La Jaliciense

Just north of the murals from yesterday's post is this one. It's on the north wall of 395 W. 33rd Street in South Tucson — La Jaliciense Candy Factory & meat market. (If you're looking for it, note that the sign on the west wall says "The Gizmo Factory, S&G Embroidery"). The artist was Ruben Moreno, and the credits panel at the bottom shows the other muralists:

Tigger is (was?) here

These murals are on walls south of The Gizmo Factory and S&G Embroidery, 395 W. 33rd Street in the art-filled city of South Tucson. I took these photos from the corner of S. 10th at W. 33rd on December 12th, 2010.

This close-up of the middle mural shows a date of Jan 2 2010, and what might be the artist's signature: TIGGER.

Toltecalli Academy sign

You'll see this bright mural at Toltecalli Academy, 251 W. Irvington.

More than tires

Even if you aren't looking for tires, you can't help seeing this mural on the front of Martin's Tire Shop at 4701 S. 12th. I spotted this (couldn't miss it!) on my mural-overload bike ride around southern Tucson last December 12.

Yosi's flowers...

...are inside and outside the store at 4833 S. 12th. Here's their west wall last December 12th:

Update (February 16, 2021): Here are a closeup and the parking lot side: Yosi's nine years later

Just a well...

...but, like several other Tucson Water wells I've seen, the walls around it are covered with murals. Here are two of the walls at 4775 South 12th Avenue on December 12th:

Justa Dream

Here's Justa Dream (says the sign at the left)... or is it Jus Ta Dream? Whatever, this is the southwest corner of their building at 4609 S. 12th, on December 12th:

Maybe a mural, part 19

Now this wall is different! Hanging artworks on a wall is probably the least like a mural of any of these 19 "maybe" posts (except number six). I won't do it again. :)

This is a bit east of Tucson Boulevard at 2528 E. 4th Street. I've ridden by several times since I took this photo last November 25, and the scene keeps changing.

Maybe a mural, part 18

Here's another wall. It's different than the previous "maybe a mural" posts, part 16 and part 17, because the wall is better covered with decoration. But then, what about that uncovered patch at the left side?

The wall is at 2601 N Tucson, the west side of the street, at the corner with Copper. (I rode by on November 25, 2010.)

Celebrate the new mural on August 27!

A Tucson artist I know, K. Loren Dawn, has been keeping me up to date on the new Mountain Avenue mural project. Part of what's exciting is that David Tineo has been working with a group of artists on the project. We showed the empty mural frame on July 9th.

There's a celebration for the new mural on Saturday, August 27, at Mountain Avenue Church of Christ, 2848 Mountain (at Adelaide), from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. There'll be refreshments and entertainment. The party hosts are the Hedrick Acres Neighborhood Association and CODAC Behavioral Health Services. Call Tippy Atkins at 327-4505 x8535 to RSVP or for more info.

Other key sponsors included Tucson Pima Arts Council/Kresge Arts in Tucson, Community Partnership of Southern Arizona, The Haven, Pima Prevention Partnership Sarnoff Artist Materials, Creatista and Kevin Anderson Productions.

(I didn't take the photo. I cropped it from an official announcement that I got by email.)

Update (August 28, 2011): here are photos from the mural unveiling.

Unique scene along Saint Marys

This wall is on the west side of the building at 1016 W. St Marys. It's along the narrow driveway, so it's easy to miss — the first time!

At the bottom right of the mural is Ernie & Dora Basurta, 1947. I spoke with a man nearby, and he said that the building is still in the Basurta family, but he didn't have more details. I'm hoping to re-check murals around town and see if I can find more information... so I'll post an update here if I learn more about this one. (As always, if you know the story, please add it in a comment below or send me an email message.)

More murals!

My backlog of mural photos that aren't on the blog is up to nearly 300, and I'm still posting ones from last year. So I'll try a couple of new things:

First, as you may have noticed in the past week, I'm posting to this blog every day. (I actually write a batch of posts and have them scheduled to appear one per day.) I'll need to make the posts simpler to save time. But you should have a(n almost-) fresh Tucson mural to enjoy here every day.

Second, all of the murals I haven't posted here yet (and a few I have) are now on TucsonArt.info in a new "unpublished murals" area. The photos haven't been edited. They're partly for mural-hunters who're wondering if there's a photo of a particular mural yet. But they're also for mural lovers to browse through. I'd be glad to get your feedback (though please read the instructions first if a problem you've noticed might be covered there). Add a comment below or send me some e-mail. All of that said, here's a link to the unpublished murals:

tucsonart.info/murals/unpublished

Great mural close-ups from Philip Snyder

Thanks, Phil Snyder, for your email message this week. Philip has lived in Tucson for two years, and he's posted close-up photos of murals on his website philipsnyderphotography.smugmug.com. He wrote:

I am particularly interested in murals that have a real "artistic value", if you will, similar to the the two I have already visited. I very much enjoy completing portions of the murals to appear as paintings. If any you know of come to mind, please let me know.

In Memory of Crystal

This beautiful mural is on the corner of Rosy's Beauty Salon, 4453 S. 6th. The signs near the bottom (which you can see below) say "In Memory of Crystal Salazar 3-26-98 to 8-17-99" and the mural is marked © Mary Miranda. (Her first name was a bit hard to read. I hope I have it right.)


I took the photos December 12, 2010.

Update: Here's a photo of the mural as it looked in the year 2000.

Update (October 16, 2014): The left half of the mural has been painted over, and the right half has faded more. Today's entry has the 15-year story.

Delicious on South 12th

This is the front of Rincon Tarasco a la Michoacana — 4505 S. 12th (just south of Michigan Drive) — last December 12.

Mural-covered porch

These gorgeous murals are on the front porch of the home at 4476 S. 3rd Avenue (at Michigan).

Korean War Memorial

The Korean War Memorial is part of the Pima County Kino Veterans Memorial Sportspark & Centers, Ajo Way & Forgeus Avenue. It's well worth a visit! I discovered the memorial in December of last year.




(That's a flower at the bottom right of the last photo.)

You can read more about the memorial in the June 23, 2000 Tucson Citizen article Korea’s dead get their due.

Update (January 13, 2014): There's a photo of flags at the memorial in the Tucson's Pocket Parks blog on the page Korean War Memorial (click there to see it).

Around the corner...

...from the mural you've probably seen on the west side of the shop at Grande & Congress is this one on the back (south) side:

I took the photo on December 3, 2010.

Maybe a mural, part 17

If the wall in the previous post looks like a mural to you, here's another "maybe" with fewer tiles and more wall. (I didn't count the tiles. This one just seems more sparse to me.)

This act of devotion in front of 505 S. Columbus was finished just a month or two ago. Here's a close-up from the north end:

Update (May 2, 2013): There's a close-up of the mailbox in the distance (at the near end of that far wall) in today's post on the Tucson Mailbox Art blog.

Maybe a mural, part 16

A tile or two in spots around a stucco wall can look nice, but I wouldn't say they make a “mural.” If there's a variety of tiles around everything, I think a wall might slide over into the ‘maybe’ category. What do you think about this one?

It was at Another Man's Treasure, 2601 E. Grant, last November 25.

Art breakout!

This is part of a longgg mural along the south wall by the parking lot at 2509 N. Country Club: The Art Center Design College.

Since I took the photo on November 25, 2010, I think I've seen some tagging :( along other parts of the mural. I hope it's been cleaned up by the time you get there.

From camels to sailing ships...

You can make that (virtual) journey yourself outside 2817 N. Country Club (just north of Glenn). At the time I shot these — November 25, 2010 — they were on two empty-looking walls next to Caravan Import Foods. These tile murals are signed “Abdulla” - Hand Made - Ja(?)sim, AZ.Tucson"

Who needs a garden?

The ultimate xeriscaping may be: hire a muralist to paint plants on your walls!

Well, I'm not sure that's what the folks at Casa de Ladrillo (the house on north side) - 3131 E. Glenn (e. of Country Club) were thinking, but the thought crossed my mind. (I took this photo back on November 25, 2010.)

Update (September 12, 2013): The shot above was taken from the southeast corner of the home. Later, I found a mural near the southwest corner and posted a photo today.

Bright desert mural

This little tile mural is almost small enough to be in the "maybe a mural" category. But I decided it was big enough. :). It's on the white house at 2808 N. Dodge (just north of Glenn, on the right side). I snapped the photo on November 25, 2010.

Cortaro Farms, now and then

These photos are from Howard Rains, who wrote on Thursday that he loves tracking down murals as he rides inside and outside of Tucson. Above is his photo from near the corner of Cortaro Farms and I-10, on Cortaro just east of the railroad tracks. Below, I've cropped to just the mural and stretched the photo a bit (with the GIMP editor):

Thanks as always, Howard!

Update (September 23, 2016): The steam locomotive depicted (Southern Pacific No. 1673) is on display at the train depot on Toole Avenue in Tucson. Thanks to David Aber for the tip.

Mixed murals

El Rancho Sereno, at 3800 E 4th Street (just west of Alvernon), has a variety of murals that you can see from the street side of their property:

Maybe a mural, part 15

Here's another piece of “wall art” that isn't painted on, fresco-style or otherwise. Tucson has lots of cut-metal gates like this one, on Stewart, just north of Drachman. Is this a mural? Or is it just a piece of art that a lot of people will enjoy?

Maybe a mural, part 14

This artistic address on the wall of a home at 1208 N. Plumer is painted directly on the cinder-bock wall around their home. It beats a simple number on the wall... but is it “a mural?”

On the other side

In May, 2010, I spotted a faded mural on the south wall of the Family Resource & Wellness Center, at Michigan Drive just west of 13th Avenue. But (maybe because the gate into the schoolyard behind was locked?), I didn't check the north side of the building:

This view is from two months ago: May, 2011. This mural on the north wall is behind an area covered by a canopy.

As Martín Moreno pointed out to me while he was re-painting the south wall of the La Pilita Museum, murals on the south sides of buildings face the worst sun and fade the fastest. That's probably why this north-side mural is in much better shape than the one on the south side.

Posner's looking good...

I've stopped by Posner's Art Store, 1025 N. Park, a few times since Rock Martinez started to paint their front window. Every time the mural has been better. Sunday morning (the 10th), it looked “finished” to me:

You can compare the mural to Posner's logo (and, for now at least, see a poster advertising the start of painting on June 25) at PosnersArtStore.com.

Maybe a mural, part 13

Here on the Tucson Murals Project, we run an occasional series called "maybe a mural." (What about a couple of tile "blankets" or "serapes" that have teen "tossed" across a stucco wall? Are those murals??) We generally leave those questions to you. (Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder...) What about a "mural" that's destined to be cleaned (or fade) away — like a mandala made of sand?

Anyway, we're back to the archives... back to a time when it was cool enough outside that people wanted to stand on the pavement and spend a lot of time enjoying (what you might call) murals drawn on the sidewalk. These are during an exhibition opening, October 29, 2010, on the big patio at the Tucson Museum of Art. The were made by students at the Museum School, in a Day of the Dead theme, and they were gone after that night.

Murals? That's for you to decide. Art? No question.

To find other murals on this blog that have vanished, scroll through the table of murals (or use your browser's "find in page" command) to look for the word GONE. Then click the link in that line for a photo of the (now-)missing mural.

Murals being made, part 7

Three months ago, we showed David Tineo's team painting a new mural in Murals being made, part 2. They were working indoors, painting separate panels that would eventually go onto a frame on the east side of Mountain Avenue. Here's that frame yesterday:

There's not much to look at yet, I know. An artist on the project said this frame is bigger than the last time she saw it. So, if you're driving on Mountain Avenue just north of Glenn in the next few days, look between the trees by the church, near the corner of Adelaide.

(If you see something different, I'd appreciate an email or a phone call -- (520)302-4402 -- to let me know. A photo would be even better!)

Update (May 18, 2012): Part 8 of this “being made” series was posted today.

Winter Fresh in July (?!)

For this 350th post on the Tucson Murals Project blog, I couldn't think of a better topic than something I know almost nothing about. :) Actually, I started to learn about the annual Winta Fresh "convention" when I met painters who were watching Rock Martinez painting the front window of Posner's Art Store. Winta Fresh is a place where graffiti artists (who don't live in a neighborhood with a community mural project to work on) can paint -- and learn from other artists -- without worries about being arrested.

If you haven't spent much time looking at graffiti art (a.k.a. sometimes as "urban art"), don't get too much idea from that first work about the rest of them. There's a big variety in urban art, just as there is in more-traditional art. For instance:

The venue is a vacant lot south of Undisputed Fitness & Training, 1240 N. Stone.

The wide, long and high space is like a walk-in art gallery, with works of art in blocks on both the north and south walls. (The fence around it can be closed, though, so bring binoculars or a zoom lens.)

Rock plays a big role at Winta Fresh (and, when it happens, the corresponding Summer Fresh), and he told me that the murals on the building's east wall (along the alley) were made by nationally-known graffiti artists who came to Tucson especially for Winta Fresh. You can see their work at the very end of the January 10, 2010 post.

There's a Winta Fresh every year, so I'm not sure which photos from the archives are from which year. The post I just mentioned must have been showing the work from Winta Fresh '09 or '10. I'll try to straighten that out! In the meantime, here are two more scenes from my early-morning ride to the "gallery" this week:

If you'd like to see more, try one of the page, image or video search engines on the Internet. Here's a Google page search you can click on:

[ tucson "winter fresh" OR "winta fresh" OR wintafresh ]

From the results of that search, you can also click on "Video" at the left edge.

Here are a couple of other things I found in a quick hunt through Google results (for other searches). One is the poster for the Winta Fresh December 13, 2008:

I also found a Myspace page for Tucson Graffiti.

If you have more resources about Tucson graffiti to share — or comments, or complaints, or whatever — please leave a comment below or send me some email.

Happy 350th!

Update (February 16, 2013): I've just posted photos of the WintaFresh 2013 painting party.

Solar (system) Culture

At the end of 2010, the mural outside Solar Culture Gallery had birds, bugs, desert and mountains. The scene here at 31 E. Toole has changed once a year, at least. Here's the view last week. (Click to zoom in and see the solar system between their hands.) 2012, anyone?

Progress

Here's another downtown mural from Joe Pagac, on a wall around a construction site at 274 E. Congress: