Let's hope this mural isn't washed away! (Murals being made, part 74)

From February through April, 2023, Jessica Gonzales and Rock "CYFI" Martinez spent more than two months painting a mural along the north bank of the Rillito River. Here it is — from the west, across the river — on April 21, just after it was finished:

As always, you can click on any photo for a slideshow of larger views. But there are close-ups below.

At the right end of the photo above, you can see the pedestrian bridge at the east end of the mural. If you visit from the north bank — along River Road between Country Club and Camino de Boscaje Escondido — cross the bridge, then walk west to get a view of the whole mural. Along the south bank, you might think of parking at the Racquet Club, but I'll bet they won't like that… Instead, park at Rio Vista Natural Resource Park, at the north end of Tucson Blvd. — 3974 N. Tucson Blvd. — and walk about ten minutes east (or ride your bike) along The Loop pedestrian/bicycle path.

This distance sign is at the east side:

At 4,000 square feet, this mural is the largest so far in Pima County's public art collection… for more on public art, see The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona Public Art page. (Maybe we should start a list of mural sizes in this blog?) Another large mural — which, at the time (July, 2022) was called the biggest — is in our post Another big Joe Pagac mural: Zion City (Murals being made, part 70).

The mural is in two sections, above The Loop path and on the concrete riverbank below the path.

BG Boyd Photography released the video below on April 24th:



Here's a link to click for a larger view in your browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4313OlU3-84. You can see more of BG's mural videos at https://bgboydphoto.com/videos/Murals

The mural extends along the Rillito River to the west of Country Club. The Google Map below shows the length as 0.1 miles. Using the 50 ft. scale at the lower right, I estimated 650 feet long:

Although we give the address Google Maps assigned to it, it's easier to find with the written directions near the start of this post.

February 14, 2023: Top half being painted

I stopped by on February 14, 2023 (Valentine's Day!), with snow on the Catalinas, while Jessica and CYFI were painting. The bottom half, along the riverbank below The Chuck Huckleberry Loop path, was blank. The top half, along (above) the path, was in progress:

I made two videos of the mural, from left (west) to right (east), while I was walking… so they're jumpy!

• Left side
• I skipped the middle part, which is only a foot or two high, because at this time it was mostly all a single color.
• Right side (not well framed, oops)

(There are a few videos of other murals etc. at the YouTube handle @TucsonArtInfo.)

A bit later, the two muralists and crew arrived:

Here's a closeup (taken from the south bank with a cell phone camera, so it's a bit fuzzy if you click to see a larger view):

They were working next to the wall, in the north (westbound) lane of the path. Notice the flashing safety markers between the lanes. That didn't slow down some bicyclists! I heard that, at this point, there had already been one accident.

April 21, 2023: Both halves finished

As soon as I read that the mural was finished — more than two months after my previous visit — I stopped by with my DSLR camera and a zoom lens. The safety markers had been packed into a corner near the path to River Road, and the path was clear:

Next, 16 photos of the mural from left (west) to right (east):

The view looking west from the pedestrian/bicycle bridge:

Ride (or walk) by!

A note about photos: If you're taking photos, don't stand in the riverbed — unless you don't care if the top and bottom halves of the mural line up. There's a photo below that I took from the riverbed. I ended up coming back with a camera that has a true zoom lens — not the “digital zoom” in phone cameras that can make fuzzy photos — to take the photos above from the south side of the Rillito.

Take a mural tour of Ambos Nogales

Now that the weather is getting hot, why not climb around 1,400 feet in altitude to Nogales, Arizona? Downtown on the US side has more and more murals. The TripAdvisor listing for Nogales, AZ has lots of places to eat.

There are also some murals on the Sonoran side — including one at the (very interesting) Museo de Arte de Nogales, which is not far from the main DeConcini Port of Entry. More about the Sonoran side is coming in another post.

This post has photos taken during several visits over the past few years. I'll probably add another post sometime with murals I missed or that were being made… look for an “Update:” at the end of this post for a link.

The captions are above each photo (look for the colon : after each caption).

The first photo is from April 25, 2015, when Nogales didn't have many murals. This mural is still at Kory's, 15 North Morley Avenue, next to the Morley pedestrian entry into Mexico:

Now to April 22, 2021. I found the first mural that day as it was being painted. This is on Foxworth-Galbraith Lumber Co., on East Court Avenue east of Grand Avenue:

(The finished mural is farther down in this post.)

That same day, the next mural, on a storage container, was behind a Jack in the Box restaurant at 208 North Grand Avenue. Now (2023) both the container and the restaurant are gone… Google Maps says a Filibertos Restaurant has taken its place:

Next are photos from my visit on November 29, 2022. I'll start with a mural outside the small but interesting Hilltop Gallery:

At the entrance to Kino Park and the Chamber of Commerce (with lots of visitor information) is this mural with a woman waving US and Mexican flags, riding a hummingbird as if it were a horse:

The mural below is close by, near the Chamber of Commerce / Visitor Center entrance. Grecia Solorio painted it:

Now back to downtown Nogales, AZ. This mural is on Court Avenue just west of the railroad tracks. It has a "Fresh from Mexico" flag near the top:

The second photo near the top of this post was a mural being made on Foxworth-Galbraith Lumber Co., on East Court Avenue east of Grand Avenue, by Karla Osete. When I visited on November 29, 2012, it had been finished:

On the back (east) side of the Circle K, 236 North Grand Avenue, is this mural by Isaac Caruso from Tucson and Tony Plak from Nogales:

Next, another mural by Tony Plak. It's on the second floor of the building at 220 North Morley Avenue:

This sign on Sahuarita Bikes, 204 North Morley Avenue, looks like a mural to me:

Here's the north wall of 159 North Morley Avenue. It's by an (obviously amazing) high school student Grecia Solorio, Tony Plak and an artist I couldn't find on Instagram. I couldn't quite fit the mural in my phone's camera, even with its wideangle lens:

The big mural above La Cinderella, 71 North Morley Avenue, had been in progress for quite a while when I visited on November 29, 2022. The Nogales International news article As mural moves forward, an artist revisits his roots (last updated February 13, 2023) has more of the story about artist Carlos Ibarra — as well as some other Nogales murals and plans for an arts district. You can see some of the mural behind the tarps:

On the south side of a former bank at 112 North Grand Avenue is this mural that I believe is by Alejandra Trujillo (she typically doesn't sign her full name):

Today (April 18, 2024) the QR code leads to a “not found” page. But the website is for (as you'd expect) the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area, SantaCruzHeritage.org.

The last mural in today's post is close to the pedestrian entry at the main DeConcini Port of Entry. It's on the wall of 38 North Terrace:

Watch for updates with more murals on the Arizona side as well as some from the Mexican side.

Bye-Bye, Bashful Bandit?

Bashful Bandit, the long-time biker bar, has closed for remodeling into a barbecue restaurant. (The Arizona Daily Star article Last call: Longtime Tucson biker bar Bashful Bandit closes has an update and lots of interesting history.) Here's the scene at the southwest corner of Speedway and Dodge on April 6, 2023:

We first showed one of those murals during May, 2009 in Wall-busting mural. Here it is today:

Back then, this blog didn't always show every mural on a building. For instance, I don't think we ever showed the bashful guy on the east wall in this May, 2022 photo from Google Maps Street View:



Now there's the more colorful bandit on the north wall:

I'll ask a friend to meet me — on her Harley, of course — so we can check out the BBQ after the place re-opens.

Update (December 26, 2023): Today's post Bashful Bandit is Back (tomorrow) has photos and news of the new BBQ restaurant.

Lord of Grace Lutheran Church

 Children's playground with background murals.

Artist(s) Not Known

 Panel 1:

Panel 2:

Panel 3:

Panel 4:

Panel 5:

Panel 6:

Click on any photo for larger images of every photo.