Tuesday, August 10, 2021
8th Avenue & 36th Street from above
BG Boyd Photo specializes in aerial photos taken from a drone. This painted intersection by Mel Melo Dominguez, near Mission View Elementary in South Tucson, is a perfect candidate:
The fourth corner is covered by a tree. Here's a shot I took from ground level on July 23rd:
Friday, August 06, 2021
City of Gastronomy
Tucson was the first city in the US named as a World City of Gastronomy by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
This mural was found on the east wall of Zio Peppe, a restaurant serving pizza and pasta.
By Ashley White |
Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.
Tuesday, August 03, 2021
Both sides of this mural magnet on Toole
The building that spans the addresses 191-197 E. Toole in downtown Tucson has had many different murals over the years… you can see a number of them by clicking the links in our page “Layers of murals: histories of a few walls.”: Northwest side of 191 East Toole and East side of 197 East Toole. BG Boyd took photos of both ends — 191 and 197 — at the end of May, 2021. Here are his photos of 191, then 197:
The second photo is a panorama, stitched together from several shots. (As always, you can click on a photo for a larger view.) We'll see more of his photos one week from today.
Labels:
BG Boyd
Location:
191 E Toole Ave, Tucson, AZ 85701, USA
Friday, July 30, 2021
Typical Teenager
Found on the north wall of the former Charlie's Comic Books, this mural is in the same spot but with a new store behind: Time Warp Gifts & Novelties.
By Vic Hollins |
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
See it while you can
BG Boyd is a Part 107 certified drone photographer based in Tucson. He's shared a number of his photos of Tucson murals (from his website BG Boyd Photo) with all of us on this blog. This post is the first of a series of his photos from land, aerial photos and videos. I'll also be updating some earlier posts on this blog with his aerial photos; after I'm done with that, I'll post a list of the ones I updated. In the meantime, check his website (link above) for a number of aerial mural videos and other photos… he's also on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
This Arizona Arts Live mural by Robb Harris is on a building that's about to be demolished. It's lost some paint since BG took this photo:
This Arizona Arts Live mural by Robb Harris is on a building that's about to be demolished. It's lost some paint since BG took this photo:
Labels:
BG Boyd,
Robb Harris
Location:
702 S Stone Ave, Tucson, AZ 85701, USA
Friday, July 23, 2021
Hidden away at El Torero
Most of Danny Martin's murals are in black and white. This one is different because it has a pink background:
Here's a closeup:
The mural is on El Torero Restaurant, but it's on the east side — which you can't see from the front of the building on 26th Street. You can see it across the street from the building at 1537 S. 4th Avenue. It's on the far side of a lot behind a fence along 4th Avenue. I took the photos with a zoom lens on June 30th.
Labels:
Danny Martin
Location:
231 E 26th St, Tucson, AZ 85713, USA
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
La Nalgona in Arizona
Mike Rios (@mykerios on Instagram) painted that mural across the street from American Eat Co. and Market, which is at
1439 South 4th Avenue. Here's the right edge with his signature:
I snapped the photos on June 30th.
Update (December 3, 2021): There are two new murals to the right (north) side of this one: You can see closeups in today's post La Nalgona has neighbors.
Update (December 3, 2021): There are two new murals to the right (north) side of this one: You can see closeups in today's post La Nalgona has neighbors.
Labels:
Mike Rios
Location:
1439 S 4th Ave, Tucson, AZ 85713, USA
Friday, July 16, 2021
Murals being made, part 64: Sahara Apartments
The mural is in a narrow space between buildings at the Sahara Apartments. David Aber took multiple photos on June 13, 2021, and stitched them together into the spectacular result above. It's on his Flickr account at https://www.flickr.com/photos/26438012@N08/51250402031/in/album-72157655537201051/. I've split it into the three clips below:
Joe Pagac wrote on Facebook November 15, 2020: "Katherine Joyce Lester and I just finished up this mural at Sahara Apartments on Stone just south of Speedway! A little African Peyote Oasis. Dung/Scarab beetle bringing up the rear courtesy of my nephew." I caught them painting on November 12:
On Facebook, you can find Katherine at katherine.lester.14019 and Joe at joepagac.
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Email subscribers, **please read now** - New way to follow this blog by email
If you've signed up to get email notifications of each new post (entry) in this blog, please read this.
Google (actually, Feedburner) is discontinuing the "Follow by email" box that's at the right edge of every page. It's in the first red box below: If you've filled in that box before, and you'd like to continue getting email notices, please use the "Contact Us" form shown in the second red box above. Tell us that you'd like to keep getting email. I'll collect your names and email addresses, then contact you soon. (I've set up a list on Mailchimp to send you notices.) Your name is optional.
If you haven't subscribed but want to, please watch the blog for an announcement of how to do that. Or, here are two other ways to follow the blog:
Google (actually, Feedburner) is discontinuing the "Follow by email" box that's at the right edge of every page. It's in the first red box below: If you've filled in that box before, and you'd like to continue getting email notices, please use the "Contact Us" form shown in the second red box above. Tell us that you'd like to keep getting email. I'll collect your names and email addresses, then contact you soon. (I've set up a list on Mailchimp to send you notices.) Your name is optional.
If you haven't subscribed but want to, please watch the blog for an announcement of how to do that. Or, here are two other ways to follow the blog:
- If you're on Twitter, you can follow @TucsonArt for a tweet about each new blog post. There are also tweets about Tucson art events and artists.
- On Facebook, The New Tucson Murals Project Page has one post each month with a link to the previous month's murals. (This may not continue to work after the end of 2021.)
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Sahuarita murals from BG Boyd Photo
Photographer BG Boyd has a lot of Tucson murals on his website! You'll be seeing some of them here a bit later this year.
This blog usually doesn't show murals outside of Tucson. But, when BG emailed yesterday to say that he has a new Sahuarita page on his website, I realized that I could publish a link here to let you see them if you'd like. Many are by Tucson artists:
bgboydphoto.com/murals/sahuarita
This blog usually doesn't show murals outside of Tucson. But, when BG emailed yesterday to say that he has a new Sahuarita page on his website, I realized that I could publish a link here to let you see them if you'd like. Many are by Tucson artists:
bgboydphoto.com/murals/sahuarita
Monday, July 12, 2021
15th anniversary of The Tucson Murals Project!
Former KOLD-TV news anchor Randy Garsee founded this blog July 12, 2006. A 2008 Arizona Daily Star article quoted Randy:
In today's 15th-anniversary edition, I'll take you through the 15 most popular posts from the past 10 years. (Blogger's statistics don't cover 15 years.) If a post has more than one photo, I'll choose one; you can click on the link underneath each photo to see all of the photos in the post — actually, all of the post.
Let's start with an exact copy of the first post — July 12, 2006. Note that, in this screenshot, the links don't work.
(If you'd like to see the 10th anniversary post mentioned above, click here: Ten years of Tucson murals.)
Now, the most-viewed posts, starting with the most popular. After each photo is a link to the actual post. After you click on that link, use the "back" button or arrow on your browser or phone to come back here.
This is the north side of the famous Hippie Gypsy store on 4th Avenue:
July 21, 2008: Tucson Murals Project's 50th Posting!
Luis Mena has been painting (and sculpting and …) for decades in Tucson. This mural of Benito Juarez is dated August 18, 1981:
November 22, 2012: Early mural by Luis Gustavo Mena
The Tucson Portrait Project took the photos of 6,000 Tucsonans. The plan was to make them into a series of murals lining the underpass, but the project ran out of money:
December 13, 2009: 6,000 Tucsonans in the 4th Avenue underpass
The mural is/was on a stand-alone wall on a (mostly) unused lot in the back of the school:
August 11, 2016: Ford Elementary
There are/were two murals on a storage shed at Smitty's Car Wash. Here's one:
November 9, 2016: Storage Shed at Smitty's
The front of the store has/had a full-width mural:
December 3, 2011: Little Germany Foreign Car Repair
Feldman's is a National Historic District:
January 02, 2017: Feldman's Neighborhood
The mural is behind a fence, but David Aber was able to get in:
April 17, 2017: Victor's Upholstering
At the end of the driveway of a private home, Wile E. Coyote and the (beep beep, or maybe meep meep) Road Runner:
October 19, 2016: Beep Beep
Of all the schools David Aber had visited by this point, Rincon High had the largest mural by far:
The original post has a series of close-ups:
February 15, 2017: Rincon High
A tagger trashed Joe Pagac's name on the huge Epic Rides mural that took three months of work:
July 02, 2017: !*?%&#= TAGGERS!!
Joy Maestas sent photos of murals by her son Ben Maestas in their back yard. All four murals are completely different — and very good. Here's the first section of wall:
October 14, 2016: Ben Maestas
One of Tucson's biggest murals, it's filled with Western vistas and humans in animals' bodies. Click on the link for the blog post to see lots of close-ups.
