Joe Pagac finishing Borderlands Brewing mural

The Tucson muralist tweeted Sunday night from @JoePagac that he'd almost finished a new mural on the side of Borderlands next to the tracks:

Finishing up at Borderlands Brewery! pic.twitter.com/ZJH6TQgRt8

— JoePagac (@JoePagac) March 30, 2015

Now @borderlandsbeer has tweeted a photo of the finished mural. It's not a very good photo, so — for now — I'll let you click there to see it on Twitter. (Or stop by in person! It's on the wall next to where 7th Avenue crosses the tracks.) I have photos of the mural in progress; I'll post them, and a photo of the finished mural, sometime in the next month or so.

If you'd like to see what was there before, have a look at Behind Borderlands.

Update (April 22, 2015): On April 10th, we showed the finished mural. I've set that link to open in a new window or tab on your browser to (I hope!) help you compare the finished mural to the photos below of the mural in progress on February 27th. First, the mural overall... then shots of the left and right ends:

I didn't do my usual careful editing, but I think you can still see which parts Joe did first as you compare the photos to the ones from April.

Cesar Chavez murals

On Tucson’s Cesar Chavez holiday (his birthday is actually tomorrow), here are the commemorative murals we've posted over the years — and one more.

• The Legacy of Cesar Chavez (March 25, 2008)
• Over I-10 on Sixth Avenue (September 20, 2011)
• Chavez, Gandhi, Tolstoy and Tonan (August 27, 2012)

There's also a photo of a mural in the May 21, 2014 Downtown Tucsonan article Paulo Freire Freedom School to Offer New Public Downtown Middle School this Fall.

If you know of others, please leave a comment below. And enjoy our new city holiday!

¡Llévelo con Ramón!

At the northeast corner of East 28th St. and South 4th Avenue is Arizona Radiator and Muffler Service. They're just waiting for you to bring your car in with an overheated radiator or broken brakes:

Toward sunset on February 11th, I rolled by — with no car problems, at least not yet.

Maybe a mural, part 62: Spirals on South 28th

In South Tucson, just south of the boundary with the city of Tucson (which is at 25½th Street), is a canvas (painted with acrylics, I think) hanging on the wall. It's on 28th Street, just west of 4th Avenue. (Mi Nidito, the popular restaurant, is about a block away.)

Because it's not painted directly on the wall, I've made this part of our “maybe a mural” series. I took the photo on February 11.

Amphi Neighborhood History Mural

The Tucson Mural Arts Program works with Tucson youth to, as their blog (below) says, “to have the children and teens participate in [murals] to help them get involved and help build healthy, safe, compassionate and vibrant neighborhoods, increase literacy, reducing violence and beautify the places they live and work.” In 2013, one of their programs was a new mural on the north side of Woods Memorial Library. (The library already has “flying books” public art.)

Their blog tells part of the story — see part 1 and part 2. Here's the mural, in a photo I took January 9, 2015. As always, you can click for a larger view:

(There's another Amphi history mural in Amphi Art and Mural Club Creates Public Art. I'll aim to take a photo and post it online later this year.)

So fine on South Vine

We've seen work by Jenna Francine Tomasello in Ghost of Artemis, as well as Main & University #1 and Main & University #2, those last two along with Wesley Fawcett Creigh.

Jenna also sent me photos of murals that she painted on parts of a private home that you can see from the street. (We don't show murals in completely private locations.) Here they are:

Building or mural?

When you're sitting in front of Tokyo Imports, it's hard to tell — except for the front door and a drainpipe opening — whether you're looking at a building or a mural. The mural covers the entire front:

I was there, dazed and confused ;-), on January 9th.

IncrediblAlley

On January 22nd, we showed a bunch of David Aber's photos of Una cuadra llena de arte (an art-filled block) in South Tucson: the 3600 block of South 7th Avenue. But Dave sent more photos! He wrote:

On Jan. 22, photos were posted to the Murals Project from the 3600 block of S. Seventh Ave. All of these photos were in front, or to the side, of 3649 S. Seventh Ave. This is the headquarters of Tierra Y Libertad Organization (TYLO). Note that the acronym TYLO is embedded in each of the two main murals. Here is a link for further info: blog.whyhunger.org/2012/02/visiting-tierra-y-libertad-organization-in-tucson-az/.

In the alley behind TYLO there is a block wall that begins at TYLO and runs north to W. Veterans Blvd., a distance of 175 paces and at least 350 ft. It is filled with art.

I believe that all of the art in the alley is connected with TYLO in one way or another. I have no proof other than the acronym TYLO appears on the wall twice. Also, I consider the art to be one continuous mural. There’s no question that multiple artists worked on the project or that there are multiple themes. However, there was little or no attempt to distinguish where one artist’s work ends and another begins.

With thanks to Dave's explanation of these 17 photos, here's the TYLO alley!

Murals being made, part 27: Repainting the Rialto

This time-lapse video shows Joe Pagac and crew painting a new mural on the northeast corner of the Rialto Theatre. He posted it on February 27th.

Our 1,000th post: Jos at Park Place mall

Eight and a half years have gone by since our first entry on The Tucson Murals Project — July 12, 2006. Randy Garsee, the longtime Tucson TV news anchor who founded this blog, wanted to spread the news about Tucson's murals. Now, you'll find one thousand entries here — and more than 1,000 murals, since some entries show more than one mural. There are plenty more to come!

