the image and caption:

Today was a horrible day for women. … I'd like permission to clear the wall … As a gesture of love I'd like to invite those who would like to help dedicate a mural to women and the community. Any and all who wish to literally place their hand in paint and add their mark to the wall come down and meet with me. … I hope to create a space where people can come take selfies with images that promote the fact that we support women and the community in a positive way.

This is the mural as it looked three months later, Sepember 20, 2022:

I took these closeups:

"Living" TUCSON AZ mural

On the north side of the parking lot for Antigone Books has been a book mural by Jessica Gonzales. There's a new mural slowly taking shape on the west side of the lot — which is actually on another business:

It's a “living” mural, like the first living mural a couple of blocks away: It's divided into small spaces, each of which can hold a little mural painted by an artist. Here's the whole mural closer up:

Next, the parts of the mural people can paint, from left (south) to right (north):

I took these photos on August 10th. More of the spaces are probably filled in by now.

Update: You can follow this mural, as well as the other one, on Instagram @TheLivingMural. The coordinator, Jason Lee Nolan, calls this “the stained glass wall.” For example, here's a call to artists on August 23, 2021.

The "living" mural

Jason Lee Nolan, the owner of Black Crow Studio, has set up a unique mural on the building across the parking lot from his business — on the TUSD building, 442 East 7th Street. (His business is across the parking lot at 426 East 7th Street.) Artists can sign up to paint an empty rectangle painted on the wall. If one of those squares is trashed by a tagger, or could just be refreshed, that part of the wall can be repainted. Here are views from the outside (north) end, through to the inside (south) end:

To keep up to date, follow @TheLivingMural on Instagram (https://instagram.com/thelivingmural). I posted an update on July 19, 2022. I'll aim to come back from time to time to get new photos.

Update (January 24, 2023): Today I posted photos of the murals across the parking lot, at Black Crow Tattoo, taken September 20, 2022.

New "living mural" near 4th Avenue

This looks like a very fun mural to see more than once. From the Arizona Daily Star's #ThisIsTucson: Living mural. I'm aiming to have photos on this blog in the next couple of weeks.