Murals being made, part 15: Back@BLX

In the past half a year or so, we've posted lots of murals from BLX Skate Shop at the corner of 7th & Toole.

On January 20, I rolled by (on my bike — not a skateboard :) and noticed that the mural space was blank:

There was just a hint of the previous mural (which you can see at the end of our December 30th post) showing through.

I talked to a man who, I think, was one of the owners. He said they invite a new guest artist to paint the corner — on the 7th Street side, near Toole — every month. (Apparently all of the artists work BLOCKS into their designs — though I didn't ask him that.) He also pointed out that the mural is “skateable”... check out that lip at the bottom of it. (BLX is a skate shop, so why not a skateable mural?)

At dusk on January 26th, I was on the way to dinner with a friend when I rolled by the corner (in my car)... and saw a muralist painting. I pulled over, of course. :) It was ROGO (Rich Rogowski) starting a new mural. He'd drawn sketches on plastic slides, and he had an overhead projector shining them on the wall, one by one, to let him paint the outlines. Here are Rich and the crew:

Another photo from later that evening, taken by one of the crew:

The afternoon of the 27th:

When I rode by on the afternoon of the 28th, I could tell that Rogo had been out there the evening before (with his projector):

Then I left town for a week. When I got back, I checked the mural and found that it all seemed to be there...

...so I emailed Rogo to ask if he was planning to do anything else. Then I left town again. :) He emailed me the following photos on February 4th.

First, he's painting areas of white around the figures:

Next, he's adding green and red. This next photo looks like it was taken with a fisheye lens... a way to catch the whole scene without the power pole in front, and also fun!

Here's the finished mural (at least, the last photo Rogo sent of it... maybe he's still tweaking it as I write this from Perú):

If you haven't seen it in person, check it out soon — before it's replaced by next month's mural!

Murals being made, part 14: WintaFresh 2013

This year's urban art extravaganza was February 2nd at the usual place: the lot just south of Und1sputed Fitness at 1240 N. Stone. Before the day of painting started, last year's work was covered with a plain coat, ready for the artists. The walls are divided into areas where a single artist — or, in some cases, several artists working together — create something new.

Before the photos, here's a video I shot to give you an idea of the scene. The camera is hand-held, and the video is unedited, but at least it has stereo sound!



(You can also view that video on the YouTube website. And here's an audio slideshow featuring T.H.K., a Tucson graffiti crew.)

Now, on to the photos.

Update (January 7, 2014) Mark Fleming came back to shoot photos of some new murals here in WintaFresh 2013 revisited.

What Winta Fresh 2013 painted over...

... was (mostly) created during Winta Fresh 2012. (If you haven't heard of Winta Fresh, here's our recent post about it. You can also use the search box at the right side of this blog.)

On January 23, I decided to walk along the length of the empty lot (just south of Und1sputed Fitness at 1240 N. Stone) and snap photos all along the two walls. These are mostly unedited, but I hope they'll help to preserve the art that was replaced on February 2nd.

Here's the north wall (the south wall of the gym) from the east end:

and the same wall from the west end:

Now, from west to east along that wall:

I couldn't help photographing the man at the bottom of that last photo (an exhausted art lover, I guessed, overwhelmed by so much creativity :). Homeless, down and out, or whatever he was, it felt wrong to leave him as a speck there, so I snapped a closeup (with my zoom lens) and I've blurred his face here:

Back to the northern wall — the eastern half:

Now the south wall. Here's a view from the west (right) side:

And the south wall murals, starting at the left (east) side... these works are a lot smaller than the north wall, so there are more to photograph:

If you painted any of these in 2012 and would like to tell us about what you painted (you can stay anonymous if you'd like), you can leave a comment below. Please tell us the number of the photo — which you can get by hovering your mouse over the photo, and a caption like “Click for a larger view of photo 19” should pop up. (If your work has been trashed by taggers, and you have a better photo, please email it to me and I'll add it.) Thanks!

If any of you artists or readers want any originals, let me know. As always, I've kept high-resolution copies of every photo; I'd be glad to share the ones you need — and clean them up first, as I do for most other photos on this blog. To make time for posting the Winta Fresh 2013 photos, I didn't edit most of these.

Bus mural near Machu Picchu

If you're in the Peru's Valle Sagrado (Sacred Valley) near Machu Picchu (as I am — which is why I'm not posting so many murals right now), you'll likely pass by the terminal terrestra (bus station) in the city of Urubamba. Look on the wall at the end of the parking lot and you'll see:

(By the way, if you've flown into Cusco, coming straight to Urubamba can be a good way to acclimate to the high altitude... Urubamba is much lower altitude, and it's beautiful too.)

Murals being (re-)made, part 13: Plush parking lot

Polar bear! This new mural caught my eye as I rode by the parking lot for Plush — just east of 5th Avenue and south of 6th Street — on January 20th. (It's in the middle of the parking lot's north wall.) When I rode in, I saw several people painting murals... actually, painting over murals already there. (You can see the parking lot as it was on March 27 and April 16, 2012 in Surrounded by murals: our 700th post.) I can't figure out the name at the left side (if you can, please leave a comment below!), but the name on the right is CyFi, a.k.a. the well-known Tucson muralist Rock Martinez.

They told me the polar bear was finished recently, but that they were doing more. (You can see the first photo of this crew at the end of our May 25, 2011 entry.) Here's the crew — and one of the spectators:

Rock Martinez (CyFi) and Aspir painted the mural. Here are CyFi's photos.

Here's one more. It (which looks to me like a prescription pill bottle) was added after the black background (and the mural at bottom) were painted some time before. I'm not sure if this crew added it or if it was added earlier:

I've been back since to re-photograph the whole parking lot. There's such a backlog of mural photos now that I'll wait to post those. (If you can't wait, stop by the parking lot yourself!)

Decorated archways

A lot of Tucson homes have a garland of flowers or plants on stuccoed walls — usually around windows or entrance doors. So we won't show all of them. Here's an example from 1817 E. 10th Street:

I was there on March 24, 2012.

Update (February 5, 2014): Terri Vasquez wrote recently to say that “The artist is Chris Serafini. He is a local teacher and coach.” and “I was working on a rust staining project on the walkway at the time you took the photo.”

Thanks for filling us in, Terri!