Rock Martinez' Prince commemorative mural in The Washington Post

The March 6 Washington Post article Airport art doesn’t have to be boring: Here are some of the country’s most striking examples shows Rock Martinez' "I Would Die 4 U" mural that was recently moved to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. It includes an interview with Rock as well as lots of other airport art.

(The photo is from Rock's website, cyfiart.com, used by permission.)

Rock replaces Rock

Back on April 7, 2015, we posted Rock Martinez at 6th & Toole: a video of Rock "CyFi" Martinez painting a mural and a photo of the partly-finished mural. Well, I think it was only partly finished… it stayed there, with no changes (as far as I could tell) until I came back on May 5, 2018, to find:

The left half of the wall had been replaced with a mural featuring Tucson's El Tiradito shrine.

I came back on July 27th and got a much better closeup:

You can see more photos of this busy wall over time on the section called 197 East Toole of the page Layers of murals: histories of a few walls.

Five striking Tucson murals and their backstories

Here's a link to the story and photos from This is Tucson.

"Crested Eclipse"

Mural by CYFI (Rock Martinez).  Photo taken 08/12/2018 in the Sky Bar parking lot on 4th Ave.

 Click on image to enlarge and sharpen.

An even larger, sharper and scrollable image can be found on Flickr

Update (April 14, 2020): The mural has changed a bit. We've posted closeup photos.

Near Mercado San Agustín

I hope you've already seen Cyfi's huge Frida Kahlo / Diego Rivera mural near Mercado San Agustín. If you haven't, you can click on that link to see it being painted and read some of the story behind it — which reaches a famous mural in Mexico City.

Close by, on Avenida del Sembrador, are two more murals. Or maybe there are more by the time you read this? (To find the street, you can click on its name at the end of this article.) I took the photos below on April 26th. The first, on the side of number 160, is by Nicola Marshall. It's signed Nicola Marshall - 2018 along the right edge:

The second mural is another by Cyfi (Rock Martinez) near the roof of number 184. It's signed at the top Cyfione 18:

"Serape Sunrise"

Rock "CYFI" Martinez and Fernando Leon have recently completed a mural on the north wall of the Desert Suds Car Wash.  It includes Our Lady of Guadalupe, a UFO and a 1964 Chevrolet Impala convertible.

The south wall of the car wash has a Luis Mena mural.  See Classic Car 
Click on the above photo for a larger and sharper image.

CyFi & Pagac paint underwater Bowie mural

Browsing Facebook on June 20th, I came across an incredible video by Seattle-based Ten Hundred Art. It shows Tucson muralist Joe Pagac and born-and-raised (former) Tucson muralist Rock "CyFi" Martinez painting a mural of David Bowie at the bottom of a swimming pool. As the video ends, the pool fills with water and the mural shows through. Amazing!

I'll try to get permission from Ten Hundred to link the video here. In case I can't contact them, though, you can find the video on their website. As of this writing, it's the fifth video on this web page:

www.tenhundredart.com/videos/

On that page, the text under the video says:

Ten Hundred - Bowie Pool Mural

Making of the David Bowie swimming pool mural.

Long Tucson Weekly interview with Rock Martinez

While I was out of the country, David Aber spotted this March 9th article about muralist Rock “CyFi” Martinez in Tucson Weekly's "Salvage" section:

Old Pueblo muralist Rock ‘Cyfi’ Martinez on graffiti culture in 2017 and the dismal glint of celebrity.

It's full of details and the interviewer's impressions. It's a good read. If you like Rock's work, click on his Label below to see his murals from this blog.

"Look out for each other"

Photographed on 5/12/2017.  The mural is on the north wall of a building at 1622 S. 6th Ave.

The artist is Rock Martinez (CYFI).

Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

Greetings

NYC artist Victor Ving and his photographer girlfriend, Lisa Beggs, are traveling the country painting murals inspired by vintage "Greetings From..."  postcards.  They get help from local artists such as Rock Martinez who painted the letter "C".  The images are: T-Univ. of AZ; U-Saguaro cacti; C-Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead); S-Hotel Congress & John Dillinger; O-San Xavier del Bac & Man in the Maze; N-Sonoran hot dog.  Photographed on Feb. 22, 2017.

On the east side of Miller's Surplus.  Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

The Arizona Daily Star article Muralists paint a Tucson postcard, the Tucson News Now story 'Greetings Tour' makes stop in Tucson to paint new mural and the Greetings Tour - Tucson, AZ web page have more information.

There's another “Greetings from Tucson” mural in our October 5, 2013 entry New @ 1st & Arcadia.

Update (August 24, 2017): Here's a March 17th closeup of the bottom right corner:

Update (August 10, 2021): Jerry Peek took closeups of each letter in TUCSON:

"Plants for the Southwest", a nursery

The nursery is located at 50 E. Blacklidge Dr.  However, the mural is on a separate, but attached, bldg. at 2936 N. Stone Ave.  Artistry by Rock "CYFI" Martinez and his assistant, Fernando Leon.

Front of bldg. attached to the West side of "Plants for the Southwest"

South side of 2936 N. Stone Ave.

Click on either photo for larger and sharper images.  Photos taken on Mar. 5, 2017.

New AZ Daily Star article about Rock Martinez

Today's issue of the Arizona Daily Star ran an article about well-known Tucson (and Minneapolis) muralist Rock Martinez:

Neto's Tucson: From graffiti to murals, an artist evolves

The article has a series of photos, but none showing the whole Rivera/Kahlo mural. There's a complete photo, plus photos of the mural in progress, on this site's page Murals being made, part 41: Cyfi’s Día de los Muertos.

Here's a 2008 Tucson Citizen article about Rock's earlier life:

Denogean: From tagging to legitimate artwork

That article mentions a mural along 5th Avenue. You can see a photo on this blog at Spider mural.

Murals being made, part 41: Cyfi’s Día de los Muertos

Rock “Cyfi” Martinez has a long history in Tucson painting all styles of murals. You've probably seen his gigantic new work just off 6th Street, part of the Downtown Murals Project.

Three nights ago, Friday night the 4th, he and the neighborhood just south of Mercado San Agustín inaugurated a new mural that's almost as big. It's like two murals in one. The main scene is the (married) Mexican couple of artists, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, dancing. Behind them are parts taken from Rivera's famous mural Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda, which is located at the Museo Mural Diego Rivera in Mexico City.

We'll take a look at Rock's finished mural, the mural in Mexico City, some closeups of each, then a series of photos of Rock's mural being painted. First, the finished mural at dusk (with a table in front of it — part of the celebration, but also to help show the size of this mural):

Next, a photo of Rivera's mural. I took it from the balcony above the mural. (Like always, you can click for a larger view.)

You probably won't see the similarities without some closeups. Near the left edge of Rivera's mural, just to the right of the balloons:

Now the same part of Rock's mural:

In the background, instead of the Alameda Central (a big Mexico City park), is a Sonoran Desert silhouette.

The rest of Rock's mural isn't taken as directly from Diego's. Here's the middle of Rivera's. In front at the left is Diego. Behind him, Frida:

Next, Cyfi's. The man tipping his hat is smaller, more in the background. Frida and Diego are dancing, and Rivera is holding an artist's palette under one arm:

Rock added a cactus in Frida's hair. I think it's a part of his Cactus People series. Another is the Agave Lady in the 6th Avenue mural (see the start of this entry). A third is Mayahuel, the Goddess of Agave, in his 2014 mural on CostLess Auto Parts. You can photos of that mural on this blog, as well as on Rock's website.

Amazing mural, isn't it? I hope the news reaches the museums dedicated to Diego and to Frida in Mexico City!

Finally, here are some photos of the mural being made. On October 23, Rock is at the middle of a hydraulic lift, painting the left edge with a man who's learning mural-painting from him.

The center of the mural is finished more than the edges:

On October 26th, Rock is at work by himself. It's hot:

He's doing fast work! Three days after the previous set of photos, a lot of the detail looks basically finished:

November 4th, it's time to celebrate. The lot in front of the mural is filling with tables, chairs, and guests (most, I'd guess, from the neighborhood). And, of course, there's the mural. Here are photos of the left, right and center:

(Downtown) Murals being made, part 34: Rock Martinez

Rock “Cyfi” Martinez’ 55-foot-high mural along 7th Avenue just south of busy 6th Street has made him even more of a celebrity than he already was. (He's been painting murals in Tucson for years — after he was caught, and fined $11,000, for illegal tagging.) There's more in the 2008 Tucson Citizen article Denogean: From tagging to legitimate artwork and a 2010 Arizona Public Media report on graffiti.

So let's jump in and see the mural taking shape. May 1st showed no sign of the mural… just a Benjamin Supply banner:

Fast-forward a week to May 8th near sunset. Unlike most other murals, it looks as if Rock applied his own primer coat. (That's because the finished mural wouldn't cover the entire front of the building.) Also, unlike other artists, Rock has sketched some, painted some — instead of sketching the whole thing ahead, possibly at night with a projector.