April 10, 2015: Joe Pagac's Borderlands Brewing mural
A number of electric substations around Tucson have murals. Here's one:
May 22, 2009: Electrifying art ("artifying" electricity?)
This is part of a long series showing Jos Villabrile wrapping the building in murals:
April 26, 2013: Jos wraps (up) Good Ole Tom's: murals being made, part 18
There are more than a thousand other murals on the blog. If you're new here, have a look around! There's an introduction, tips for getting around, and some history too, in the page About this blog.
I'm aware that this blog isn't easy to see on mobile phones. I'm hoping to fix that in the next year or so.
Stay tuned for the next fifteen years!
“The initial idea behind the Tucson Murals Project was to complement Tucson's Downtown redevelopment. It seemed to me that the city was leaving out a great idea for Tucson tourism: a map for tourists to drive and find Tucson's beautiful wall-size pieces of art.”He passed away in 2013. (I hope we're doing you proud, Randy.) There's lots of info about him — though with many links out of date — in the post Farewell, Randy....
In today's 15th-anniversary edition, I'll take you through the 15 most popular posts from the past 10 years. (Blogger's statistics don't cover 15 years.) If a post has more than one photo, I'll choose one; you can click on the link underneath each photo to see all of the photos in the post — actually, all of the post.
Let's start with an exact copy of the first post — July 12, 2006. Note that, in this screenshot, the links don't work.
(If you'd like to see the 10th anniversary post mentioned above, click here: Ten years of Tucson murals.)
Now, the most-viewed posts, starting with the most popular. After each photo is a link to the actual post. After you click on that link, use the "back" button or arrow on your browser or phone to come back here.
#1: Tucson Murals Project's 50th Posting!
This is the north side of the famous Hippie Gypsy store on 4th Avenue:July 21, 2008: Tucson Murals Project's 50th Posting!
#2: Early mural by Luis Gustavo Mena
Luis Mena has been painting (and sculpting and …) for decades in Tucson. This mural of Benito Juarez is dated August 18, 1981:
November 22, 2012: Early mural by Luis Gustavo Mena
#3: 6,000 Tucsonans in the 4th Avenue underpass
The Tucson Portrait Project took the photos of 6,000 Tucsonans. The plan was to make them into a series of murals lining the underpass, but the project ran out of money:
#4: Ford Elementary
The mural is/was on a stand-alone wall on a (mostly) unused lot in the back of the school:August 11, 2016: Ford Elementary
#5: Storage Shed at Smitty's
There are/were two murals on a storage shed at Smitty's Car Wash. Here's one:UFT (Unidentified Flying Taco) |
November 9, 2016: Storage Shed at Smitty's
#6: Little Germany Foreign Car Repair
The front of the store has/had a full-width mural:
December 3, 2011: Little Germany Foreign Car Repair
#7: Feldman's Neighborhood
Feldman's is a National Historic District:January 02, 2017: Feldman's Neighborhood
#8: Victor's Upholstering
The mural is behind a fence, but David Aber was able to get in:April 17, 2017: Victor's Upholstering
#9: Beep Beep
At the end of the driveway of a private home, Wile E. Coyote and the (beep beep, or maybe meep meep) Road Runner:October 19, 2016: Beep Beep
#10: Rincon High
Of all the schools David Aber had visited by this point, Rincon High had the largest mural by far:The original post has a series of close-ups:
February 15, 2017: Rincon High
#11: !*?%&#= TAGGERS!!
A tagger trashed Joe Pagac's name on the huge Epic Rides mural that took three months of work:July 02, 2017: !*?%&#= TAGGERS!!
#12: Ben Maestas
Joy Maestas sent photos of murals by her son Ben Maestas in their back yard. All four murals are completely different — and very good. Here's the first section of wall:
October 14, 2016: Ben Maestas
#13: Joe Pagac's Borderlands Brewing mural
One of Tucson's biggest murals, it's filled with Western vistas and humans in animals' bodies. Click on the link for the blog post to see lots of close-ups.
April 10, 2015: Joe Pagac's Borderlands Brewing mural
#14: Electrifying art ("artifying" electricity?)
A number of electric substations around Tucson have murals. Here's one:
May 22, 2009: Electrifying art ("artifying" electricity?)
#15: Jos wraps (up) Good Ole Tom's: murals being made, part 18
This is part of a long series showing Jos Villabrile wrapping the building in murals:
April 26, 2013: Jos wraps (up) Good Ole Tom's: murals being made, part 18There are more than a thousand other murals on the blog. If you're new here, have a look around! There's an introduction, tips for getting around, and some history too, in the page About this blog.
