Yesterday, November 14, around 3 pm, I saw that Sonoran Skylines, which is billed as Arizona's largest mural, is finished. It's on the south end of the west wall of Park Place mall, around the food court entrance. The barricades that had blocked the parking lot around the right half were gone. A truck was hauling away one of the lifts that the artists had used for a couple of months, from the southwest corner of the parking lot then toward the east:
Another way I could tell: Artists had been working on the top right section of the mural, from the bird at the left (north) to the saguaro at the right (south), since the dedication on November 2. Here are photos from November 7 near sunset and yesterday at 3 pm:
Closeups from left to right:
The Park Place Instagram page has a video by BG Boyd that shows the mural from near the start to near the end. Click here to open it in a new browser window (or maybe your app?)… I don't think you need an Instagram account:
If that link is broken, here's a version from YouTube. It doesn't have the ending showing people waving from high up on the mural:
Come see for yourself! (Depending on your screen, the color in these photos may not be as rich as it is in person.) The light is best in the afternoons, when the sun is in the west.
Sonoran Skylines, which is billed as Arizona's largest mural, is almost finished on the south end of the west wall of Park Place mall. This was the view yesterday near sunset:
(As always, you can click for a larger view.)
Two artists were working on what I think is the last part to finish: the top right. (Jessica Gonzales and her husband Dakin Martin are the main artists. Neither were here… I think these are other artists helping with this massive project.) Someone had shouted at them from the parking lot below, and they were waving in that direction:
Once the mural is finished, there'll be lots of photos here!
Last time, in Rialto Theatre new & old, part 1 of 2, we looked at the new(ish) mural on the south wall at the southeast corner of the Rialto Theatre. Jessica Gonzales and Dakin Martin made that mural, which was also the cover art for a new album. And we mentioned old murals; they're on the east wall at the southeast corner. This photo, which I took on February 6, 2024, shows the new mural and one of the three old murals:
The other two murals are behind the stairs at the right edge of that photo.
First mural
All three of these murals are by long-time Tucson artist Salvador Duran. The closest mural has faded some since we showed it last — December 25, 2008 — in our post Rialto Theatre backstage door:
If you'd like to see a closeup of the explanatory sign to the right of the mural, click on the link above the photo to open the December 2008 post.
The mural looked like this in February, 2024:
As always, you can click on a photo to get a slideshow of larger views. Below are some closeups:
Second mural
A bit farther north, directly underneath the stairs to the second floor, is a smaller mural:
Third mural
Just to the right (north) of the second mural is the third mural:
at the northeast corner (at Congress St.), are Jessica Gonzales’ always-changing show murals. There's info in our previous post Rialto Theatre new & old, part 1 of 2.
Halfway around the building from there, far up on the southwest corner, is La Guitarrista. Our February 9, 2024 post Guitarist tops the Rialto shows it, but I think it's best to see in person. (To look at the intricate detail, bring binoculars.)
Jessica Gonzales does a lot of painting outside the Rialto Theatre downtown. On the northeast corner, she — assisted by Dakin Martin — paints murals for upcoming shows there. Here's one example from her Instagram: the May 17 and May 21, 2024 murals. (She wrote “I love that these show murals allow me to experiment and learn new things in the process.”)
From here, walk south along the alley (formerly Herbert Avenue). You'll pass murals that we'll see in part 2 of this series. At the south end, turn around to see this mural on the south wall:
Their signature is at bottom right:
This sign, painted to the right of the mural, says the mural is Album cover art for Gabriella Pietrangelo’s “Back to the Heart” and first single “Tucson”.
The music video, on YouTube, shows Gabriella singing in front of the mural as Jessica and Dakin paint it. This clip starts at 1 minute, 3 seconds:
On August 11, 2021, a new eegee's location opened way out Valencia Road, near Cardinal Avenue — far enough that the area is called Drexel Heights, not Tucson. (It's just west of the car wash in our previous post, Wash and watch.) Jessica Gonzales painted the column supports along the outdoor dining room (which was a first for eegee's, KOLD News 13 wrote). The front of the store is along the south (left) and east (right) walls:
Next, both sides of the column supports — and a couple of close-ups:
(The first closeup shows a customer dipping a spoon into the landscape, next to some saguaros. Yum.)
