New on 191 E. Toole

The art-covered building at 191-197 E. Toole (the corner with 6th Avenue) has new murals at least once or twice a year. The northwest side of 191 got a new mural recently. It faces a parking lot, so the best time to visit is not during weekday daytimes. Here's the view June 13th from the parking lot entrance. It shows part of Joe Pagac's underwater mural in the background:

The artist is Tatyana Fazlalizadeh.

You can get the same perspective — with a different mural, as well as a full view of Joe Pagac's mural — as of March, 2016 on our blog entry A few bold underwater human and alien fish (?).

There's video and more info about this new mural on the KVOA TV story Mural downtown Tucson causes pause.

Update (June 21, 2017): The Phoenix New Times published When Women Disrupt Brought Their Street Art to Phoenix, Here's What Happened. It's a story including interviews with Tatyana Fazlalizadeh.

Santa Theresa Tileworks changing hands

Susan Gamble has spent more than 30 years at Santa Theresa Tile Works. (You can see the Santa Theresa works we've put on this blog over the years by clicking there.) The Arizona Daily Star reported June 3rd that she's gifting the business (giving it away!) to the Imago Dei Middle School, a private school for low-income families:

Private school and popular local tile company share strong sense of community

What an amazing story! I wish we could have shown it here earlier, but (thankfully) there's lots to put online these days.

Murals being made, part 46b: Tucson's biggest

We're following the painting of what will (for now, at least) be Tucson's largest mural. It's on the south side of Epic Rides, a Tucson bicycle shop. Joe had planned to finish the mural by his wedding on April 22. But as of May 22nd, it remained unfinished. (I hope he had a wonderful honeymoon!) Here's the progress through the days before his wedding. We'll wrap this up next time — in part 46c.

As of the time I wrote this blog entry, June 10th, he's back in town; he posted on Facebook that he's "so close," and the mural looks basically finished to me. (He told me in April that he'd planned to finish painting before the heat got too bad. Sorry, Joe… ;-))

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Since our first entry, which appeared on the blog on April 10th, Joe has made progress. Let's start with April 12: his van, some visitors (he said he gets a lot of visitors), and (at the right edge) the part of the mural we've been following: the javelina on the bicycle at the right edge:

The right half — and part of the left — on April 12:

And the javelina's bicycle, photographed diagonally (at the same angle as the bike):

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Four days later, on April 16th, I found Joe drawing the skyline near the left edge, underneath the cowboy:

I stepped back quite a way to catch the whole left half. Joe is still on the ground, on the other side of the lift, painting the left edge. This gives you an idea of the scale of the mural (!):

Now the right side on that same day, April 16. It looks like he's painted over the three bicycles; the outlines are gone:

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David Aber stopped by on April 17th. Here's his photo of the whole mural from (his photo data says) just before 2 pm:

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Let's wrap up Joe's April work with photos from the 25th — three days after he left for his honeymoon. First, the whole mural:

The cowboy without his "buckin' bike":

The right side:

We'll end this entry with two details from the right side: the jackalope and the javelina, both with their ghostly bikes (which will be filled in during May):

(The javelina is jumping its bike onto a part of the building that extends a few feet away from the rest of the wall. Very fun!)

Part "c" — the last part of the painting, after Joe's honeymoon — should be online in a week or so. See you then!

Update (June 30, 2017): Part 46c went online today. Watch near the bottom for a romantic surprise.

Roll in here (if you can!)

The previous photo showed the top of the store next door as well as the mural on the roll-up shutter. The sign above the entrance for Pima Street Bicycle is about as generic as you can get, though. So let's see just the mural that's hidden while the store is open:

The mural advertises “expert bicycle repair.” So if you can't ride your bike here, you can always carry it in to be fixed.

I stopped by (in my car) near sunset on May 28th, 2017.

Updates: As David Aber was doing his usual careful checking (he's caught my goofs more than a few times!), he saw on Google Street View that the shop had moved two blocks away — from 5247 to 5445 East Pima — sometime between the time I snapped this photo and the time the Street View car rolled by on June 2018. Even more interesting is that the store took the mural with them — on the same roll-up shutter! I've updated the Location at the bottom of this entry.

Monty “Ses” painted the mural with help from Rickey “Sketch” Bush.

Info-full Daily Wildcat murals article

The Tucson Arts Brigade tweeted (on Twitter, that is) a link to this Daily Wildcat article by Sean Orth:

Tucson Mural Arts Program struggles to awaken city's public art scene

You'll read interviews with mural artists and TAB's Michael Schwartz, info about graffiti vs. murals, and funding roadblocks.

Crusin' Tattoo Avenue

You'll only see this scene if you cruise by the store while it's closed. This is the roll-down shutter, and the scene is of two classic cars cruising somewhere.

I rolled past (and stopped around the corner) near sunset on May 28th. Friday, I'll show the business next door.

Maybe Murals, part 73

The Tucson Murals Project defines a mural as basically “art on a flat surface that we think a fair number of people will enjoy.”  I'm suggesting that the following two images meet that definition if you can get past the fact that, at night, they are lit by old style neon lighting.  Here they are from the courtyard of the Hotel Congress:

Click on either photo for larger and sharper images.

DeGrazia chapel fire ruins frescoes

The frescoes on the walls of the chapel at DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun were heavily damaged by a fire, the Arizona Daily Star reports.

You can see some of the chapel walls in our February 4, 2010 entry. There are old and current photos in the Star's article. There's more on the Mission in the Sun page at the DeGrazia website.

How sad. It was a wonderful little place.

Pima Animal Care Center

Both the Pima Animal Care Center and the Humane Society do a fantastic job taking care of Tucson's lost, sick, injured and abandoned animals.

Photo taken May 24, 2017.  Click on photo for a larger and sharper image.

NOTE - re computer issues

As you probably know, Jerry Peek is the driving force behind the Tucson Murals Project.  He is having computer problems and he can't post any murals until it's fixed.  So, for the time being, we are dead in the water.

I can't believe this....he actually has Microsoft working on the problem....for free!  How do you do that?

Update by Jerry (September 8, 2017): In case you're wondering whether I got a scam phone call: I called Microsoft myself after a problem with Windows updates. After a couple of weeks, we didn't find a solution. So I'm even more behind with mural photos. Thanks to David Aber for filling in the gaps!

"Look out for each other"

Photographed on 5/12/2017.  The mural is on the north wall of a building at 1622 S. 6th Ave.

The artist is Rock Martinez (CYFI).

Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

OK, another exception (for Cinco de Mayo): Nogales

OK, so this is the Tucson Murals Project. And our policy from founder Randy Garsee was not to show murals in places that aren't open to the public (that charge admission, that expect you to buy something like a meal, are in a private home, etc.). I may change that policy in the future. I've seen lots of incredible murals that are worth seeing in photos if not in person… especially once I convert this blog to a format where you can see high-resolution phoos (as David Aber is already posting).

My favorite restaurant just across the Mexican border, La Roca, doesn't need promotion. But a mural in the hallway between their restaurant and their bar, is very fun. Since today is Cinco de Mayo, I've cracked open my second bottle of Dos Equis dark (that's a lie: I actually don't drink much), so let's break the rules and have a look, ¿nó?

As you walk the hallway between the restaurant and bar (hint: try to get a table on the little balcony!), you'll pass the mural:

(It's actually covered with plastic, I think, which makes the glare you see here.) Click if you'd like a larger view.

Now for a few details. The artist had some fun with this one:

I'd guess that the white-coated waiters will let you in for a look if you're dressed respectfully. (And, from here, it's only a couple-of-block walk north to the little-used US Border Crosing station. After crossing, turn left and go over the train tracks to reach the main Customs entrance.)

I was there last on October 26th.

Beautiful trash containers

[First, a note about scheduling. I'm going to have trouble keeping up with the three-murals-a-week schedule of this blog. David Aber is doing what he can. So, for now, I'll drop back to two blog entries per week. Thanks to all of our hundreds of new viewers for following along!]

If you've been following this blog for a while, you've seen Coming soon: (not) trash murals and Trash container murals revealed. Back then, I said that I hoped to put photos of all five dumpsters online ASAP. More than a year later, here are… two.

Let's jump back to September 28, 2016. That's when I drove by this container in front of Creative Beginning Preschool, 2690 North 1st Avenue. I'll start with a view of the parking lot, then get closer (cropped from the first photo) and closer:

Next, let's jump back even farther to the east side of Scott Avenue, at the corner of the parking lot south of Wig-o-Rama, on on April 26, 2016. A tour around the container and the corner with credits:

Mountain scene hidden along South Fourth

We've had photos of murals on the front of South Tucson institution Sue's Fish & Chips twice now: February 3, 2010 and November 27, 2014. But neither Mark Fleming nor I went around to the back parking lot to spot the mural on a shipping container behind a mobile home parked next to it:

I did… on October 4, 2016. It must be a nice view from the mobile home's windows! (You can see one of the windows reflected near the left end of the photos above.)

Greetings

NYC artist Victor Ving and his photographer girlfriend, Lisa Beggs, are traveling the country painting murals inspired by vintage "Greetings From..."  postcards.  They get help from local artists such as Rock Martinez who painted the letter "C".  The images are: T-Univ. of AZ; U-Saguaro cacti; C-Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead); S-Hotel Congress & John Dillinger; O-San Xavier del Bac & Man in the Maze; N-Sonoran hot dog.  Photographed on Feb. 22, 2017.

On the east side of Miller's Surplus.  Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

The Arizona Daily Star article Muralists paint a Tucson postcard, the Tucson News Now story 'Greetings Tour' makes stop in Tucson to paint new mural and the Greetings Tour - Tucson, AZ web page have more information.

There's another “Greetings from Tucson” mural in our October 5, 2013 entry New @ 1st & Arcadia.

Update (August 24, 2017): Here's a March 17th closeup of the bottom right corner:

Update (August 10, 2021): Jerry Peek took closeups of each letter in TUCSON:

Boot Bunkhouse rebooted (groan)

Almost exactly seven years ago, we posted a photo of the full-length mural on Boot Bunkhouse.

Five months ago — December 11, 2016 — Mark Fleming sent photos of the refreshed mural:

The left-hand circle is signed Darah L Sueme 9/2014:

I've driven by there lots of times and never noticed. Thanks from all of us, Mark!

1957 Chevy Bel Air

Mosaics on the wall of New Way Auto Parts.

1957 Chevy Bel Air

Customized 1957 Chevy Bel Air

Photographed on April 07, 2017.
Click on either photo for a slide show of larger and sharper images.

Faces

North wall of an apparently vacant building.

Photographed on April 07, 2017.
As always, click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

Update (June 30, 2021): The building isn't vacant now. Inside is Tanline Printing. Marcus Robiason painted the mural.

Update (November 30, 2021): Today's post includes what Marcus wrote about his style and how he paints.

Victor's Upholstering

Photographed on March 27, 2017. Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

I failed to notice that Jerry Peek had posted a previous version of this mural on 12/01/2009.  He was forced to shoot over a closed gate.  I had the advantage of being inside the fence. Here's the link: Mystery murals