La Nalgona has neighbors

In South Tucson is a group of restaurants like a shopping mall food court, American Eat Co. Across the street are three murals:

The first, at the left, for La Nalgona, has been there for a while; on July 20, 2021, we showed a closeup of it. Here's are the two new murals on the right:

And the two murals, one by one, with the artist signature on each:

I took the photos on October 21 — as I contemplated stuffing my face :) at the restaurants behind me.

Same artist, same wall, new mural

On May 30, 2016, I posted a photo of a mural painted on a board and suggested that you decide whether it counted as a mural because it wasn't “on” the wall. This was on the outside south wall of the building along Toole Avenue that once housed George Strasburger's studio, which is (now, at least) called Pleasure World Galleries. (If you'd like to read more about that mural, click there.)

Fast-forward to this year. On a cloudy August 29th, I walked past the building…

…and noticed that the mural had changed. A closeup:

Here's the previous mural, from 2016:

I found the artist, Marcus Robiason, on Facebook. He wrote about that mural and how he's different than many muralists:

Looks like its faded a bit. Cool. Yeah I saw this a long time ago. Thanks for posting it. Im not like most of the muralist in town. Everything i create is from my head as I paint it. Nothing planned out. Its hard for people to give me a wall because i never know how it will manifest. I like it that way, but lots of places want to know ahead of time what the outcome will be. Luckily the people whom have let me paint these had full trust in me. All is freeform. No projectors or pre-planning. Thanks. I appreciate that you include me in the mix. Im definitely not a commercial artist.

The one at Tanline was painted probably six months after that one and the newest one is painted on top of the old one on Toole. The previous one was fading and they asked if i wanted to touch it up, but i ended up just painting a new one. Thanks again.

On April 19, 2017, we posted the mural on Tanline Printing that he's writing about.

Magnificent Mile-high Mural

Well, it's not quite a mile high. Located at the northwest corner of Oregon, the Astoria Column stands on top of 600-foot Coxcomb Hill, with views like this:

(That's the Columbia River where it meets the Pacific Ocean.) The column itself is another 125 feet tall…

…so the top of the column is a bit more than one-tenth of a mile high. Whatever. :)

The mural is covered with a spiral frieze. (So that it'll belong on this blog, let's call it a mural.) I visited it on a road trip this past month. Here's one side of the column from top to bottom:

We don't usually post murals outside Tucson. But since this is Thanksgiving weekend, we're taking a little vacation. I was there on October 6th.

Sunshine Mile

Tribute to the businesses along the Sunshine Mile which is a section of Broadway Blvd. between Euclid and Country Club. It's painted on the wall of a business called Caps and More owned by Larry Montoya and was finished around July 23rd. The mural includes a '57 Chevy Bel Air for nostalgia.

By Alicia Ramirez

Click for a larger image.

Mural quiz in the Arizona Daily Star

UPDATE: As of 7:30pm, the Star had updated the link below.

This morning in the Star — the online version at tucson.com, at least — is a video titled “Watch now: Quiz your knowledge of these colorful Tucson murals.”

You'll have just a few seconds to identify a mural before it gives the answer: “See if you can guess the seven featured in this video before time runs out!”

Here's the link:

https://tucson.com/entertainment/watch-now-quiz-your-knowledge-of-these-colorful-tucson-murals/video_1415174a-7e5a-53a5-8f81-b11e49e85933.html

English Salon & Spa

Rachel Fitz painted this mural on the roll-up shutter of English Salon & Spa, downtown:

I was there — early enough in the morning to see the mural before they rolled up the shutter — on June 28, 2021.

Update (June 5, 2024): Germaine A Pesquiera has replaced this mural. Today's post New at English Salon & Spa has photos.

A royal welcome to the Warehouse Arts District

Tucson's Warehouse Arts District, managed by WAMO (the Warehouse Arts Management Organization), started in 2004 to preserve and promote buildings around downtown and the railroad tracks (where warehouses provided storage and transfer). You can read more about its history and significance in the National Endowment for the Arts page Tucson, AZ: Warehouse Arts District.

You could call the corner of 6th Street & 6th Avenue the center of Tucson's contemporary and alternative arts — galleries and studios. On that corner is The Royal Room. Here's the north side and a small mural with the Warehouse Arts District logo:

I took the photos from across 6th Street (with a good zoom lens) on August 10th.

Mural backdrop at DUSK Music Festival

This weekend, Saturday the 13th and Sunday the 14th, the DUSK Music Festival takes over Jacomé Plaza and a lot of downtown. I was in the area yesterday to take photos of new murals — and found a mural in front of the library. The plaza was a construction zone:

There was enough room to snap photos of the mural. Here's the whole thing, then closeups from left to right:

By the way, if you're planning to drive downtown anytime before Monday morning, here's a traffic alert and an access map (click for a larger view):

If you go, have a great time!

Update (November 12, 2021): The Daily Wildcat published a long interview with the muralist, Brittany Hodson: Q&A with DUSK mural artist Brittany Hodson.

Bye Bye Batea Boutique

I snooze, you lose. Close to three years ago, I saw mural photos on the Cactus Catz blog. One of them was of a mural at Batea Boutique, 439 N. 6th Avenue. Google didn't find it. I went looking. The mural was actually along 6th Street… I saw it once as I drove by, but I couldn't stop. Since then I've had a note to go back. At the end of August 2021, I did. The mural — and Batea Boutique — were gone.

Some hunting online showed that the boutique had moved to Phoenix. Luckily, I have permission from Cactus Catz to show her photos. The one above was edited from the photo in her blog. (Thanks!) She wrote:

Fun mural on a shop, Batea Boutique, by California artists duo Von Paul and Courtney.

Von Paul was Courtney’s sensei. They’ve been working together for years painting murals. Their murals are signed as "Von Paul and Courtney".

It’s pretty easy to find info on "Von Paul". In a search, all you have to sling after the name is "artist". But it’s impossible to find info on Courtney. Do you know how many Courtneys there are? And adding "artist" doesn’t work. Oh well, I guess Courtney will remain a mystery.

They travel around together doing murals in California, up the coast, here in Arizona and elsewhere. Looks like fun.

Woman At Rest

 Found at Cassler Accounting Service PLLC.

Artist Not Known

 Click on the photo for a larger image.

Graffiti mural gallery in South Tucson

On June 30th, when I was hunting for murals in South Tucson, I came across a long wall lined with graffiti murals on both sides. The murals don't have an exact address, but they're south of a spot that Bing Maps calls 80 W. 36th Street. (For a Google map, click the "Location" link at the end of this post. If you choose a satellite view, you'll see a faint narrow wall running diagonally, northwest to southeast.)

First, here's a long shot of the northeast side. Next, the northeast side from the southeast end (in the distance in the long shot below) to the northwest end (at the right edge of the long shot). If all those directions are too confusing, why not just scroll down and enjoy? :)

Now a long shot of the southwest side from the northwest end, followed by each mural from northwest to southeast:

New Joe Pagac mural at Davis-Monthan AFB

Joe posted this mural on Instagram last Friday, October 29. I'm guessing that it might not be easy for me (a civilian) to find and see it, so I'm sharing his post here: