Melt (a sandwich shop)

East wall of 5056 E Broadway Blvd.

Photographed May 28, 2016.

Ben Maestas

Joy Maestas sent photos of murals by her son Ben Maestas in her back yard. Though we don't show murals on private property, Joy told me that you can see the murals from outside.

First, a long stretch of murals around two walls:

And two more:

If you'd like to get in touch with Ben, his phone number is (520)302-8038 and his email is bamairauto@gmail.com.

Thank you, Joy (and Ben)!

Murals being made, part 40: Paulo Freire Freedom School entryway

The murals blog is back after a long weekend.

Today, the second set of photos of CITY Center for Collaborative Learning. Santo Nicotera sent photos of two murals at Paulo Freire Freedom School. Last time, we showed a mural downstairs.

Santo went above and beyond by sending 20 photos showing students painting a mural by the entryway! I can't show all 20 here — partly because I won't show students' faces without permission — but these should give you a good idea. Let's get started!

Thanks again, so much, Santo!

Downstairs at Paulo Freire Freedom School

Santo Nicotera from CITY Center for Collaborative Learning sent photos of two murals at Paulo Freire Freedom School, which is just off Fourth Avenue. (We only show murals that are accessible to the public, and this one is.) This mural is downstairs, lower than street level:

Thanks to Santo, the photos on Monday will be of students painting a mural in the entryway. Check back!

(Not) Mural Lovers, part 3

I was walking along Tyndall, just south of University Boulevard, two days ago. The south side of the buildings that face University (along their opposite side) have a series of brilliant mosaic tile murals. There used to be a tree mural wrapping around the southwest corner of the building along Tyndall, but now — as you can see — the mural is partly covered by a sign advertising the business to come:

This is almost as much respect for art as the destroyed murals along 22nd Street at Aviation Highway. Trashing a tree for natural food (which is what Cup It Up serves)?? Couldn't the business owner have made the sign more squat and put it just over the mural?

If you feel the same way, here's contact information for the location at 1101 N. Wilmot: 520-398-6700, www.cupitup.com. Or, if you're at the U of A, maybe the door along Tyndall will be open if you pass by it. Why not stop by or give them a call — and give them a piece of your mind (or heart)?

Sheesh.

Update: Not long after this blog entry appeared, I got a message from the restaurant that the mural had already been damaged before they moved into the building and replaced the existing sign with another at the same place. Fair enough, I suppose, though for people who don't know the story (as I didn't) it still shows the owner in a bad light. Because it's a mosaic with lots of different-colored and shaped tiles it seems like this would be a fairly easy mural to fix.

Update (July 12, 2018): I got email from Amy Collinsworth of Ben's Bells to point out that they designed the mural to fit around the original sign. As you can read in the previous update, the owner said he just replaced the original sign. (That still left me the impression that the original sign had been placed on top of the mural, since the tops of branches seem to go under the sign. But I was wrong!) Here's part of a photo that Amy sent to show the original installation:

Thanks for pointing this out, Amy — and my apologies.

Murals being made, part 39: TEP south of Cushing

Artist Sabrina Vincent (also known as Slov) sent email to tell me about a new mural of hers at Valley of the Moon. (I haven't had a chance to see it yet. Closer to Halloween, I hope?)

Slov also mentioned that Allison Miller, from the Desert Museum, was painting a mural that Allison had mentioned to me in July. (Back then, she sent me a photo of their new Stingray mural on Speedway. Allison wrote “The next mural will be on a TEP substation in the Menlo Park neighborhood (on Simpson, off of the I-10 Frontage Rd.); it’s theme is all about Pollinators!”) Then I saw a story from Tucson News Now: TEP, Desert Museum create giant 'paint-by-numbers' mural. Slov said Allison and crew would start Saturday and finiah Sunday: quick work! (Click on the photo in that story to see a view of the volunteers at work on Saturday.)

It was dumping rain by the time I got there yesterday. I decided to come back today. It's a big mural! Small parts look like they might not be quite finished (maybe because of that rainstorm?), but overall it's spectacularly big, wrapping around two walls of a TEP substation. Let's look, starting at the southwest corner (the end along Simpson), to the corner of the frontage road, to the north end farther up the frontage road.

Update (February 9, 2018): My guess that the mural wasn't quite finished when I took the 2016 photos was right. An artist friend walked by this week and snapped some photos that she sent me. I've added her 2018 photos between my original 2016 photos below. (I'm also guessing that the mural was finished shortly after I took my 2016 photos.) Let's start with the first five original photos from 2016:

(The white flower above, and a few other white spots along the mural, are what make me think that it's not… quite… finished.)

The first photo below, from 2016, is completely missing a pomegranate, a lot of the flower (toward the left-hand side) isn't finished, and the left tip of the butterfly's wing is blank. The second through fourth photos below, from 2018, show the same spot and then more detail:

Back to 2016:

Next, 2016 followed by 2018:

Back to 2016:

To find the mural, turn south from either Congress or Cushing Streets onto “Freeway”, the frontage road along the west side of I-10. The substation is just past the Riverpark Inn at the corner with Simpson Street.

Thanks, Slov, Allison, and crew!

Nice overview of TAB's recent work

For 20 years or so, the Tucson Arts Brigade has been making art that works for the community. Yesterday they tweeted (from @artsbrigade) a number of their latest projects: a series of photos of some of their latest work. Have a look! Click on the previous link and scroll down to 2016 Murals & Downtown Mural Project…. Then keep scrolling down to Trash Container Mural Demonstration Project, and farther to Mural Gallery.

Manzo Elementary

David Aber (mostly) and I (a little) have started photographing murals at schools around Tucson. This project has been on my to-do list for years, so I appreciate David taking this on!

In the case of Manzo Elementary, though, we didn't need to visit (though it looks like an interesting school! You can see the school's website by clicking there). The principal, Steven La Turco, sent us three photos:

The first mural is by Joe Pagac (signed at lower left). The second (artist names along the top) and third are by David Tineo. Both had the help of students — and, on Joe's mural, from parents too. There's more information in The Spotlight article Manzo holds mural dedication (May 15, 2015).

Thank you so much, Mr. La Turco!

Not a mural, but too fun to miss

David Aber is a co-editor on this blog, but he sent this as part of a group of mailbox photos for the Tucson Mailbox Art blog. As he pointed out, this isn't a mailbox or a mural. (Still, it's sort of a wall — where a mural might be painted if it were flat.) I agree with Dave that the homeowner must be half-crazy — or very fun:

He took the photo on September 12th.

Somewhere around 3636 E. 2nd

Here's the last (I hope!) of Mark Fleming's photos from 2013 that I missed posting back then. It's a poolside mural just west of Alvernon, probably on 2nd Street. Google Maps couldn't find that address; neither could I when I drove along 2nd Street. It's an interesting mural, though…

Next time, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled murals. Thanks once more, Mark.

Update (October 7, 2016): David Aber found the exact address: 3653, not 3636. I've added it as the "Location" below. Thank you, David!

Beautify a street corner

I just saw a tweet from ‏@artsbrigade about this City of Tucson program:

Mural Art Pilot Program

The project is painting murals on the white traffic signal control boxes that you'll see (if you notice them!) at Tucson intersections. If you'd like some inspiration, there are lots of examples at Houston's Mini Murals website home page.

Lost Barrio, 2013

Here's another set of photos that Mark Fleming took but I lost (until now). They're of the Lost Barrio: along Park, south of Broadway. The EXIF data inside the photos says that he took them on August 30, 2013:

At least your lost photos have finally been found, Mark. Thanks!

Und1sputed Fitness, December 2013

The lot on the south side of Und1sputed Fitness hosted the WintaFresh mural painting weekend for years. The festival is gone now, but the murals surrounding that lot keep on changing.

On December 6, 2013, Mark Fleming took photos of a mural along the south wall of that lot. By accident, I never published it — until today. First the whole mural, then two closeups:

Belated thanks, Mark!

More posts, more Mark (more BLX!)

David Aber and I have so many mural photos that we're going to start posting them here three times a week (instead of twice).

I'll start with a few photos that Mark Fleming sent me between 2013-2015. He contributed a lot of photos during that time. As I was cleaning out my TucsonArt.info mailbox yesterday, I spotted a few photos of Mark's that (I think) I never posted here. Here's the first one: a mural on the side of the former BLX skate shop during September, 2013:

While BLX was at that location (it's since moved from 7th Avenue to 7th Street), they had a new mural (by a different muralist) every month or so. Some of the others are:

• October 3, 2012
• December 30, 2012
• May 28, 2013
• December 8, 2014 (after BLX moved away)

More of Mark's photos on Monday.

Maneater

Audrey II (The Mean Green Mother From Outer Space) from the movie "The Little Shop of Horrors". See an excerpt at:  Mean & Green

Found in one of the bays at Smitty's Car Wash.  Photo taken on July 6, 2016.  Click on the photo for a larger image.

Leonardo

Here's Leonardo da Vinci on the campus of the Compass High School (a Charter School) on E. 22nd St.  Here are more murals at Compass

The image appears on an overhead sliding door at one of the buildings.  Apparently, it is not a line drawing, but a printed graphic vinyl.

Bad Attitudes

Photographed on July 31, 2016 at the Speedway Center, a strip mall on the SW corner of Speedway and Swan.  The mural can only be seen from the alley behind the Center.

Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image and don't overlook the volkswagen.

The initials YPN in the upper left may be the tag of a graffiti crew calling themselves "Your Property Next".  Or not.

This mural was painted sometime in June or July of 2016.

Apollo Middle School

I took this photo on Jan. 23, 2016.  A covered eating area blocks much of the mural.

Click on the photo for a larger image.

Cavett Elementary

Murals at Lillian Cavett Elementary School photographed on May 7, 2016.  The artist is Joan Arnold with numerous student assistants.  Painted in 1998.

As usual, click on either photo for a slide show of larger images.

Update (February 4, 2017): There'll a photo of a faded mural near the school's parking lot on this blog once the Cavett continued entry goes online February 27, 2017.