In post #1000, we'll take a look at spectacular murals by one of Tucson's most prolific muralists, Jos Villabrille. He painted three-dimensional Sonoran Desert scenes — most of them two-sided — at the ends of Park Place mall concourses. Let's start with the southeast entrance, near unit 270:

Looking up from underneath shows how three-dimensional these murals are. See the prickly pear blossoms and the hummingbird's wing?

Next, the west end: first, entering Macy's and next, leaving it:

On to the south center, entering the food court:

And, last, the east end: entering Sears and leaving it:

I took the photo tour on February 5th. Next time, we'll start our second thousand entries!

Main & University #2

That's another mural painted (but not designed) by Wesley Fawcett Creigh and Jenna Francine Tomasello. I took the photo on January 9.

There's more of Wesley and Jenna's work on our Monday entry.

Update (February 5, 2017): I was back at this corner on May 14, 2016, and found four murals of running dogs; this mural was gone. I think that at least this mural here has changed again since early 2015. I'm just posting our entry Main & University #3; it'll go online March 6, 2017. I'll show all four dog murals then.

Main & University #1

This mural of five running dogs was designed by Jenna Francine Tomasello and Wesley Fawcett Creigh. I took the photo on January 9.

Thanks for the tip, Jenna! (There's more of Jenna's work on our January 9th entry, and even more of hers and Wesley's this coming Thursday.)

2012 story about Joe Pagac

I just ran across a story on the Tucson Local Media site about one of Tucson's best-known muralists. It's titled Magic Pagac painting. (By the way, Joe's last name rhymes with “magic.”)

More from Central City Assembly

Last time, we showed Jeane Cohen's new mural in progress at Central City Assembly.

Thanks to Tucson Arts Brigade, CCA has several other murals (with more to come). Here are photos of part or all of most, as of February 11:

Murals being made, part 26: Jeane Cohen at CCA

Philadelphia artist Jeane Cohen has been visiting Tucson this month to collaborate with Chicago filmmaker Carl Elsaesser. While she was here, she also painted a mural on the wall northeast of Central City Assembly. Thanks to Tucson Arts Brigade, I met Jeane and Carl and had the chance to watch her paint the mural — with help from Tucson artist Alice Glasser.

On February 10th, Jeane and Alice put a primer coat on the wall. Next, they used a projector to shine Jeane's design (printed on transparent film from her computer) onto the wall, where they used Sharpie markers to trace the design onto the new paint:

Here's the finished mural on February 15:

Why I Love Where I Live launches new mural

About two hours ago, KGUN9-TV posted their report online: Local participation needed to launch Valentine's Community Mural Project. KGUN's post appeared in the middle of the event, which ran from 10am to noon today.

It's a bit late now to catch the mural launching, but you can stop by to see the mural (address below) and follow the project from Kristin Tovar's @whyilovewhereilive Instagram photos and the AZ Valentine Mural Event Facebook page.

Mesa Street at I-10 #2

Monday (in Mesa Street at I-10 #1), we showed the left of two mural panels at the end of tiny Mesa Street. (It's just west of the new fire station — and, as photographer David Aber pointed out, little Parque de San Cosme, which you can see there on the Tucson's Pocket Parks blog.)

Here's the right panel:

It's signed by Jolie Bernal, David says.

New Ben's Bells mural (and many more...)

Two days ago, TV's Tucson News Now posted a story about a new mural at Ironwood Elementary School in Marana: Marana school unveils mural in district-wide kindness project.

Here's a similar mural at City High School in our March 24, 2014 entry:

The TV story made me wonder whether Ben's Bells has a list of their murals online. They do: It's on their murals page. Near the bottom, click on murals in the communities or murals in the schools. (The lists don't seem to be completely up to date... but then, neither are the murals table or map here on TucsonArt.info... volunteer projects don't always have time for everything!)

Mesa Street at I-10 #1

This tiny street runs into the wall along the east side of the I-10 frontage road. The mural is at the end of the street, just west of the street corner with Sentinel Avenue. There are two mural panels here: left and right. Let's start with the left panel:

David Aber sent the photo (thanks!) and mentioned that this panel was signed by Letitia A. Gonzales, Amanda Valenzuela, Raymond Lofton, Cesar Galaz and Alyssa C. Valenzuela.

We showed details of the murals on March 5, 2010, but this photo covers all of the first mural. We'll see the second panel on Thursday.

Joe in January

Here are two more of Joe Pagac's long-running series of concert murals on the east side of the Rialto Theatre:

I snapped the photo on January 24th.

Update (March 5, 2015): You can see the mural being replaced in the YouTube video in today's entry Murals being made, part 27: Repainting the Rialto.

A treat on Treat... and more to come

There are arroyos/washes all across Tucson. At least a few have murals on concrete walls along their banks. (Two of them are Beautiful Bronx Wash and Whatta wash!.) I found two more wash murals last week:

They're where the Treat Walkway crosses Arroyo Chico (click there for a Google Map). In case you haven't been there: Treat Avenue becomes a walkway for a few blocks between Broadway and 22nd. It's a pleasant spot just west of Reid Park. Here's the bridge:

A bit farther west on Arroyo Chico (the road) — on the south side road (from Tucson Blvd., turn east) — don't miss Malvern Plaza. Click there to see photos and more description. (That article is part of the Tucson's Pocket Parks blog.)

And coming soon to the neighborhood: mosaics along the Treat Walkway. That link takes you to a Tucson Arts Brigade Facebook page.