New at Mexicayotl Academy

Around the corner from the other murals at Mexicayotl Academy (which are mostly faded now)I spotted a new mural November 20th. Here are two views:

David Aber joins the Tucson Murals Project

You've seen a number of David Aber's great photos on this blog. He's emailed them to me and I've posted them.

I realized that he might just post the photos himself — and he's agreed to become the blog's co-editor. You'll start seeing his name at the bottom of some blog entries on the "“Posted by” line.

Welcome, Dave!

Slovly('s) mural updated

Three years of Mondays ago — January 21, 2013 — I posted photos of the mural by Sabrina Vincent — better known as the artist SLOV — on the wall outside her family's Tucson home.

(If you haven't seen that blog entry, I hope you'll click over! The mural was one of my favorites. And don't miss the links from that blog entry to the Arizona Daily Star article and to the photos of the mural-making, as well as the Portfolio section, of SLOV's website.)

Yesterday, as I drove along Columbus Boulevard — on my way home from a planning meeting of the Heart of Tucson Art group — by the way, their spring artsists' open studios tour will be April 9-10 — I drove by this familiar spot. (I know Tucson streets mural-by-mural. “Such-and-such mural is two blocks over there,” I'll think.) I did a double-take and pulled over right away to take some photos.

The left side of the old mural — next to her garage door — is now solid blue-green. The new mural is on the side of her home along Columbus:

The words are: thee lift me / and I'll lift thee / and we'll ascend together.

La historia del Güero Canelo, part 2 of 2

Part 1 of this two-part series showed the mural along the east wall of El Güero Canelo's South 12th Avenue parking lot… the first part of the history of this popular restaurant. The mural on the south wall shows the rest of the story (the story until the mural was painted, that is). It starts at 2007, so it isn't as long as the previous one (which started in 1961)… though it's still way too long to see while you're browsing this blog entry:

No screen I know of — except maybe in a cinema — has enough pixels to show the whole thing. So here's a link to David Aber's entire panorama. If it works on your computer or phone, you should be able to scroll through it from the left end to the right:

El Güero Canelo mural, south wall: panorama by David Aber

These first four parts of the mural have text with the story through 2012:

The mural finishes with three painted scrolls. The first and second have grass painted underneath; the trees at the right sides are real:

Thanks once more, Dave, for all of the time that you spent on this!

La historia del Güero Canelo, part 1 of 2

The popular restaurant El Güero Canelo has two very long murals along the parking lot at its South 12th Avenue location. The murals show its story, beginning in the 1960s. David Aber did a tremendous service to all we art-lovers by taking lots of photos and stitching them into panoramas of each mural. We'll see the east wall first.

As you can tell — even if you clicked on the image to get a bigger view — the whole panorama is way too long to show in the little space on this blog. If you'd like to see the whole mural, try clicking on this link:

El Güero Canelo mural, east wall: panorama by David Aber

That page is so wide that it still may not be easy to see on your phone or computer. In case you couldn't see it, here are some excerpts. These are closer views of pieces of the mural that have places and dates, from left to right:

Again, if you'd like to see the whole mural, try clicking on this link:

El Güero Canelo mural, east wall: panorama by David Aber

The next time, the south wall!

Over Olive again

About five years ago, we posted two photos of a series of murals along Speedway at the U of A, over Olive Road between Mountain and Euclid in Down under (Speedway). I stopped by on November 6, 2015, to take a closer look.

These photos show a bit more than the pair we posted back then. They run from the left (east) end to the right:

Tucson Arts Brigade murals being removed

I'm sad to announce that Tucson Arts Brigade Executive Director Michael B. Schwartz has told me to “Remove all tab murals from your site immediately.”

TAB does a great service to the community — for instance, working with youth (some who've been tagging buildings) to teach them to paint murals. Though I don't understand Michael's request, I'll do what he asked ASAP. If you love TAB murals, here's a Google search you can click on to see them while they're still online:

"Tucson Arts Brigade" OR TAB site:tucsonmurals.blogspot.com

Three years ago, I posted a list of Murals on TAB's Facebook page. You might find some newer photos there as well as on TAB's website.

By the way, I won't be removing the entire blog entries — just the photos.

Mural near the feast

We usually only cover murals that are open to the public, for free. This one is a bit of an exception. It's behind the front gate at Wat Buddhametta. This Thai center also holds a number of classes and community events, as well as a monthly Thai buffet on the third Saturday of most months. (To find out more, click on their website, above. Also see the Tucson's Pocket Parks blog entry.) During those times, at least, you can come in the front gate and find this tile mural near the main entrance:

And a closeup:

I was there for the monthly buffet on December 18th. I snapped the photos at sunset.

Murals from TPAC's archive

As the TPAC (Tucson Pima Arts Council) website says, they administer Percent for Art programs for Tucson and Pima County. In other words, one percent of the cost of construction goes to public art… including murals like these:

http://www.tucsonpimaartscouncil3.org/dynamic/publicart/collection/collection.asp?cat=Mural&s=

Lost horses

Back on June 28th, 2015, Mark Fleming sent photos of a mural we'd covered, briefly, in our January 19, 2008 entry 10th Avenue (On The Edge of South Tucson). As I was looking through photos that I'd gotten by email last year, I realized that his photos still weren't online. Let's fix that!

First, here's the mural from the south end:

Next, some details:

I'm sorry I missed these, Mark.

Maybe a mural, part 67: Decorated gate

In almost 1,100 posts, we've seen 66 that are “maybe” a mural: art on a wall that isn't just paint or a lot of tiles completely covering a space. This is the 67th of those posts.

As you stand outside that gate on Paseo Grande, you're greeted by lots of little images; flowers, birds, butterflies, and at least one saguaro. Here's a closer view of the right side:

I was wrapped up in the detail on November 6th.

Faint (and not finished?)

My photo of this mural on the home's front wall made it look faded — or, at least, faint. So I've darkened the photo to help you see what's there.

Do you think the mural also looks unfinished? It seems that way to me, but (thanks to the comment from a previous wall's owner who commissioned her mural), I realize that my guess isn't always right. (If you'd like to see the comments, click there to see the mural and then scroll down to see the comments).

If this mural wasn't finished when I snapped the photo on October 26th, maybe it's different by now — or will be in 2016? Whatever… Happy New Year!

More mural-ific

Back on June 11th, in an entry titled Mural-ific!, we showed David Aber's photos of a very long mural at PPEP Tech High School (and admitted that mural-ific isn't a word :). Back then, he wasn't able to get near enough to make closeup shots of the second half of the mural. This autumn, though, he did. (Thanks!) David emailed these photos on November 25th:

As always, you can click on a photo for a larger view.

Maybe a mural, part 66

October 25th, after I visited an artist on one of this year's fall Open Studios Tours, I looked up the block and saw a home with an artistic wall out front, on the side along Silverbell. Here's a look from the left (south) end to the right end:

But that's not all. There's an artistic mailbox out front. Click there to see it on the Tucson Mailbox Art blog.

For some reason, Blogger couldn't find this home's address. Here's a Google Map of 239 N. Silverbell.

Villa de Jardín

That tile mural graces the wall along the front of this multi-unit complex, which runs from 3345-3395 East Second Street. I passed by on my bicycle November 6th.

Lazy day at Bookmans (thanks to Joe Pagac)

I'd seen this mural on the east wall of the Bookmans location on Grant for months before I snapped a photo on September 27th: