Taggers top topped tags

A lot of graffiti is a battle between taggers and the people who try to out-do them... or to clean up their often-artless scrawl. Of course, some is wanted and worth watching for, like the lot on North Stone where Winta Fresh has been held.

And then there's tagging that falls between those two types:

I found this scene last September 22nd, along the alley just across Spring Street from R-Galaxy. The tag at the right side looks to me as if someone painted something on the wall... which someone later covered with gray paint... which someone later topped with a head and shoulders in black. Clever, eh? Farther along the alley (two tags to the left) was another face, this time in white:

Artistic or awful — or both?

Table of murals is up to date

Today's post is the 575th on this blog. (Whew!) This seemed like a good time to re-introduce the table of murals. It's been missing the past six months of mural posts, but I just finished updating it this morning. (Whew again!)

Trying to find a mural in Tucson? You can:

• Do a broad search with the “Search This Blog” box near the top right of a page, For instance, type Luis Mena to find his murals all over town.
• Use the mural map and click on the location. (The map isn't up to date, though it helps!)
• Use the table of murals to search by street name or an exact address. The table can also help you find photos of murals that have been removed. The table of murals is at:

TucsonArt.info/murals/table.html

It has instructions to help you wade through the almost 600 murals listed, including examples of finding s mural. Here's an example:

Location	Posting Date	Last Checked	Click for More
7th @ Toole	03-06-2012	02-2012	more-from-ed-muren-iii
119 E. Toole	05-13-2010 09-01-2008	GONE GONE	• trash-replaced-by-tags • move-garbage-see-mural

Along 7th Avenue at Toole is a mural we posted March 6, 2012. The mural was last seen in February, 2012. To see the mural, click on the link in the right column. (Once the post is open, you'll also find a map link.) And, at 119 E. Toole, there've been two murals. Both of them are marked GONE, but you can see photos of them (from 2010 and 2008) by clicking on the link.

Eventually, the table of murals and the mural map will join into a big collection of ways to find Tucson's murals. Until then, we've got some good info here. I'm planning to keep the table up to date as I add new posts to the blog.

Comments welcome!

>>Pow!<< R-Galaxy!! *#@*

Along Spring Street, just northeast of Grant & Campbell, are three more of Tucson's murals painted on roll-up steel shutters. This fantastic set is along the north side of R-Galaxy at 2420 N. Campbell. (The old Color TV King business sign is on that same corner.)

I usually try to make mural photos as realistic as I can, but these murals just screamed out for neon. So I used the Saturation tool in the fabulous free GIMP photo editor to make the colors even brighter.

Here's a close-up of the artist's signature:

I took the photos six months ago — September 22, 2011.

Just Joe

Back on March 4th, we posted photos of murals on the east side of the Rialto Theatre. Other times I'd been there, all the murals were by Joe Pagac. Last time, one was by Ed Muren III. I rolled by again on March 11th and found:

All were by Joe. But maybe the end is near?

I'll try to check in again sometime after the Todd Rundgren concert on April Fool's Day.

Update (April 14, 2012): Not much new here. You can see the view as of April 11 on our April 14 entry.

Back of the Blue Willow

After snapping the photo in our March 18th post, I rode around the rest of the restaurant to see whether there were any more murals. I spotted a completely different one on the east wall, on a garage door along the alley:

I couldn't tell for sure that this garage is for the Blue Willow (maybe for the owner?) or why the mural was painted. I snapped a photo of what looks like the artist's signature, though:

This was September 22, 2011.

Blue, blue, blue (Willow)

I snapped this photo of the north side of the popular restaurant, 2616 North Campbell, on September 22nd of last year.

Students but no school

The former Julia Keen Elementary has been taken over by World Care. But the mural of students on their way into school is still at the west entrance:

Though the building address is 3538 E. Ellington Place, the west entrance is along South Palo Verde at the corner of Hemlock Stravenue. (In case you haven't heard of stravenues: They're the diagonal streets around this part of town. They run perpendicular to the railroad tracks. One of the best-known stravenues is Cherrybell, where the main post office is located. Click on that map link above to see some others. And here's a short Wikipedia article about stravenues.)

29th Street overpass and mural project

The pedestrian bridge over 29th at Columbus has been a work of art for a while now. What's been there a while are the mosaic murals like this one, on the 29th Street side of the north tower.

I'll show more of the towers — and the murals inside — in a minute. But I wanted to say that the Tucson Arts Brigade is working on the murals as a community project. They meet every Thursday afternoon. There are details (and more of their projects!) on TAB's murals page.

The photos above are from September 20, 2011. I came back again, on December 18th, to check the progress.

Update (April 29, 2012): The overpass project is done! The unveiling celebration will be on May 9th. Here's our announcement. Update (September 16, 2012): Since I took these photos, more painting has gone on. There are more photos in TAB grand opening, overpass update.

Missed this mural on 4th

I took this photo on May 10, 2010, at 228 North 4th Avenue. The mural is signed Cameo Designs, www.cameodesignsonline.com, (520)319-2125. I've walked by many times since then, but just realized that I've (probably) never posted this photo.

Chance meeting leads to talk, mural

When I met Paco Velez back on March 2nd, he mentioned that he'd be talking that night at the U of A Museum of Art: people would tell stories about living close to a border (the Mexican border and others). It was part of The Border Project: Soundscapes, Landscapes & Lifescapes. (The show's last day is this Sunday, March 11, by the way.) The stories sounded great, so I headed for the museum that evening.

I hadn't been to the museum for a while, so I was surprised by the new mural over the front door:

It was in the same style as the mural that went up on the nearby Architecture Buiilding in November. A sign just inside the gallery explained:

Taller Yonke (Guadalupe Serrano and Alberto Morackis) Paseo de Humanidad (Passage of Humanity) 2004 ... represents the parade of people who have migrated away from their homes in search of a better life. Once installed on the Mexican side of the border fence in Nogales, the gigantic aluminum artwork incorporates traditional Aztec and Mayan codices to provide cultural reference for those braving the journey into the United States. The piece also shows migrants returning home, "carrying the rewards and trophies of this perilous journey." As Guadalupe Serrano writes, Paseo de Humanidad is not meant to be political... however it tries to create dialogue between our communities on the complex issue of immigration."

Desert on Desmond (view on Village)

This magnificent mural is along the west wall of the home at 1833 N. Desmond Lane:

The mural stretches along Village Drive south of the corner with Desmond, and it ends at the alley halfway between Desmond Lane and Louis Lane (no, not Lois Lane :). I rode by on October 31, 2011.

More from Ed Muren III

Our March 2nd post showed a mural by Ed Muren III on the east side of the Rialto. A quick Google search found more about muralist Muren, such as:

• His MySpace page (he knows a lot of artists; to see a lot of murals, click on a friend, then click on Photos)
• His Facebook page
• A Tucson Weekly article and video from last week about his mural on the roll-up door for the Battle Stags Fine Art Garage.

I'd already snapped a photo of the door along 7th Avenue just north of Toole back on February 3rd. It's just south of the railroad tracks, so the image — a locomotive with a horse formed from the smoke above — really fits the location:

Update (January 3, 2013): There are two smaller murals around the door.

Joe Pagac has (or had) company

Muralist Joe Pagac does a lot of work around Tucson. One of the places he's painted most is the east side of the Rialto Theatre. His concert murals popped up so often there that I gave up even trying to photograph them all (which is a bit sad; they're always great).

Every time I went by in the first half of 2010, he'd have single murals stretching the length of the space (just south of Congress Street as you enter downtown) — like this Patty Griffin mural from March, 2010. In recent months, though, he's had four panels in that space. For instance, here's a photo from two weeks ago, February 18:

Instead of the usual signature JoePagac.com, the Ozomatli mural was signed Ed Muren III. This was the first work I'd seen of Ed's, but I've found another and I'll post it next: on March 6. (I'll also try to get downtown soon and see whether Joe has done all of the next batch of Rialto murals himself.)

Che Guevara on 6th & Toole

Riding by 6th & Toole today, I saw an artist painting a mural. I stopped, of course. :) It was Paco Velez.

This newest mural along the wall by the 6th Avenue underpass is toward the north end of the wall — near the railroad tracks. Paco is planning to paint at least two more murals closer to the tracks (to the right of this one). Both will be of women, both politicians, but you'll have to wait to find out who they'll be. :) Stay tuned!

The continuing saga at Toole & 6th

As you've seen on this blog (most recently in the February 27th post), the building at the northwest corner of 6th & Toole Avenues changes a lot as time goes on... it's probably the building we've shown the most over the five-plus years since Randy started this blog. (The first time was May 25, 2009: Train, trolley, and a three-eyed alien.)

For today, here are two views from the corner — looking northwest, then north — on November 6, 2011:

Happy Leap Year Day! Please stay tuned for the next four years... we'll try to keep you up to date (sort of!) on this always-surprising corner canvas.

Update (March 1, 2012): I just heard the story of the mural with the yellow background in the second photo. The man with the gloves is O.J. Simpson, and the artist who painted it is Dave Sayre. (As always, you can click on the photo for a larger view.) Thanks to James — I didn't get his last name — for the info. And see tomorrow's post (March 2) for more about this wall.

One day, six months ago...

The building at 191-197 East Toole — the northwest corner of the wildly-angled intersection of two Avenues, Toole and 6th — looks different every time I ride by it.

(Here's a satellite view from Google Maps. When you click there, it'll probably look different than however it does now. By the way, I hope that link will show you the 45° view instead of a view from straight above. If it doesn't, try the menu at the top right of the window.)

Anyhow, here's a photo of the front of 197 E. Toole — Studio One — on August 28th, 2011:

Our next post, on February 29th, will show two other views from the same day.

Update (March 1, 2012): Today I met the man who works in this studio, Paco Velez. There'll be a photo on the March 2nd post. He's since painted over the giraffe, but he painted three more on the east side of the building, as you can see in the second photo on our February 29th post. (Are you keeping all of this straight? :)

Roses & More revisited

In May, 2009, I rolled by the Roses & More store on Tucson Boulevard (at the corner of Broadway) and snapped their mural on the west side.

Fast-forward to August 28, 2011: I rode by the Broadway side and noticed that the roof seemed to be painted with the same swirls as the mural on the wall below. The paint was weathered, but the pattern was easy to see:

Looking back now, the west side roof has faded paint, too, but I can't tell what was there. If you know, please email me or write a comment below.

Update (May 7, 2019): For more color, see today's entry More Roses & More photos from Chris Andrews. You'll see that the roof has a starry sky.

The Natural Way

I snapped this photo of the mural — and a bit of the bushes underneath it — on August 28, 2011, at Healing Spirit Medicine, 2531 E. 22nd. (It was still there when I rode by last week.)

Progress partly preserved

Back on July 2, 2011, we covered a construction wall on Congress east of 5th. I titled it Progress. (Click there if you'd like to see it.)

Since then, part of the wall — around 278 E. Congress — has been taken down to uncover... Playground Tucson. (You can read about the opening on the January 16th entry in the I Love Downtown Tucson blog.)

Just a bit of the original wall — the fish standing up — was still there three days ago (Saturday the 18th)... and, stretching farther along Congress to the west, a bunch of new bubbles:

The addresses 274 and 272 are painted on the columns between the bubbles.

