Arizona Ave. from the archive

Tucson has so many murals (and I enjoy riding my bike so much) that I have a lot more mural photos than I have time to post. This week, here are two shots from May — on Arizona Avenue, just south of Congress. The murals — or the tags :( — may have changed in four months, so head for this alleyway and check for yourself!

How'd we miss this?

I use the table of murals to keep track of the more than 250 murals on this blog. (It's gotten so long that it's a bit confusing, but it still helps when I want to know whether a mural at a particular place is on the blog — and for you, I hope, when you want to know what murals are in an area.) Anyway, thousands of people walk and ride past this mural, at the corner of Broadway & Church, every day, but it wasn't on this blog... until now.

Update (October 1, 2014): Here's an article from the Tucson Citizen archive — May 30, 2008 — about the dedication of the mural: New downtown mural dedicated Friday.

Update (June 6, 2023): Elizabeth Bernays wrote on Facebook (with a photo) that the mural was removed for a new building:



I think it's been gone for some time, but I hadn't updated this post until now.

New woman, same spider

The last two weeks' posts have covered murals around Fourth Avenue — and changes in murals at the Tucson Museum of Art. This week, here's more on both of those themes.

First, Fourth Avenue. Back on May 17th, as I was headed for the finish of that week's Meet Me at Maynard's walk, I spotted this mural at Sacred Art and Piercing Studios, 315 N. 4th:

Last week, as I rode my bike along Fourth Avenue, I noticed that the mural had changed... or, at least, I thought it had. The spider looked the same, but the woman had changed... or had she? I snapped a photo and checked it against my backlog of mural photos when I got home. Sure enough:

Things change... murals do, too.

And that leads to the story of the murals painted by students at TMA's Museum School for the Visual Arts, covered here in our August 9th post. Two days ago — on Friday, only a week after I'd posted that story — I heard that a tagger had ruined the murals, and that the murals and the tags had just been erased. More students will get a chance for fame outside their school... but let's hope that thay'll have longer than these muralists were given before a tagger trashed their hard work. Here's a photo of the spot where the murals were: the (newly) red wall in the middle of the shot. Keep your eye on this wall!

Found around Fourth Ave. #3

What reason would United Fire Equipment Company have to hire a muralist to put a huge work like this in a storage area behind two fences and razor wire? (Maybe there used to be a different company or setup?) It's on the northeast corner of 7th St. & Arizona Ave. — though I took the photo from the corner of 7th Street & 5th Avenue. (To get this shot, I needed the maximum zoom setting on my little point-and-shoot camera.) When you go mural-hunting, bring your binoculars...

Found around Fourth Ave. #2

A block west of 4th Avenue, just north of 8th Street on Herbert (an alley), I spotted this painting on the back wall of a building, facing a trash bin.

Why would an artist put something this interesting in a spot where people have to track it down? I don't know... but it's one of the things that makes murals interesting to me.

Update, January 22, 2011: The mural is gone — behind one of the many new-looking rectangular patches of paint on the alley walls.

Found around Fourth Ave. #1

Fourth Avenue (the section between downtown and the U of A, that is) has so many murals that I'm always spotting something new. This mural has been at 526 N. 4th for a while, I guess — the store opened and closed before I caught this early-morning photo:

(Update: By October, the mural was gone. You can read more here.)

Update (January 15, 2015): BreakOut Studios has a new mural on the north side of their new location.

Murals at the moment

Last week's post showed a mural with a pretty certain time limit: until Dave Ewoldt is elected (or not) — or maybe, if he gets into the Senate, until he finishes that job. We'll see!

In the meantime, in this 250th post on the Tucson Murals Project, here are a couple of murals in transition. They're views while the murals were being painted, back in May, and the finished views in July. The artists were students in the Tucson Museum of Art's Museum School for the Visual Arts (which is having an open house on August 12, by the way).

Here's the south side, during and after:

And, next, the north side during and after:

Mural for the moment

Many murals are painted to be in the same spot for years. Others stay up for a few weeks or months. This one, for Arizona State Senate candidate Dave Ewoldt, is the second kind, I think — there until the election.

Painted in July, it's at the corner of Grant and Forgeus.

Pretty on a porch

Just off Fourth Avenue (a great place for mural lovers to wander, by the way) is this home at 334 E. 5th Street:

Besides making your porch a more pleasant place to sit, isn't a mural a great gift to give to passersby? You'll find more of the murals that grace Tucson homes as you browse through this blog.

Last (and least?) on Pima

The last of five murals in the blocks of Pima west of Craycroft is on the side of a tiny building at 5214 E. Pima, Southwest Desert Dogs:

The shadows are from early-morning light.

