Let's hope this mural isn't washed away! (Murals being made, part 74)

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.

BG Boyd Photography released the video below on April 24th:



Here's a link to click for a larger view in your browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4313OlU3-84. You can see more of BG's mural videos at https://bgboydphoto.com/videos/Murals

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!

• Left side
• I skipped the middle part, which is only a foot or two high, because at this time it was mostly all a single color.
• Right side (not well framed, oops)

(There are a few videos of other murals etc. at the YouTube handle @TucsonArtInfo.)

A bit later, the two muralists and crew arrived:

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.

CYFI in Dubai

Tucson's own Rock Martinez (CYFI) paints all over the world. I just found this mural — a tribute to the Colombian singer Shakira — on his Instagram account @cyfione. It's at the restaurant called Soul Street in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (if you haven't heard of Dubai, click there for a Google Map).

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A post shared by CYFI (@cyfione)

(To see another part of the mural, on a computer click the arrow in the circle at the right edge; on a phone, swipe. Notice CYFI on the car's license plate.)

Here's info I found on https://soul.st/about/: “Soul Street is a restaurant in Dubai that promotes street art. The eclectic mix of street art, graffiti and pop-art throughout, has been designed by five of the hottest street artists from around the globe. All murals embody the heart and soul of the street food styles represented within the restaurant.”

Congrats, CYFI, for being called one of “five of the hottest street artists from around the globe.”

Cyfi, graffiti writer, ten years between

(Note: The Arizona Daily Star lets non-subscribers read only a couple of its free articles before you need to log in.)

Rock “Cyfi” Martinez travels the world painting murals. He started out in Tucson, years ago, writing illegal graffiti. I just found this 2018 article from the Arizona Daily Star: How Tucson artist Rock Martinez evolved from tagger to muralist

It reminded me of another article I saw years ago. I found it, too, from 2008: Local graffiti artist Cyfi has turned his hobby into a career

In between, Cyfi organized the WintaFresh urban art weekend. It drew artists from all over the US. You can see some of the art over the years in the 1240 North Stone section of this blog's page Layers of murals: histories of a few walls.

Cyfi's Linda Ronstadt mural in her Music Hall

Tucson's Rock “Cyfi” Martinez now travels the world painting murals and makes his home in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis / St. Paul. He's come back to Tucson a few times recently. The best-known mural he's painted recently has to be the one inside the newly-renamed Linda Ronstadt Music Hall — formerly the Tucson Music Hall. Cyfi painted with Joel Valdez (his Instagram is @joel2valdez; you can probably see it without an account if you don't click on any photos). Here are photos from May 7th on Instagram @cyfione (to see more, click the arrow in the circle at the right edge):

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A post shared by CYFI (@cyfione)

The Arizona Daily Star has more: Photos: The Tucson Music Hall renamed for Grammy and Emmy Award-winner Linda Ronstadt

If you're a Star subscriber, you can read this story of Cyfi and the mural and see even more photos: Tucson muralist found inspiration from Linda Ronstadt's story

I'm hoping to get a chance to take a photo myself. If I do, I'll update this.

Falling saguaro!

On March 4, trying to avoid construction on Broadway, I drove a few blocks south on Plumer Avenue and spotted this mural:

The artist was Rock “Cyfi” Martinez.

Here's the north side of the building (the right side of the photo above):

Notice the blossoms on the right-side roller door that have popped off.

He signed the mural at the top right corner of the north side:

Cyfi has painted a lot of different styles over the years. (To see them, here are posts labeled with Rock "CyFi" Martinez. That link opens in a new window or tab.) If I'm right, this style — with a white background — is new to Tucson. Another mural like this is at Goodwill Industries Headquarters.

Update: Google Maps Street View shows that the mural was there as early as January 2021. So maybe this “style” of Cyfi’s isn't that new…

Art near Tucson Museum of Art

On October 26, 2010, we showed two murals on a wall in a big parking lot just west of the Tucson Museum of Art along Main Avenue. Back then, this blog often didn't show all of a mural; we thought that people would go to see the mural in person. Thanks to Google Maps Street View, though, I found a picture of much of the wall from March 2011:



By January 2021, one of the murals was missing:



Between then and now, a new mural (dated 2022), by Rock "Cyfi" Martinez, covered all of the wall:

The building behind the mural is the Tucson Water Department, so this aquatic mural fits in!

In the first photo above, you can also see a bit of the long mural around the corner (to the right). I'll post closeups of it next time in The ocean and more.

Here's the mural from left to right. I missed the parts behind the cars:

I took those photos on March 20, 2022

Update (November 25, 2022): BG Boyd Photography sent several of his aerial mural photos, taken October 22. Here's one:

Thanks as always, BG.

Cyfi splashes color on Goodwill Industries HQ

Rock “Cyfi” Martinez has turned a standard warehouse, the headquarters of Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona, into a giant desert canvas:

This looks to me like a new style of his — in Tucson, at least: objects surrounded by a white background. (He paints murals in other cities too.) I'll post another of his soon from Ultralights on S. Plumer Avenue.

Here are three closeups, from left to right:

Notice the desert sunset, with other saguaro, inside the big saguaro?

I was at the main post office nearby on Silverbell Stravenue January 11th when I spotted this big mural down the street.

Update (June 18, 2022): Here's another excellent aerial photo from BG Boyd Photography:

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.

Rock "Cyfi" Martinez in Minneapolis

Cyfi is in the Twin Cities these days. He posted this mural from uptown Minneapolis to Instagram on Thursday the 12th. It's 15 x 15 feet, a portrait of "mi amor @brandikoleart", part of the Lyn Lake Street Art Series Annual Mural Festival @lynlakestreetartseries.

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A post shared by CYFI (@cyfione)

Closeups of Cyfi's Sky Bar mural

A year and a half ago, we published a photo of the Rock Cyfi Martinez’ twilight mural on the north wall of Sky Bar. On April 3, when I came back to photograph the mural on the west wall, I took a closer look at Cyfi’s mural:

(Click for a larger image.)

Next, a few closeups…

I noticed that the mural has changed around her left hand. Here's a closeup from David Aber's 2018 photo:

It looks like the car charger has been replaced. (The brick circles match the circles in the rest of the mural. Nice, eh?)

Here's a fun tiny section of the mural:

And his signature at the top right: