Día de Los Muertos on Grant Road

The "Day of the Dead" is an opportunity to remember and celebrate the lives of departed loved ones. It is often celebrated on Nov. 1 to remember children who are deceased and Nov. 2 to honor the adults who have passed.

The artists are Monty Ses Esposito, Retro, Sketch 71/Rickey A Bush and Sal Sawaki; all working with Wagon Burner Arts.

Found at the SW intersection of N. Martin Ave. and E. Grant Rd., Tucson, AZ

La Calavera Catrina ("Elegant Skull") on the left next to "Sugar Skulls". Sugar Skulls are made of sugar and are placed on graves and altars in honor of deceased loved ones.
(Update: See the note farther below.)

La Calavera Catrina (the "Elegant Skull").  Also known as Mexico's Lady of the Dead.

 

Mariachis (a street band in Mexico)

La Calavera Catrinas
Note the dog and cat.

 

Update: KGUN9 TV interviewed muralist Monty Ses Esposito, one of four artists who painted the mural.

Update:  The Sugar Skulls panel — the right side of the second photo in this post — was replaced in Jan. of 2022. The “sugar skulls” were “chuckleheads” — the four artists who painted the mural. Left to right, they were: Ses, Sketch 71, Retro and Sal. Below is what replaced the panel:

Update: To give you an idea of how big the mural is, here's an aerial view from BG Boyd Photography (thanks!):

Click on any photo for a slideshow of larger images.

"Safe Shift"

Painted by Sal Sawaki, Sketch 71/Rickey A Bush & James.  Sponsored by Wagon Burner Arts at 2801 E. Grant Rd. and viewed from N. Treat Ave.

Click on any photo for a slideshow of larger and sharper images.

Photographed on Aug. 6, 2020.

Update from Jerry Peek (February 4, 2024): Today I was going through some photos I'd taken for this blog to see if I'd missed any murals. I found photos of the day Sketch (Rickey Bush) took me to see this mural, May 29, 2023. The mural is on the west side of the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation's shop called Safe Shift Estate Resale, which helps to support GTFF's endowment. Among other things on the front door were “Taking care of those who take care of us”. The website TucsonFireFoundation.org has two sentences I'll repeat here: “In 2019, the number of firefighters who took their own life was greater than the number killed fighting fires. We’re here to provide our firefighters and their families with the physical and mental health support they need.” The GTFF's endowment is explained at https://www.tucsonfirefoundation.org/endowment/.

Two closeups I took of the mural:

The woman in the second closeup is Patty Vallance. A quick web search showed that she volunteered for a number of causes. Among other things, she helped to create the Fire Foundation. She died suddenly at age 62 on June 3, 2020 — two months before David Aber took the first three photos here. The Arizona Daily Star article Patty Vallance, businesswoman, author, was key supporter of Tucson Fire Foundation tells more.

Doggies On The Wall

The original mural at the Transformation Pet Center appeared in The Tucson Murals Project on Sept. 15, 2008. See Meow Mural with Mutt Motif. The mural has since been re-done and there's no longer a meow. This photo is from Aug. 2, 2017:

 Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

Update (February 25, 2021): Here are two closeups that Jerry Peek took today:

Monty “Ses” Esposito painted the dog on the left and Rickey “Sketch” Bush painted the dog on the right.

Update (May 29, 2023): Sketch brought Jerry to see this long-time Tucson mural… still here after 20 years or so:

Years after the mural was painted, Sketch and Monty stopped by the business. The owner had been trying to find them to update the mural… she didn't want anyone else to do it. They painted the side and front of the building teal and added the black paw prints running along it.

Sketch told me the names in the signature at the left side, but I didn't write them down… I'll need to ask him again. Here's a closeup from his print, followed by a photo today with higher contrast to help the letters stand out:

Roll in here (if you can!)

The previous photo showed the top of the store next door as well as the mural on the roll-up shutter. The sign above the entrance for Pima Street Bicycle is about as generic as you can get, though. So let's see just the mural that's hidden while the store is open:

The mural advertises “expert bicycle repair.” So if you can't ride your bike here, you can always carry it in to be fixed.

I stopped by (in my car) near sunset on May 28th, 2017.

Updates: As David Aber was doing his usual careful checking (he's caught my goofs more than a few times!), he saw on Google Street View that the shop had moved two blocks away — from 5247 to 5445 East Pima — sometime between the time I snapped this photo and the time the Street View car rolled by on June 2018. Even more interesting is that the store took the mural with them — on the same roll-up shutter! I've updated the Location at the bottom of this entry.

Monty “Ses” painted the mural with help from Rickey “Sketch” Bush.