TUCSON

Let's start 2015 with a mural in a prominent spot: the corner of Speedway & Stone, across from Pima Community College. It was painted around a year ago or so, replacing a Dia de los Muertos mural.
All except the first and last photos are Mark Fleming's taken (according to the timestamp in the photo files) on February 16, 2014. I took the first photo and the last on September 28, 2014 (not long after Mark sent his photos... thanks, Mark!).

T by Titus Castanza

U by Donovan White

C by Rock Martinez

S by Ed Muren III

O by Danny Martin

N by Ruben Moreno

The figure on that last mural seems to be peeling off. It looks like a paste-up. (As always, you can click on a photo for a larger view.)

The artists' names and website links (except Rock Martinez’s) came from a Tucson Sculpture Festival 2014 page.

Have an art-ful 2015! We'll help.

Update (February 15, 2022): The mural is cracked and faded. It's also hidden behind a restaurant. There are photos in today's post TUCSON is fading….

Missing (Solar) Culture

On January 1, 2014, I posted a series of photos of new art on Toole Avenue. The last photo was of a spinning sculpture in front of Solar Culture gallery.

I didn't show what else was near the ground and up above. Mark Fleming noticed that and sent this photo dated (by his camera) September 1:

More Plush art, last month

Last time, we saw photos of the parking lot for Plush on Christmas, 2013. Since then, some of the art has been changed and some hasn't. Here are three photos of some of what was new when I visited on November 8, 2014:

End-to-end Plush art, 2013 and before

It was a year ago — Christmas Day, 2013 — that I went out for a bike ride to burn off my figgy pudding (or, more likely, tamales :). I rolled by the Plush parking lot and saw a lot of new art. The photos start at the northeast end and finish at the southwest:

For a look at the whole parking lot — though not the same murals you see above — here's a Google Street View showing the view from the east end. The view is currently from June 2013. (For earlier views from the same spot, click on "Street View - June 2013" at the upper-left and use the slider that appears. The 2008 view shows the lot before it was painted!) To see a map, click on "Back to map" at the lower-left corner.

Joe just now

Last week we posted a video of a Joe Pagac mural in progress on the side of the Rialto Theatre. Today, about an hour ago, I walked by the Rialto and saw a new mural:

Sometime this year, a new downspout was run over the top of the little man with a sign (which often changed) at the right edge of the mural. (At least they angled the pipe around the main mural space!)

Flashback: 100 Congress Street, 1974

You Tucsonans who've been here since 1974 — or were visiting back then — might have seen some murals on Congress that were since hidden. Mark Fleming found them again on November 9th of this year. He wrote:

A mural from 1974 exposed during demolition of 100 E Congress store. Perhaps back then the clientele was fraternity or sorority? The Dylan piece was in a derelict store next door. These two decrepit stores seem to have defied the latest renewal efforts. They are in bad shape. 100 E Congress no roof and no south wall.

I think Mark got the date from a line in the next-to-last photo below: John Iungerich 1974 / PO? 443 Coolidge AZ 8.....

Here are the photos as Mark sent them, without my usual nitpicky editing:

If you have any other photos of long-gone Tucson murals, please let me know!

Time-lapse video of muralist Joe Pagac

Heather Hoch of Tucson Weekly has posted a time-lapse video of Tucson muralist Joe Pagac painting over two murals and making two new ones:



The story is titled Watch a Time Lapse Video of Joe Pagac Painting a Mural at Rialto Theatre. (You can click there to see the story and a larger video.)

Spotted at Grande & Congress

In the first half of September, Mark Fleming sent this photo (no date in the camera file) of a “Free Rosy” paste-up on a hardware store:

Google Maps Street View shows the store on the southeast corner, a bit east of Grande.

Thanks for helping this blog alive, Mark, until I can get back out on my bicycle! I hope that'll be a couple of weeks from now.

Update (September 13, 2022): Today's post Parade of murals on 910 West Congress has photos of this wall between October 2013 and April 2022.

Update (May 13, 2024): There are much better photos of the next mural here — which was painted sometime before April 2022 — in today's post Congress mural parade 1 of 3: 910 W. Congress.

Finessing Frank's

Frank's Auto Refinishing has something you might not expect: wall-to-wall art. I caught the building at sunrise back in 2012.

Mark Fleming stopped by this year and sent photos in September. A lot is the same (though the sides look white instead of a warm color, but that might have been the sunrise)... there's also some new art and signage. Let's look. First, the east side from south to north:

See the differences? The first photo shows a new mural at the left side, some green tube lights around the column, and a bunch of fine print. In the third, Frank has added body shop at the top.

Next, the north side: first all of it, then close-ups from east to west:

The big change here is the gorgeous mural in the last photo. I don't think it was there two years ago!

Thanks for keeping us up to date, Mark.

Ex-BLX

When the BLX Skate Shop was at the corner of 7th and Toole, it kept its corner fun with a changing mural on the 7th Avenue side. Now BLX has moved to 426 E. 7th Street, just off 4th Avenue. And there's a new mural that hasn't changed for months. Unlike the earlier murals — for obvious reasons — this one doesn't say blocks:

Mark Fleming sent the photo in September.

Update (January 12, 2015): There's a mural at the new BLX location but the mural at the old location has been covered over with greenish paint. (I hope you can keep this straight! Art isn't always predictable...)

Street art online

If you can't get enough street art, here are three places online to satisfy your holiday hunger.

Banksy Revisited

Last month, as I was searching for art online, I found the daily blog called Banksy Revisited (named for the famous UK street artist Banksy). It's amazing! You could spend half a day looking at the art in each day's post:

Today's Banksy Revisited front page

To get a link in your mailbox each day, look for the “Subscribe to updates” box at the right side.

Google Street Art

This summer, I ran across an article on the Guardian (a newspaper in the United Kingdom) about a new Google site with thousands of photos of street art:

Google launches online street art gallery to bring global graffiti to anyone

The art is fantastic. So far, most of it is from Paris, London, New York, Manila, and Lisbon. Maybe we can get Google to bring their cameras to Tucson?!

Fatcap

This website lists street art worldwide. Here's the Tucson page:

Fatcap Tucson page

Art(y) school: Davis Bilingual

Here's our third page of murals from this art-filled school. (The first two were Arte para y por los estudiantes and Más de Davis Bilingual School.)

Let's start with a mural on the side of the school:

Next, murals on the left and right sides of a door:

Murals wrapping around a building (maybe the same building as above?). The third through fifth shots show close-ups of the second. In the second and third photos, you can see that the mural includes a picture of itself:

The last photo is signed with David Tineo 10/10/84 and the names of students who worked with him.

I don't know how I missed all of this during my two visits to Davis Bilingual! Thank you, Mark Fleming.