I'm aware that this blog isn't easy to see on mobile phones. I'm hoping to fix that in the next year or so.
Stay tuned for the next fifteen years!
Friday, July 09, 2021
Quetzalcoatl
Facing the Memorial mural for Samantha Silverman in our previous post is a mural on the south wall of Amazing Discoveries. Quetzalcoatl is the feathered serpent god of the Aztec and Toltec cultures.
Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.
By Jessica Gonzales assisted by Dakin Martin |
Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.
Tuesday, July 06, 2021
Memorial mural for Samantha Silverman
Danny Martin painted this mural on the north wall of Gym Two Forty Four.
He wrote on Instagram: "When I’m hired to do a tribute mural for someone who has passed away, i try to put some extra care into it…"
Another mural faces this one. There's a photo in the next post, Friday.
Update (May 27, 2024): Today's post shows a new mural next to this one: Better Together.
He wrote on Instagram: "When I’m hired to do a tribute mural for someone who has passed away, i try to put some extra care into it…"
Another mural faces this one. There's a photo in the next post, Friday.
Update (May 27, 2024): Today's post shows a new mural next to this one: Better Together.
Friday, July 02, 2021
Look quickly! Too late; it's gone.
Sunday, June 27, I saw a post on Instagram about a paste-up mural in front of the former Wig-O-Rama on Scott at the southeast corner with Congress:
Monday, June 28, I stopped by near sunrise. “You snooze, you lose.” Here's a closeup of what was left: (I used a photo editor to raise the contrast a lot to make it easier to see. In person, it was almost invisible.)
Thursday, July 01, 2021
Tucson Murals & Music
I just came across Tucson Murals & Music on Instagram, @tucson_murals_and_music. The top of their page says:
Tucson M&M was created to highlight local art + music. We love our town & are stoked to share a piece of it with you. @brycejrogers #tucson #az youtu.be/PVCNiPtXLv0That YouTube link is one of their videos.
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Graffiti types and styles
A website started in 1998, fatcap.com, has a page with a few Tucson artists, though it's hardly worth a look for that. What's interesting is the long list of links at the right edge of the page (which may not be easy to view on phones). It lists types and styles of graffiti. There's also a section showing street art on various "supports": on tunnels, trains, rooftops…
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
Goodbye, Corbett Elementary
For years, Corbett Elementary School has had a mural on a long east-facing wall. You can see photos in our April 2, 2010 post Cactus and city at Corbett School. The school closed in 2014, but the mural has stayed. Not anymore. Pepper Viner Homes will be building homes there.
David Aber took the photo below on May 17, 2017. (As always, you can click on it for a larger view.) I first found out about the closing and demolition on the BG Boyd Photo website. BG emailed the aerial photo (thanks!). Here it is: When I stopped by yesterday, the mural was still there… but I also saw heavy equipment. I got there in time!
I won't repeat the photos that are in the 2010 blog post. But here are a few that I took yesterday. They're a bit rough because I had to either hold my camera in the air or shoot through the fence:
David Aber took the photo below on May 17, 2017. (As always, you can click on it for a larger view.) I first found out about the closing and demolition on the BG Boyd Photo website. BG emailed the aerial photo (thanks!). Here it is: When I stopped by yesterday, the mural was still there… but I also saw heavy equipment. I got there in time!
I won't repeat the photos that are in the 2010 blog post. But here are a few that I took yesterday. They're a bit rough because I had to either hold my camera in the air or shoot through the fence:
Labels:
BG Boyd
Location:
5949 E 29th St, Tucson, AZ 85711, USA
Monday, June 28, 2021
Mike Franks' mural photos
Instagram user @uclamikefranks posts murals he finds during his travels — and here in Tucson. He also has a searchable website with the same photos and a Google Earth map; see moremistakesfaster.com/murals. That last page also shows some of his favorite murals from around the world.
Friday, June 25, 2021
Murals being made, part 63: Connections
This mural of a young girl is on the campus of the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona. "It represents the diversity of southern arizona and the purpose of the foundation to connect people of all walks of life to learn and grow together." David Aber took the photo:
By Ignacio Garcia |
This aerial YouTube video from BG Boyd Photography shows the mural in progress:
(To see the video full-screen, click the square at the lower right corner after it begins playing.) If you can't see the video above, here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzoJP923RaU
Update (July 22, 2024): The mural continues onto the sides. Jerry Peek took these photos:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)