At Valencia Library

Last time, we published David Aber's photo of a building along Old Nogales Highway. Not as far south — just as South 6th Avenue becomes Nogales Highway (as Google Maps calls it), and a bit west — is the Pima County Library with a series of murals by young artists:

He noted that each of the sections has the signatures of the young artists. The last photo above shows that the mural was painted 8/13/93. It also lists the organizations that were involved in the project:

Though his name doesn't seem to be on the mural, the style reminds me a lot of David Tineo. He's worked with young artists on a number of murals around town… for instance, another long mural at Davis Bilingual Elementary.

There's also a mosaic mural, with text in English and Spanish, and benches in front:

At the bottom center are the names of organizations who supported the mural. The style of the mural reminds me of Santa Theresa Tile Works, though I couldn't find their name.

Here are close-ups of the Spanish and English text (cropped from the photo above). They're beautiful and worth reading, I think.(You can click on them for larger views.)

Much appreciated, David!

Maybe a mural, part 64: Another house (?)

Earlier this month, I posted Maybe a mural, part 63: A house!. The day after (by coincidence, maybe?), David Aber send a photo of this building, with a sign saying “Freemanville State Bank,” along Old Nogales Highway:

The front of the building is littered with bricks and chairs, but there are paintings on the walls… which is why I'm calling this “maybe a mural.”.

Thank you, Dave.

More vines along Broadway

On February 28th, I saw the front of this home with a mural like others nearby:

This idea of painting plants on the front of your home isn't new in Tucson, but each one is different. (The murals save water, too. :)

Welcome to the Downtown Clifton...

More photos from Mark Fleming! This is a mural outside the new Downtown Clifton Hotel. The mural is by Danny Martin:

Much appreciated, Mark. Tucson hospitality!

This mural is going downhill

It's on the north wall of RC Bicycles. Mark Fleming sent the photo, thanks!

Mural-ific!

(OK, so “mural-ific” isn't a word. Whatever. :) David Aber spotted a very long mural behind the PPEP Tech High School. He wrote: “The first half of the mural is behind the school’s parking lot and easy to photograph:”

(You can click on that photo for a much larger view.)

“A jog in the wall is hiding an interesting section. Therefore I have split it into two photos:”

“The second half of the mural is directly behind the school and access is blocked by a fence... There's not much I can do about that part of the mural behind the fence. When school resumes in the Fall it shouldn’t be too hard to get the necessary permission:”

What a fabulous mural! Thank you, David.

Update (December 29, 2015): David sent closeup photos of that second half of the mural.

Maybe a mural, part 63: A house!

Every so often, something turns up that isn't exactly a “mural” — for instance, someone hangs paintings on their (house) wall. I title those blog entries “maybe a mural.”

Mark Fleming spotted an amazing little house that's basically a mural. Have a look:

You can see the address is 428 1/2; that's on 6th Street, but the house is actually in the alley, Mark says. (I can't find out how to enter 1/2 (“half”) into Google Maps and Blogger Location, so I used cross streets instead.)

Amazing. And thanks, as always, Mark.

Tattooed wall

Mark Fleming sent these photos of the east wall of Staring without Caring Tattoo. The whole mural is first; details come next:

Thanks as always, Mark.

What murals can do to a (NYC subway) tunnel

I came across this New York Times article on May 31st:

Bringing a Little Color to a Passage at the 191st Street Station

It's more than “a little” color. Wow!

Rolling on the rails/door

Here's a roll-up door at Southbound Studios on February 22nd:

The locomotive has the street address, 1136, on its side.

Eller inspiration next to the Rillito

Out for a walk on the south side of the Rillito River, just east of 1st Avenue, I noticed a long mural on the side of a parking lot wall facing the Rillito. Here it is, from left to right (the first one shows my shadow):

I was there near sunset on March 5th. Thanks to Eller (UA) Make a Difference Day 2012.

Murals being made, part 28

Back on May 7th, I posted a photo of what I thought was a complete mural. But when I rode by the mural again on May 13th, the long white area underneath the words and handprints had more words.

So that photo on February 28th wasn't complete. Here's my photo from May 13th:

(I'm re-posting this to fix a mistake in the title. It's part 28, not part 27.)

Tucson scene mural (mostly) whitewashed

The longstanding mural on the wall of the Former Skrappy’s youth center has been replaced by… nothing. Well, almost… the edges of the former mural are still there:

I snapped the photo on May 12th. Let's hope that the mural is replaced with one that's as imaginative!

By the way, the former mural — without some of the embellishment — is in our May 25, 2009 entry.

Mexicayotl murals mostly missing

Back on August 15, 2013, we posted photos by Mark Fleming showing murals pasted on the front of Mexicayotl Academy. The years — and weather — aren't kind to pasted-up murals. I stopped by on April 5th and saw this (mostly) sad scene:

On the roof, I spotted a mural that I'm not sure Mark saw or decided to send to me:

Update: (February 4, 2016): There's a new mural around the corner.

Tagger trashes amazing Dunbar/Spring mural

I'm sad to tell you that one of Tucson's most magnificent murals has been tagged. The mural covers much of the block of 9th Avenue south of University in the art-filled Dunbar/Spring neighborhood. I noticed the damage on April 25th, but I'd forgotten to post it until now. (Maybe I wanted to forget this awful vandalism.)

Let's start with the photo from 9th & University on the May 25, 2008 entry:


Now for a view of the same spot from the opposite side, then a close-up of the lovely tag:

I know that the city hires a contractor to erase tags on places like the blank walls along Aviation Bikeway. But how to erase a tag on a work of art like this? I'm afraid to try to contact artist Susan Kay Johnson — who lives nearby — because I'd guess this destruction makes her even more sad (and furious) than I am.

Majestic mural on Main

David Aber just sent this photo of a tile mural that fills the home's porch from floor to ceiling:

He took the photo on January 26, 2014. Thank you, David!

Hands and stars for public education

Though it's a bit hard to see (click on the photo for a larger view), the longggg mural says “Support public education!!” It was on the north side of Broadway, across from the corner with Bryant Avenue, on February 28th.

Update (May 25, 2015): There's more now.

Signs morph into a banana

Foe years now, muralist Joe Pagac has been painting murals on the east side of the Rialto Theatre. Most of the murals were about upcoming concerts, but the right end of the murals sprouted something new in 2012: a man holding a sort-of protest sign. From time to time, the sign changed. A few years later, a change on the building led to a change on the sign. Let's take a look.

April 11, 2012
May 17, 2012
February 23, 2013
December 25, 2013
December 21, 2014
March 7, 2015

In the next-to-last view above, a new drainspout covered the right end of the mural. Joe didn't wait long to replace the half-covered man with a painting showing the man's arm wrapped around the drainspout... and, instead of holding a sign in his other hand, he holds up a banana. Brilliant... and fun!

I'm not sure that I caught all of the signs over the years, but you get the idea. Thanks, Joe.