The "living" mural

Jason Lee Nolan, the owner of Black Crow Studio, has set up a unique mural on the building across the parking lot from his business — on the TUSD building, 442 East 7th Street. (His business is across the parking lot at 426 East 7th Street.) Artists can sign up to paint an empty rectangle painted on the wall. If one of those squares is trashed by a tagger, or could just be refreshed, that part of the wall can be repainted. Here are views from the outside (north) end, through to the inside (south) end:

To keep up to date, follow @TheLivingMural on Instagram (https://instagram.com/thelivingmural). I posted an update on July 19, 2022. I'll aim to come back from time to time to get new photos.

Update (January 24, 2023): Today I posted photos of the murals across the parking lot, at Black Crow Tattoo, taken September 20, 2022.

New "living mural" near 4th Avenue

This looks like a very fun mural to see more than once. From the Arizona Daily Star's #ThisIsTucson: Living mural. I'm aiming to have photos on this blog in the next couple of weeks.

New way to follow by email coming soon

At the right edge of pages on this blog is a box titled "Follow by Email". Google/Blogger has announced that the feature will be discontinued in July. I'm working on a new system for following by email. Please watch this blog on the Web (tucsonmurals.blogspot.com) — or in your email, if you're subscribed — for instructions.

(By the way, if you use Twitter, you can get announcements of each new blog entry by following @TucsonArt. You'll also see tweets about Tucson art events, artists, and more.)

Peppi's House

This mosaic is on the front of Peppi's House.  It is the Tucson Medical Center's Hospice.

The "house" is named for Rose "Peppi" Grosse, a philanthropist who volunteered at TMC before developing cancer and enrolling in TMC's hospice program. One of her final decisions was to donate $1 million for a new hospice building. She was 73 when she died on May 22, 2000.

 Click for a larger and sharper image.

Our January 12, 2012 entry, also named Peppi's House, shows an earlier version of the mural and two other murals nearby.

Murals being made, part 61: Arizona Picture & Frame, west side

Last time, we saw the south wall of the former McGoldrick's Picture & Frame along Speedway. This time, here's the entrance from the parking lot on the west side. The entrance used to look as plain as the Speedway side did two years ago. When I got there on February 9th, Jessica Gonzales had painted the area around the doors and half of the portal in front. The portal was under construction, too; the "ENTRANCE" letters above had been removed:

Later, Jessica wrote on Instagram that she'd finished. I stopped by on March 3rd as construction around the murals was wrapping up:

She dated her work 2020 although it was finished in 2021:

Arizona Picture & Frame, south side

In June, 2019, the south (Speedway) side of the former McGoldrick's Picture & Frame looked like this (in Google Street View):



Boorrrrr-ing!

Jessica Gonzales has transformed the look of the store — now called McGoldrick's Arizona Picture & Frame:

Next, from left (west) to right:

I took these on February 9, 2021. I like the way she worked frames into the design. We'll see the west wall next time.

Update (March 22, 2022): Jessica also painted the right side of this wall — the southwest corner of the building. There are photos in today's post.

Ted DeGrazia's 1964 mosaic mural

Last week, on #ThrowbackThursday, DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun Museum tweeted about a 1964 mural by DeGrazia:

In 1964 artist #TedDeGrazia completed his first 96-square-foot mosaic mural titled “The Desert Medicine Man". This colorful mosaic is on permanent display just west of the gallery. Happy #ThrowbackThursday! #DeGrazia #GalleryInTheSunMuseum #Tucson #AZ #Mosaic #MedicineMan #TBT pic.twitter.com/n5CGUFTFlI

— DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun Museum (@DeGraziaGallery) April 8, 2021

Happy Throwback Thursday!

Evergreen Flowers

On February 7th, I pulled off of 22nd Street to find something on my map. I found myself in the parking lot for Evergreen Flowers. On the west side of the building — hidden unless you were coming from the west — was a mural of (you guessed it) flowers:

(There was something wrong with my camera. The whole mural has the same color of white.)

pure aesthetics natural skincare school

(The name on their sign is all lowercase letters.) This mosaic-and-mirrors mural is near the southwest corner of the building, at the end of the parking lot:

I spotted it on January 25th when I was next door at Blake's Lotaburger getting a green chile cheeseburger. (Yum. :)

Jessica Gonzales video

Jessica Gonzales painted her first large-scale public mural in 2016. In five years, she's created a number of strong, bright murals around Tucson. (If you aren't familiar with her work, you can see more of it with this search for Jessica Gonzales on the blog and her Facebook page, Jessica Gonzales Art.)

Andrew Emery Brown (click there to see his Instagram page) produced and edited this video, titled The Muralist, for Arizona Illustrated on Arizona Public Media:



If you can't see the video above, try this direct link to YouTube: https://youtu.be/PZJduxTDWuo.

Ashtanga Yoga

On May 9, 2020, the south side of the building on the northwest corner of Congress & Grande looked like this:

(You can see this photo, and closeups of the two murals, in the July 21, 2020 entry La Chaiteria, Part II.)

When I drove by on January 8, 2021, the door at the left side wasn't blank anymore. It had a new mural for Ashtanga Yoga Tucson:

Next, closeups of the two blocks at the right edge. I think they're artist info, but I couldn't find either account:

Tucson destroyed!!

(April Fools. :) Ignacio Garcia painted the last hours of Tucson on Fangamer at the northwest corner of Speedway & Rosemont:

I was almost abducted :) on February 25th.

Trot over to TROT

Theraputic Riding of Tucson (TROT), founded in 1974 by a physical therapist and an equine specialist, provides alternative therapies to individuals with disabilities. Their headquarters are in northeast Tucson, and the photo above is from near the entrance.

I didn't go into the property, but I did snap photos of murals on the north and west outer walls. (As always, you can click on a photo for a larger view.) My camera was acting strange, so I've had some trouble matching colors…

A few blocks west is a horse mailbox. (Click there to see it on the Tucson Mailbox Art blog.)

I trotted by (and stopped) on November 22, 2020.

Flowered Fence

I found this fence and storage shed behind Nico's Taco Shop on an overcast March 9, 2021.

Could not decipher the artist's name and number.

Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

Update (June 7, 2022): The business has changed to Losberto's Mexican Food. All that's left behind the restaurant is a broken fence and some junk:

Tucson Desert Art Museum: Native American muralists

This mural is on the west end of the building that houses the Tucson Desert Art Museum. It's part of the exhibition Sacred Walls: Native American Muralism. Their website says “The Museum celebrates the unique artistry of Native American muralists, via a large mural on the outside wall of the Museum and several floor-to-ceiling murals within the Museum by noted Native American artists including Dose, Dwayne Manuel, Jaque Fragua, & Anitra "Yukue" Molina.” Something was wrong with my camera, so the photo isn't as clear as it could be:

I was there on February 24th.

Tony Montana on 6th

Just by coincidence, Tony Montana (click there for info from Wikipedia) has the same initials as the owner, Tony Montoya, of Tony's Car Wash & Triple J Title Services on South 6th Avenue:

And the initials in the mural are for… you guessed it:

The artist was Julian Argote:

I shot by on November 18, 2020.

The mural behind two famous mailboxes

“Famous” is probably more than the mailboxes on Swan (between Grant and Pima) deserve. But they're seen by a lot of people. To see the mailboxes and read the story of the building behind them, see today's entry What's behind 2005 and 2007 North Swan on the Tucson Mailbox Art blog. On the east wall of the building is this tile mural:

I took the photo on February 25th.

Welcome To Tucson

This photo was taken on Oct. 22, 2020 at the corner of E. Broadway Blvd. and S. Park Ave.

Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

Update from Jerry Peek: In case you found this “mew-ral” (sorry :) while you were looking for the “Greetings from Tucson” murals, here are two:

• New @ 1st & Arcadia
• Greetings

A previous mural at this location was posted March 29, 2010: Baby Birds on Broadway

Mural photos and videos from BG Boyd Photography

On Instagram I saw a video of Ignacio Garcia's new mural on the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona. (We'll have photos after it's finished.) Ignacio told me that the video was from BG Boyd Photography. Among other things, BG Boyd's website has photos and videos of Tucson murals: https://bgboydphoto.com/murals

Zooming in on 2013 North Swan

When I stopped by this bit of Swan Road on February 9th, I found that the mailbox along the street had changed. [You can see it in today's entry on the Tucson Mailbox Art blog, 2013 North Swan repainted (and more).]

Then I looked at the land behind the fence. There were murals on two buildings in the distance:

The photos I took didn't turn out well, so I came back. I took the first photo below, of the building to the left, on February 21st. I took the second, of the building to the right, on February 25th. (Super-zoom lenses are great!)

While at Five Points...

If you haven't been to Five Points (south of downtown, where Stone and 6th Avenues meet) — or haven't been recently — there's a lot happening! This month a new sculpture of Cesar Chavez, plus arches over the five streets that meet at the intersection, are due to be dedicated. You can eat, shop, stay, and go to one of the new buildings sprouting up all over.

While I'm at it, here's a photo of the sculpture and one of the arches, looking northwest. The sculptor was Luis Mena, who's also painted a number of murals around town:

One block northwest along Stone is an office that looks like a house. It's been there for years, and it has some nice tile murals on front. (Although you can enter from Stone, the building is actually on Russell Avenue.)

Now the murals, left to right, followed by the artist's signature from the third mural:

The business here is Carly Quinn Designs.

I took the photo of the building front on November 18, 2020 and the rest on February 19, 2021.