Maybe a mural, part 8

Another piece of wall art that might not be a "mural" are the painted doors that line this building along the south side of the street at 5316 E. Pima, Kids First Preschool & Child Care:

Does a floor-to-ceiling piece of glass count as a "wall"? (And hey, what's with the yellow door saying "rain rain go away?" :) Please remember that you can click any image for a larger view and use your browser's "back" button to come back.

Maybe a mural, part 7

In April and May, I posted a series of photos of wall art that might or might not be a mural, depending on your definition of "mural." (The last post was number six.)

Here's the wall in front of Little Angels Day Care, at 4826 E. Pima:

It's basically some angel figures on top of a desert-looking background. Mural or not? What do you think?

Sunflower families

A block west of the mural at Charlie's are these two families of smiling sunflowers. They're along the parking lot at The Parent Connection, 5326 E. Pima.

Plenty on Pima

Pima Street, in the blocks west of Craycroft, is a good place to spot murals. Here's the first of them: at Charlie's Drive-in Liquors, 5451 E. Pima:

The deep colors and the shadows are from early-morning light.

J.P. again

Joe Pagac, that is. Actually, I'm in Tucson for a couple of weeks, too. So I'll post photos I took this morning instead of (as I've been doing) photos I took earlier this year.

As you may have seen in earlier posts, this muralist paints new work on the side of the Rialto Theatre. (You can find them by typing Joe Pagac into the search box in the right column.) He also paints murals on the east wall of the Bookmans location on Grant near Campbell.

Now Joe is signing his murals “Joe Pagac .com” and there are photos of his murals on his website. Since I can hardly keep up with all of his new work, from now on you might just want to check his website for the latest. Here's one more batch of photos, though… first, close-ups at the Rialto (the shadows are from early-morning light):

and at Bookmans (remember, you can click on any image for a larger view; use your browser's "back" button to come back):

Flying pizza

This scene is on the side of the Magpies Pizza building, along 5th Street at 4th Avenue. (There's more farther along the wall, at the west end... but I'll let you find that on your own. Fourth Avenue is a great place to see murals.)

Mural streets in San Francisco

A year ago, while Randy was in Iraq, he posted photos of murals in Baghdad. Although this blog focuses on Tucson murals, I agree that it's good to have some variety once in a while!

I'm in the San Francisco area this summer. The City's Mission District is absolutely packed with murals... especially on the mural streets like Balmy:

Residents here contribute by, for instance, decorating their windows to fit with the murals on the walls outside.

(By the way, one great place to see more details of the Bay Area is Naomi Pitcairn's Citi Wallz. She's a website client of mine. Still, if you're into urban art, I think you'll agree that her photos are outstanding.)

Balmy Street drew a steady stream of tourists and local visitors while I was there. Tucson could do more of the same...

Tasty murals at La Indita

The murals on the front of La Indita restaurant, 622 N. 4th Avenue, are as good as the food:

What It's All About

The Tucson Murals Project is all about beautifying Tucson and encouraging tourism, so we'd like to tell you about another blog that is doing the same thing, but in a different way. The Urban Peach blog describes itself this way: "Our speciality is in the restoration and development of some of the town's historic buildings to fit modern surroundings, while maintaining their original ambience." We've also added a link to Karen's Urban Peach blog in the column on the right. When it's about beautifying Tucson, the Tucson Murals Project is always excited to hear about it. Randy Garsee

Mighty mural at 6th & Perry

This mural covers the west side of the Steinfeld warehouse along the little piece of Perry Avenue, just south of 6th Street. (The actual address is 101 W. 6th.) I took this shot near sunset; that's the shadow of a tree at the bottom.

Update (October 30, 2014): You can see more photos on today's entry Steinfeld Warehouse revisited (and re-energized).

Update (September 2, 2024): Today's post Steinfeld Warehouse workers has many photos of the mural 14 years later. (It's in amazingly good shape.)

Mosaic Murals near Country Club

These mosaic panels are along Aviation Bikeway, just east of Country Club.

Tile on brick at W.V. Whitmore Elementary

Tucson-area schools are one of the best places to find murals. (Click on the "Search This Blog" button in the right column and type school.) W.V. Whitmore Elementary, on Glenn west of Craycroft, is no exception.

With all of the brick buildings in Tucson, though, Whitmore is different because their front-wall mural is tile on top of brick instead of paint. I'm not sure when these murals were created, but their message — and the message from the art on the other side of the windows they surround — is still relevant.

After months of posting mural photos most days of the week, it's time for me to take a break. I have a backlog of murals to post; I'll put one online here every week or so. If you'd like to contribute to everyone's enjoyment of Tucson's many murals, please send photos of your finds to Randy or me!

Update (February 15, 2014): Artist Robin Riley, RileyMosaics.com, worked with students on this tile.

Update (July 25, 2016): Here are more murals at Whitmore.

Excess land with murals (and graffiti)

The Arizona Department of Transportation has been unloading downtown land and buildings. (Another example is the former Art's BBQ.)

This plot, tucked between 538 N. Stone (the first photo) and 546 N. Stone (the second), includes wraparound murals and a few "bonus" tags.

Simplicity

This mural, on the side of a gallery at 1416 S. 6th Avenue, is about as simple as you can get. (To me, it's more than a generic "wall treatment" because the design isn't regular and it fits the wall and the windows.) The live cactus in front look great — especially with all the rain we've had this spring.

Update (November 15, 2012): Yesterday's post shows the east side of the building.

Ochoa Elementary, north side

Tucson muralist David Tineo helped students paint a building on the north side of the school in 1997:


A spot on the side wall lists students' names.

Update (October 23, 2012): There are more murals on the west side and the east side.

Ochoa Elementary, west side

Unless you're there during the school day, you'll see the long west wall of Ochoa School from a distance... you might want to bring binoculars. It's covered end to end with murals.

We're looking from 7th Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets... click for a bigger view (use your browser's "Back" button to come back):


Here's a part from near the middle of the wall.

Update (October 23, 2012): don't miss the long mural on the east side or the north-side mural by muralist David Tineo and students.

Goodbye, Casbah

I'm not into smoking hookahs, which was one of the main attractions of the Casbah Teahouse and Restaurant, 628 N. 4th Avenue. (If that's what you're looking for, maybe the best spot now is a block north and east at Smiley's Ultimate Hookah Lounge.) Still, this was one of the best places in town to enjoy a night outdoors — sometimes with entertainment from belly dancers, or simply from the other people who were there in the evening you happened to stop by.

Here are photos of the four pieces of art along the north-side passageway of this former Tucson nightspot. The top-right mural is signed signed Nov. 1993 P. Schricker and the one at the bottom right is signed J. Hartmann (c) '94.

Balloons on 29th

Here's one of the bright spots along 29th Street in South Tucson: Balloon Land, at the corner with 8th Avenue.

Update (November 17, 2012): There are new murals.

Hidden David Tineo

Tucson muralist David Tineo has works all over town. (To see more of them, search for Tineo in the search box near the top of the right column in this blog — and check back as we add more of them.) If you haven't seen his retrospective at the Tucson Museum of Art, it's open through July 4th.

This mural, on an empty building at the corner of 28th Street & 7th Avenue, is one of the projects he did with students. It's signed Rico mural project and Tineo 93.

(Update: An Arizona Daily Star article on July 6, 2008 by Ernesto Portillo Jr., Kids repaint graffiti-marred landmark mural: Youth-to-Youth program is rescuer, tells the story of kids repainting the 1993 mural.)

Next at the Rialto...

Joe Pagac's mural to the right of the (current) Cypress Hill mural (on the east wall at 318 E. Congress) is for Cage the Elephant on June 10th:

The shadows are from early-morning light.

Joe's website is joepagac.com.

Update (May 15, 2010): Today the Arizona Daily Star published a story about Joe's murals — including this one. It's This Tucson artist sees the big picture.

Canceled mural

Muralist Joe Pagac has been painting a series of concert murals on the side of the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress downtown. (You can find others in the table of murals.)

He painted one for the Cypress Hill concert on May 21... then, after Cypress Hill canceled the concert, he (or someone) painted a notice over the mural. The before-and-after views:

Topping taggers

Got graffiti? You could try what neighbors at 10th & University did — painted murals over the black tags:




Update (July 3, 2017): The shaded spot in front of the dragon now has a table and some benches. (You can click there to see it on the Tucson's Pocket Parks blog.)

Trash replaced by tags

In September, 2008, Randy wrote about a mural on the corner of E. Toole Ave. & N. 7th Ave. (119 E. Toole) that was half-hidden by trash. The trash has been there every time I've gone by -- until this morning. Here's the view today:

Instead of garbage, there's graffiti. I've wondered whether there's some kind of tagging-resistant overcoat that muralists could paint onto their work when they're done -- like the graffiti-stopping paint that's used on some downtown walls? It's too late in this case, I'm afraid...

(Update: When I rode by on November 25, 2010, the mural was gone.)