The Living Mural transformed

The former Living Mural, on on 7th Street near 3rd Avenue, has evolved since it was first created in 2021. The idea in 2021 was to divide a wall into smaller spaces where different artists could paint their own mini-murals. There are lots of photos from May 2021 through September 2022 in the posts The Living Mural is evolving and Living Mural still alive in June. By September 2022, Pen “The Desert Pen” Macias had repainted the left half with a desert scene; see Desert Pen's mural is alive.

I came back on July 13, 2024 to take photos of Pen's finished mural. (It was actually finished months before.) Here they are: an overall view, three sections from left (north) to right (south), then a closeup of a sign she painted in the middle of the mural.

We showed another mural by Pen last time in Murals being made, part 81: Dandelion seeds!.

Murals being made, part 81: Dandelion seeds!

The front of the former Macy's department store at Park Place Mall has been closed for years, covered over and vacant. It turned out to be the perfect place for a community mural. The Desert Pen — muralist Pen Macias — designed a mural with lots of room in the middle for contributions from Tucsonans.

Before we look at the mural being made from start to finish, here it is finished on September 24th:

All of the spots drifting from the dandelion are seeds painted onto pieces of wood by community members. Pen posted the video below on Instagram to explain. (In the blog preview, the video looks distorted to me: wider than it should be, so people look big. If you'd like to open the video in a new window, here's a link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAMnKUvSZ5l/.)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Pen Macias (@thedesertpen)

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As the video shows, the dandelion seeds in the middle took a long time to make! Painting the mural itself was done in a week, with the seeds added near the end. September 14th, there was a blank wall with the design sketched. Here's what I saw late the next afternoon, September 15th:

The mural at the ceiling, in the arch, is one of a series through Park Place that Jos Villabrille painted ten years ago or more. The designs are spectacular… for instance, this mural has agave spilling out of the mural into the air below. You can see more murals in our March 2, 2015 entry, Our 1,000th post: Jos at Park Place mall.

Closeups with lines sketched for what will be coming soon:

This sign was in front of the mural:

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I came back on September 21 to see the finished mural. There's a photo of the whole mural at the top of this post. Here are closeups — first, the left and right ends:

Next, parts of the dandelion seeds. All the seeds have designs inside, and some have words:

The artist signed her mural in the top right corner:

Thrive in the 05 by The Desert Pen

The mural is named for a collaboration of members dedicated to improving our community.

By Pen Macias, aka The Desert Pen

Click for a larger image.

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Updates by Jerry Peek: On October 23, 2023, before the mural had been painted, the Arizona Daily Star published This local artist wants your input for a new Tucson mural. A quote from Pen Macias:

“The mural is going to be created as if it's fabric-draped over the side of the building and then it'll have a night sky with a giant moon,” she said. “Where the community stories come in is I have papel picado flags that are going to be draped across the moon sky. And each of those flags are going to tell a different story that I'm getting from the community.”

The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, which organizes funding for and manages public art, released an article December 20, 2023: Press Release: Arts Foundation unveils artists for Thrive in the 05 project.

Our next post, February 14, shows another area mural: Thrive in the 05 by Salvador Sahuaqui.

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:

Desert Pen's mural is alive

That mural by The Desert Pen (Pen Macias) is on the west side of the TUSD (Tucson Unified School District) building along 5th Avenue, facing a small parking lot. It's next to another mural, which used to cover the entire wall before Pen painted hers:

The mural on the right is The Living Mural. Next time, there'll be photos of it, as well as earlier versions.

Across the parking lot are murals for Black Crow Tattoo, a business of Jason Le Nolan's — who also coordinates the living mural.

I took these on September 20, 2022.

Update (October 9, 2024): Pen's completed mural is in today's post The Living Mural transformed.

Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson

The elements of this mural resulted from conversations with the kids:  "What they love most about the organization, things they enjoyed doing and what imagery represents Tucson.....".

The mural was painted by Pen Macias, also known as The Desert Pen.

Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

The nurse's connection...

Here's a unique, heart-felt mural that was finished in May:

A nurse is giving pieces of herself to people and to a mother. Let's look closer, from right to left:

I found a photo toward the end of the July 10th Arizona Daily Star article Arizona coronavirus cases top 116,800; 11,172 in Tucson area. You might be able to see the photo by clicking there. In case it's gone by the time you see it, here's the photo caption:

Pen Macias, artist, works on part 2 of a mural for a client on E. Broadway Rd., between S. Columbus Blvd. and S. Alvernon Way, in Tucson, Ariz. on May 25, 2020. Macias, known as The Desert Pen, has been working on her clients mural for the past three months. "It's the one thing I love, I have a passion for and the only thing I could be happy doing," said Macias. The mural represents her client, a single mother of four who works in the health care field. One half of the mural is dedicated to the connection between mothers and their children. The other half is dedicated to the connection between nurses and patients. The client wanted some positivity in the mural to show how nurses give a piece of themselves to their patients hence the puzzle pieces in the nurse and the patients, said Macias.

The address below is just a guess that I plugged into Google Maps. It's actually on the wall to the west of 4222 E. Broadway, on the north side of Broadway. I took the photos on May 29th — which seems to be just a few days after she finished it.