When I was there on February 6, 2024, the column supports along the drive-thru hadn't been painted:
Jessica Gonzales paints bright, sharp and very colorful murals. You've seen her work all over the Tucson area. If you're downtown fairly often, a great place to see her murals is on the east wall of the Rialto Theatre, just off Congress Street as you enter downtown. Here's an aerial example, taken by BG Boyd, from his Tucson murals database tucsonazmurals.com, as Jessica and her husband paint, assisted by Dakin Martin, on November 16, 2022:
Below are links to pages in BG's database. The photos were taken from Jessica's Instagram account. Each link will open the mural in a new window or tab. After you close that, this page will still be here.
Thanks to BG Boyd Photography's mural database at tucsonazmurals.com. The photo came from the Love Block Partners page. (This is the third in a series of posts from his murals database.) Jessica Gonzales painted the mural on the side of the Rialto Theatre.
From February through April, 2023, Jessica Gonzales and Rock "CYFI" Martinez spent more than two months painting a mural along the north bank of the Rillito River. Here it is — from the west, across the river — on April 21, just after it was finished:
As always, you can click on any photo for a slideshow of larger views. But there are close-ups below.
At the right end of the photo above, you can see the pedestrian bridge at the east end of the mural. If you visit from the north bank — along River Road between Country Club and Camino de Boscaje Escondido — cross the bridge, then walk west to get a view of the whole mural. Along the south bank, you might think of parking at the Racquet Club, but I'll bet they won't like that… Instead, park at Rio Vista Natural Resource Park, at the north end of Tucson Blvd. — 3974 N. Tucson Blvd. — and walk about ten minutes east (or ride your bike) along The Loop pedestrian/bicycle path.
This distance sign is at the east side:
At 4,000 square feet, this mural is the largest so far in Pima County's public art collection… for more on public art, see The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona Public Art page. (Maybe we should start a list of mural sizes in this blog?) Another large mural — which, at the time (July, 2022) was called the biggest — is in our post Another big Joe Pagac mural: Zion City (Murals being made, part 70).
The mural is in two sections, above The Loop path and on the concrete riverbank below the path.
The mural extends along the Rillito River to the west of Country Club. The Google Map below shows the length as 0.1 miles. Using the 50 ft. scale at the lower right, I estimated 650 feet long:
Although we give the address Google Maps assigned to it, it's easier to find with the written directions near the start of this post.
February 14, 2023: Top half being painted
I stopped by on February 14, 2023 (Valentine's Day!), with snow on the Catalinas, while Jessica and CYFI were painting. The bottom half, along the riverbank below The Chuck Huckleberry Loop path, was blank. The top half, along (above) the path, was in progress:
I made two videos of the mural, from left (west) to right (east), while I was walking… so they're jumpy!
Here's a closeup (taken from the south bank with a cell phone camera, so it's a bit fuzzy if you click to see a larger view):
They were working next to the wall, in the north (westbound) lane of the path. Notice the flashing safety markers between the lanes. That didn't slow down some bicyclists! I heard that, at this point, there had already been one accident.
April 21, 2023: Both halves finished
As soon as I read that the mural was finished — more than two months after my previous visit — I stopped by with my DSLR camera and a zoom lens. The safety markers had been packed into a corner near the path to River Road, and the path was clear:
Next, 16 photos of the mural from left (west) to right (east):
The view looking west from the pedestrian/bicycle bridge:
Ride (or walk) by!
A note about photos: If you're taking photos, don't stand in the riverbed — unless you don't care if the top and bottom halves of the mural line up. There's a photo below that I took from the riverbed. I ended up coming back with a camera that has a true zoom lens — not the “digital zoom” in phone cameras that can make fuzzy photos — to take the photos above from the south side of the Rillito.
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Jerry Peek's images are public-domain. For non-profit use, he'd appreciate a mention of his name and JerryPeek.com. For profit, please ask first from the contact form above; give the title of the blog entry, which image, and what you'd like to do.
For full-size versions of these shrunken photos — for instance, to print in a magazine — Jerry has them.
(Jerry is a volunteer who loves to show you murals, and your kindness will help him go on.) Thanks for reading!
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