Unpublished murals updated

I've found so many murals around Tucson that I'm still several months behind with the job of posting all of their photos. In the meantime, I've put the photos of most new murals on the website TucsonArt.info. The pages are built automatically by a program. The photos haven't been edited yet. I haven't even looked at all 400 pages (almost 200 medium-sized photos, 200 larger versions, plus a few overall pages)! With all that said, here's the place you can find the unpublished murals:

tucsonart.info/murals/unpublished/

It's a bit complicated at first. But if you look around and read the instructions at the start and end of a page, I think it'll make sense.

If you find any problems (that I haven't mentioned above), please click the "Contact" link on any of those pages and let me know. Otherwise, I hope those pages will let you know what's coming on this blog through mid-2012 or so.

Enjoy!
Jerry

P.S. I haven't updated the table of murals for a few months now. It's on my to-do list for the next few weeks.

Studio 4013

Here's the front entrance to Studio 4013 LLC, at 4013 E. Ft. Lowell. I took the photo on August 12, 2011.

TMA mural reappears at Galeria Mistica

Photo by Carter Allen

At the start of 2011, after almost 20 years on display, the iconic mural Nuestro futuro/Nuestras raices humanas was taken down from the Tucson Museum of Art. (If you missed the story, it's in Goodbye to one Tineo mural and Adios para siempre.)

The mural, which was painted on plywood (and only intended to be temporary), has since been cut into pieces. You can see the pieces, and meet artist David Tineo, at Galeria Mistica, 2318 South 4th Avenue, Saturday, February 25, from 1 to 6 PM.

An email from TMA this week said “55 remnant pieces have been carefully crafted for sale with a portion of the proceeds going directly back to the Museum.”

A Day 'N Nite Salon & Spa

Here's the northwest corner of A Day 'N Nite Salon & Spa at 3916 E. Ft Lowell (just east of Alvernon). I found it on August 12, 2011.

Catalina High School Park

These two tile murals are around the entrance gate, on Dodge south of the corner with Seneca.

Slower posting, keeping in touch

Beginning six months ago — on August 7 — we tried to cut the backlog of mural photos by posting here every day. The backlog is down. So I'll switch back to posting two or three times a week.

If you've been opening the blog every day to see a fresh post, here are a couple of other ways to be reminded as soon as we post something:

1. Use your feed reader (it's built into Firefox and recent versions of Internet explorer) with one of these two feeds:
   
   • Atom: http://tucsonmurals.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
   • RSS: http://tucsonmurals.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
2. You can get an email version of the blog. Just write to me and ask to be added to the email list. You'll get an email message each time we add a new post.

Hey, I'm finally catching up! Thanks for reading.

Found the "E"

On Saturday's post, we showed the construction wall mural being painted on the south side of Broadway between Herbert and 5th Avenues. I guessed that the three letters painted so far would eventually become R-E-A-D.

By yesterday morning, the mural looked finished. It was signed Jaque Fragua © 2012.

(By the way, just to the left of this new mural, along the west side of the building, is the mural from the (former?) Childrens Black + White Photography Gallery. There's a photo in our May 28, 2009 post.)

Harriet Johnson Park ramada

At the northeast corner of 25th & Edlin, Harriet Johnson Park has a ramada covered with miniature murals. When I was there on July 30, a few of them had been trashed with paint and a package sticker. Other than that, it's a great spot for a picnic:

(The background colors are actually all the same; the lighting varied.)

This is our 550th blog post. Thanks to the artists, Nina Borgia-Aberle and Stephen Grebe, and to all the contributors who helped make this art-filled ramada. The second plaque above lists the principals of Corbett school and shows part of a mural there; you can see the mural in Cactus and city at Corbett School.

Monster truck mural

I found this desert scene on the south side of Simmons 4x4 Auto Repair Center, 3743 S. Country Club, six months ago: August 5th.

Many hands make...

...light work... or, an interesting mural! I found this on July 30, 2011, on the west side of the parking lot along Langely Avenue, at Sonoran Science Academy, 6880 East Broadway.

(The photo also shows a post and a a few shadows.)