Roskruge repainted

Roskruge Bilingual Magnet K-8 School is bordered by two streets: 6th Street and 2nd Avenue. A mural used to stretch along 2nd Avenue just north of 6th, but the 6th Avenue side had only plain brown mountains and a blue sky. In 2022, the 2nd Avenue side got an updated mural and the 6th Avenue side a new mural. In a minute, we'll take a detailed look along both streets. First, an overview…

Second Avenue overview

Here's the west side of 2nd Avenue just north of 6th Street, taken on November 27, 2022. It shows an updated mural painted recently by Alley Cat Murals:

Just a bit north of that corner on January 11, 2010, there was an earlier version of the same mural shown in our post Scholars on Second Avenue:

Back in 2010, we often didn't show complete murals on the blog — only parts of them. I found a photo of the entire mural, from the same corner, on Google Maps Street View in April 2015:



(A link to open that view in a new window is: https://goo.gl/maps/DZbEeCF4ed8qPASR8.)

We'll see close-up photos of both the new mural and the original one in a minute.

Sixth Street overview

As I mentioned, the 6th Street side used to have only simple sky and mountains — a continuation of the left side of the previous Street View photo. When I was there on November 27, 2022, the 6th Street side had been repainted:

Sixth Street close-ups

The mural starts at the west end, along 6th Street, and continues until the north end along 2nd Avenue. Let's see close-ups, starting at the west end, on November 27, 2022:

The first section

The second section

Detail of second section

The third section

Detail of the third section

Detail of the third section

The fourth section

Detail of the fourth section

The fifth section

Detail of the fifth section

…Continuing along Second Avenue…

Let's start at the corner of 6th Street (to the left) and 2nd Avenue (at the right):

From the fifth section into the sixth

The sixth section

Detail of the sixth section

Sixth-seventh sections, May 2013

The seventh section

Detail of the seventh section

The eighth section

Detail of the eighth section

Around the eighth section, May 2013

The ninth section
(as always, you can click for a larger view)

Around the ninth section, May 2013

Right (north) end of the ninth section, May 2013

The other side of the wall

We've been looking at the wall from the streets outside the campus. Inside the east wall around campus (on the west side of that wall), there's another mural. We showed it in our November 3, 2011 post What the scholars see.

Here are a complete photo from then and the middle of the mural from November 27, 2022. As far as I can tell, the mural hadn't been repainted (yet?):

Love Block Partners

Thanks to BG Boyd Photography's mural database at tucsonazmurals.com. The photo came from the Love Block Partners page. (This is the third in a series of posts from his murals database.) Jessica Gonzales painted the mural on the side of the Rialto Theatre.

So what's Love Block Partners? The website loveblockpartners.com says only “Developing in the Heart of Tucson.” The Loveblock Partners Facebook page has a bit more information. Their @loveblockpartners Instagram page has lots of photos and a link to their Link Tree page — which has only two links.

If nothing else, the mural has the names of businesses that seem to be in the block.

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Update (May 30, 2024): I (Jerry Peek) just found a photo of the mural that used to be here. I took it on February 20, 2010:

Mural map not always quite up to date

Blog co-editor David Aber maintains our amazing mural map. Here's the center:

I'm filling in for him for a while. I'm often swamped (so much art, so little time…), so there's a chance that a few of the latest murals won't be on the map sometimes. (You can go to the blog's front page [click on the filmstrip image at the top of any page] and scroll down… every post has a “Location:” that you can click to see a map location.)

The other side of Mike Haggerty Plaza, closer

Last time — June 2nd, 2023 — we showed an aerial view of the south wall of Mike Haggerty Plaza on 4th Avenue. Just after sunrise on Sunday, June 4th, I stopped by to see if I could get close-up photos with my zoom lens. It turned out to be easy because there wasn't as much stuff in front of the mural as there was on my last visit.

The mural has rich detail. (As always, you can click on a photo to see larger views of all the photos.) I zoomed in on different parts of the mural. Here are the photos, roughly from left to right. (The second photo is a cropped and enlarged version of the first photo.)

The other side of Mike Haggerty Plaza

BG Boyd Photography is building a searchable database of Tucson murals at TucsonAZMurals.com. I realized that there's no reason for me to take photos of a mural if he already has some. He agreed that I could share his photos to this blog when I don't have a photo of my own. That'll usualy happen on Fridays. In this series of posts, I'll add clickable links below the photos so you can find the original in his mural database at https://tucsonazmurals.com/murals/. Thanks, as always, for helping people find Tucson art!

Last time, May 30, we showed the north side of Mike Haggerty Plaza — which is not far north of the railroad underpass on 4th Avenue — in the post From Winsett Park to Mike Haggerty Plaza.

This little spot isn't easy to photograph because it's small and there are often things in the way. That's when the gate is open at all, which isn't often! Drone photographer BG Boyd has an answer: an aerial photo.

The original photo is in Together We Thrive on tucsonazmurals.com.

Here's the same photo cropped to the mural:

Cropped even more, to the credits:

This is the second in a series of phsts from BG Boyd's murals database.

Update (June 6, 2023): Today's post, The other side of Mike Haggerty Plaza, closer, has photos I took from the ground with a good zoom lens.

From Winsett Park to Mike Haggerty Plaza

The former Winsett Park was re-dedicated as Mike Haggerty Plaza on March 17, 2013. “The Mike” was also called The Mayor of 4th Avenue. He and his wife Mimi Haggerty (and maybe daughter Shannon Haggerty?) ran a jewelry shop called Piney Hollow on 4th Avenue for decades. (You can read more in the April 5, 2012 Tucson Weekly article The Mayor of Fourth Avenue: Remembering the life of businessman, politician, Irishman and bohemian Mike Haggerty.)

The last time we showed this spot on the blog was on May 5, 2012, in Winsett Park mural (before) being restored. That post said that the mural would soon be restored. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos for years. Google Maps Street View has photos of the north side, though.

There's a tree near the middle of the wall that makes complete photos difficult. Here is Google's photo of the north side during May 2015:



By August 2016, the north wall had been repainted. Most of the design had changed, but you can see that the skateboarder was still there, now in color. Here's a photo from August 2022:



I went back earlier this month: May 12, 2023. Although the gates were closed (as usual), I found that I could take a photo from near the ground, looking up — and the tree wouldn't block much of the mural:

(Sorry if that makes you a bit seasick!) I also zoomed in to catch the far (right) side:

Next time, the south wall.

Hidden at Tucson Self Storage (Start of BG Boyd series)

BG Boyd Photography is building a searchable database of Tucson murals at TucsonAZMurals.com. I realized that there's no reason for me to take photos of a mural if he already has some. He agreed that I could share his photos to this blog when I don't have a photo of my own. That'll usualy happen on Fridays. In this series of posts, I'll add clickable links below the photos so you can find the original in his mural database at https://tucsonazmurals.com/murals/. Thanks as always, BG, for helping people find Tucson art!

Today's murals are on the end of storage buildings at Tucson Self Storage on Golf Links Road. Unless you rent a unit there, though, you can't get close to the murals… you can only see some from the fence outside. But BG did it! He also caught an aerial view from his drone:

thank_you_for_your_service
(2nd photo on that database page)

thank_you_for_your_service
(1st photo on that database page)

oregon_trail

the_grand_canyon_state

greetings_from_tucson_self_storage

Click on any photo for a slideshow of larger views. Click on the link underneath a photo to open it in BG Boyd's mural database.

Cups o' Joy

Even if you aren't stopping at Seven Cups Fine Chinese Tea, you can't miss this mural by Jodie Chertudi on the east side. It's as long as the building:

(As always, you can click on any photo for a slideshow of larger views of all photos.)

A March 7, 2023 #ThisIsTucson article has the story, as well as info on the augmented reality overlay that Jodie added: This new Tucson mural comes to life with augmented reality 😎.

Here are three close-ups:

I'd actually been keeping an eye on the mural for a while. On December 31, 2022 — when the mural was almost finished — Jodie had an “in progress” sign to the right of the mural, near the restaurant entrance:

The QR code led to her website, jlewers.com.

But wait, there's more! 😍 On May 10, 2023, I stopped by to take photos of a temporary mural at the next building west of Seven Cups. They're posted in Had a crash? Get a mural!. In the background, on the west wall of Seven Cups, I spotted a bit more of the mural from the east side:

Ted DeGrazia's inspirations: Orozco and Rivera

A week ago — May 15 — The DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun Museum posted that painting by Tucson artist Ted DeGrazia on their Facebook and Twitter accounts. The Facebook caption was:

Because DeGrazia had interned for both Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, many of DeGrazia’s older works were patterned after them. The influence it had on the Tucson artist, in both style and subject matter, is evident.

DeGrazia’s "Skipping Rope", oil on canvas, 1944.

#TedDeGrazia #DeGrazia #Ettore #Ted #Artist #GalleryInTheSunMuseum #Gallery #Museum #NationalHistoricDistrict #Nonprofit #Foundation #Adobe #Architecture #Tucson #Arizona #AZ #SantaCatalinas #Desert #DeGraziasOlderWork #SkippingRope #OilPainting

In case you aren't familiar with those Mexican muralists, here are searches on DuckDuckGo (a private alternative to Google):

• Diego Rivera
• Jose Clemente Orozco

Had a crash? Get a mural!

When I spotted people painting a mural at Dan's Toy Shop on the southeast corner of Ft. Lowell & Tucson, I couldn't stop… so I made a note to come back. I remembered the business name and that the mural was of a vehicle. What did that have to do with toys?

When I went back to take a closer look (above), I found out. Dan's Toy Shop repairs Toyota… and Lexus and Scion. Here's the overview:

In the background was a corner of the west side of Seven Cups Chinese Teas. I'd already taken photos of the new mural on the other (east) side of Seven Cups. Thanks to Jodie Chertudi, who painted that mural, I found out that Dan's mural is temporary: They painted it because someone crashed into the window at the front of their shop. Once the window is back, the mural will be gone. So there it is!

(Next week, I'll have photos of both sides of Seven Cups.)

Update (May 20, 2023): Jodie later pointed me to a Facebook Reel showing herself and Miguel Flores (@t_bones_in_az on Instagram) painting the mural: https://www.facebook.com/reel/949002449571732. The caption over the reel says “A vehicle crashed through the front door of Dan's Toy Shop back in December and we were asked to add some color to the temporarily boarded up plywood. Thank you to @danstoyshop1957 [on Instagram] for letting us experiment and try out some different techniques with this one.”

Long lost dream

This blog started in July, 2006. We have very few murals before that time… and I'm guessing that founder Randy Garsee, a popular TV newscaster, was busy enough he probably didn't have time to post every Tucson mural he'd seen.

(I'd love to put more photos of historic Tucson murals on this blog! If you have photos of murals that the blog might not have or know where to get them, please use the contact form at the right edge of any page… tell me where to find a copy of the photo online or how to reach you to get it.)

When I met artist Curtis Alan Kiwak during the artists’ Open Studios Tour last month, he mentioned that he'd worked on one mural in 1999 or 2000. Here it is — enlarged from a photo of his, so it's a bit fuzzy:

You can see some of his more recent work on his website Artwork page https://www.curtiskiwak.com/artwork and on his Facebook page curtis.kiwak (click there to visit).

His September 28, 2019 post on the Facebook Tucson Murals and Street Art group told some of the story and included the photo above:

Finally found the only photo I have of the one mural project which I ever was part of in either 1999 or 2000. Knew nothing of mural making! I was working at Child and Family Resources when Martha Rothman and Susie Huhn asked me to help create a mural for the Liberty neighborhood. I drew it on the wall with charcoal and magic marker in one day. A crew of volunteers from Lucent Technologies came on the next day. I would mix paint hand out colors pointed to were to paint. [After working] 8 to noon, we had 3/4 of it painted. The next Saturday it was done and became a mural till it got torn down a couple of years ago.

I replied to ask for more details. He sent a Google Maps Street View photo of the empty lot where the building and the mural used to be:



And he wrote:

This is where the building was until they tore it down to make a new building- Child and Family Resources Inc. had grant money to help the Liberty Partnership to do the mural. The Liberty neighborhood had a Community Center down the street, there were Headstart classrooms. But I did do the work in 2000. … I have the original drawing I submitted in my studio buried somewhere .

Thanks so much for filling in a piece of Tucson's long history of murals, Curtis!