On May 10th, I was riding by with a friend, saw Rock walking along the front of his mural, asked her to slow down, grabbed a photo (sorry, Rock, not a very good one) and then we kept going. I'm showing the photo here because some sketched-in areas from the photo above now have some color:

(By the way, I saw a photo in last week's Arizona Daily Star article showing that the woman in the center of the mural is Rock's girlfriend Brandi Watkins.)

Four days later, May 14th,there's a dark blue ring and a painted agave:

Here's a closeup of the bottom left corner on May 15th. The main change was more detail in the prickly pear cactus pads:

May 19th (in higher contrast, to show more detail) the prickly pear pads and the dark ring have texture, and orange saguaro grace both sides of the mural:

A week and a half later, May 30th, the mural is looking basically finished to me. But the hydraulic lift is still there, and the mural hasn't been signed. Anyway, here are a photo of the mural and a photo of Rock with someone — maybe Cristina Perez, who worked with him:

When I stopped by during the day on June 4th, the mural had been signed at the top right corner (with more near the bottom right):

(Note for photographers: The mural was in shadow, but I used the free GIMP editor Intelligent Scissors tool to select the front of the building and the Curves tool to brighten it.)

Just for comparison, here's a photo from Rock's introductory proposal at the open house on April 26th:

Those designs weren't meant to be final, but I thought you might want to check the differences!

I came back on the evening of June 4th, in twilight, and found the mural lit spectacularly:

Next week, we're on to the other half of the murals — the second four murals of the eight.

Update (September 17, 2016): In the middle of Rock's Pinterest page right now is a photo of the mural from above (while he was painting from the big hydraulic lift).

Update: The aerial photo below from BG Boyd Photo gives an overall view:

Arizona Daily Star: “9 new murals in downtown scream TUCSON”

Kathleen Allen's article about the Downtown Murals Project was in yesterday's Star, in the Caliente section. If you haven't seen the article, you can click there to read it.

The article includes a mural that wasn't part of the eight Downtown Murals Project artworks: Kati Astreir's mural on 7th at Toole. It also didn't include the new mural on 191 E. Toole or tributes to Prince. But, as I checked the Tucson.com website yesterday evening, it was one of the paper's most popular articles. That's great news for public art in Tucson!

Update (June 19, 2016): If you're walking between Kati Astreir’s mural and Rock Martinez’, don't miss Joe Pagac's spectacular mural next to the tracks where they cross 7th Avenue.

Downtown Mural Project design open house

Tuesday night the 26th, (most of) the artists who'll be painting murals downtown next month showed their work to a crowd at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library…

Some of the works were finished designs; others were still being developed. Here's a video of the artists introducing their work:



(You can also see the video by clicking on its address, here: https://youtu.be/kLSYTiEuZng.)

I snapped some quick photos of some of the designs before the presentation started. Unfortunately, I didn't get them all... but you can see more in the video above... and all in the TAB page mentioned at the bottom of this article.

Jose Ignacio Garcia, Rialto Theatre

Rock Martinez, 440 N. 7th Ave.

Pete Goldlust, 213 E. Broadway

Issac Caruso, at 9 North Scott Ave.

Jessica Gonzales, along Scott between Congress & Broadway, on Wig-O-Rama

Niki Glen, at the west corner of 5th Ave. & Toole.

Luis Gustavo Mena on CenturyLink, 142 E. Pennington St.

The Arizona Daily Star article Design selections of city mural project to be shown publicly has an artist list (though, on Tuesday evening, the online version had formatting errors and maybe a missing name).

Graffiti Protective Coatings is preparing the artists’ “canvases” with a coat of primer paint. The artists start work May 2nd. Stop by! Bring them cold drinks! (Some will be working at night to avoid the heat.)

There are more details and photos of all the mural designs on the Tucson Arts Brigade Mural Arts Program blog in the article City of Tucson Mural Program Announce winning designs for Downtown Murals Open House Tues. April 26. The next meeting, where artists will discuss their progress, is at the Joel Valdez Main Library, in the downstairs meeting room, May 24th from 6-7 pm.

Update (April 28, 2016): Tucson News Now posted a short update after the meeting in Tucson artists to revamp downtown buildings with mural project. (The “For more information” link link at the bottom of the story seems to be outdated, though.)

Update (June 4, 2016): The space for the mural at 213 E. Broadway stayed empty most of May. When I walked by today, I saw the outlines of a different design than the one shown above. I checked and found that a different artist, To-Ree-Nee Wolf Keiser, is filling the space.