The Tucson Murals Project

Friday, December 29, 2023

Rock the Spot's second year, 2023

I'm glad to tell you that last year's Rock the Spot mural painting celebration downtown wasn't the last. November 30 to December 3, artists from around the country repainted most of the murals around this parking lot.

Thanks to Rock the Spot, and their official website, for that graphic. Rock the Spot is in honor of Albert Soto; one of the pages has his bio.

BG Boyd Photography's mural database has videos of Rock the Spot in 2022 and 2023. Here's a small version of 2023:

The parking lot stretches between Congress Street on the south end to Pennington Street on the north end. There's also a narrow space that runs between the middle of the east side of the parking lot to Scott Avenue. (If you'd like to see a map, look for 61 E Congress St Parking on this Google Map.) I started photographing at the southwest corner, close to Congress. Then I walked clockwise, including a narrow “notch” between the parking lot to Scott Avenue and back. That is:

Along the west wall
Walked along Pennington (the north side)… there are no murals here
Halfway along the east side
Clockwise around the “notch” between the parking lot to Scott Avenue and back
Along the rest of the east wall to Congress Street.

I also took close-ups of some murals. I include the close-ups after the overall photo. A few murals were here before this year's (2023) Rock the Spot; I've labeled them.

I haven't edited these photos to straighten, crop to only the mural, etc. There are just too many!

View from Congress toward Pennington

West wall, from Congress north

^^ Here before both Rock the Spots ^^

^^ Closeup of previous mural ^^

^^ Painted during Rock the Spot 2022 ^^

^^ Closeup of previous mural ^^

East wall, from Pennington south to “notch”

^^ Here before both Rock the Spots ^^

^^ Closeup of previous mural ^^

“The notch” to & from Scott Ave.

^^ Painted during Rock the Spot 2022 ^^

^^ Here before both Rock the Spots ^^

^^ Closeup of previous mural ^^

East side, from “notch” south to Congress

^^ Closeup of previous mural ^^

^^ Painted after Rock the Spot 2022 ^^

Watch the Rock the Spot website for news about 2024!

Update (December 2, 2024): There are two new murals by now. I took another walk around on November 24. The photos are here: Rock the Spot 2023: All around again.

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Bashful Bandit is Back (tomorrow)

Bashful Bandit is re-opening tomorrow, December 27, after a long makeover from a biker bar to a unique barbecue restaurant. The December 23 Arizona Daily Star article Tucson's iconic Bashful Bandit is now home to a new barbecue joint, for subscribers only, has a lot of history and background. In case you don't subscribe to the Star, here'a a bit of info from the article:

The new owners — Toby Kyte and his sibling partners, brothers Terry and Trevor and sister Leslie Frost — wanted to celebrate the existing Bashful Bandit name.
2½ years after buying the 76-year-old building in June 2021, the partners will officially open the restaurant on Wednesday, Dec. 27.
They kept the old bar that likely dated back to 1947, when Bertha Lester built the 2,875-square-foot building to house Rio Rita Bar. Under the drywall, they found the original aqua-colored wall from Rio Rita — and some 1960's wallpaper that will be preserved. One wall has lots of memorabilia.
The food has its roots in Texas but is Tucson-style with menu items like green chile pulled pork and chile relleno sausage made with poblano peppers.

I stopped by during renovations — on April 6, 2023. The blog post Bye-Bye, Bashful Bandit? shows the repaired front wall with two murals. It also shows a photo of the best-known old mural, originally shown in a 2009 blog post.

The biggest difference you'll see outside is a new patio behind. I took two photos while the patio and outdoor fire pit (cooking) area were still being touched up on December 17th:

They actually opened, for lunch only, on Christmas Eve. Though we usually don't show photos inside a business or someone's home, why not? 😁

Their regular hours start tomorrow, from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Their website, BashfulBanditBBQ.com, currently has almost no information — not even a link to their Instagram page www.instagram.com/bashfulbanditbbq, which tells a bit more.

Friday, December 22, 2023

The Monica by The Joe (Pagac)

It's been more than a year since Joe Pagac painted a mural for El Tour de Tucson 2022 on the patio wall at The Monica downtown. (So many murals to post here, so little time!) On October 31, 2022, Joe posted a photo on Instagram by Randy Metcalf.

I stopped by on April 29, 2013 to snap photos. Unfortunately, the light wasn't good… there were shadows and reflections:

The caption at the bottom, Aventure dans le désert à vélo! is in French. It means Desert adventure by bike! You can read more about why on The Monica's web page Who was Monica?. It's an interesting story!

The (very) short version is that Monica Flin was a Tucson restaurateur (a person who runs a restaurant professionally) from the 1920’s to the 1970’s. “Monica was the daughter of Jules and Carlota Brunet Flin, both early settlers of Tucson who hailed from France. She grew up speaking French, English, and later Spanish.” The family home was on Court Avenue; it's now the site of El Charro Café downtown — which Monica opened there in 1922.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

New VFW Loft Apartments and old AccessTucson mural

A mural on the west wall of the former AccessTucson TV studio downtown was there for years. If you drove through downtown on Broadway, you couldn't miss it:

That photo is from our May 29, 2009 post AccessTucson.

After AccessTucson moved away, the building stood unused for quite a while. On March 12 of this year, I noticed that it had changed:

Now the VIP Loft Apartments are behind bits of the original mural. Here are more photos:

My August 21 post on the Facebook group Tucson Murals and Street Art got this comment from Kat Sabine:

My graduate studies classmate Dr. Jessica N. Pabón-Colón coordinated the artists working on that mural for her studies at UofA. I coordinated with Vikki Dempsey to get permission for the space…All credit to her. There's more to this, but Dr. Pabón-Colón is a brilliant activist/academic and you should learn more from her.

Kat replied to me when I asked to use her comment here:

… I have just coordinated their efforts along the way.

Thanks, Kat!

Friday, December 15, 2023

Corbett's Beer Garden

Corbett's is a restaurant that opened in August of 2023. Among other things, it has five pickleball courts and a beer garden. It also has numerous murals painted by several of the finest artists in Tucson. Here, I am including three of the murals. The others will have to wait for another day.

Subject not known.

By Sean Cannon

Memorial to Denis Francis (Papa Ranger). Inducted into the Tucson Musicians Museum Hall of Fame in Novermber of 2022.


Painted by Ignacio Garcia

Roadrunner

Artist not known

Click on any photo for a slideshow of larger and sharper images.

Update by Jerry Peek (December 15, 2023): The Arizona Daily Star article Tucson's first pickleball restaurant could be downtown game-changer — which only Star subscribers can see — has a video, a lot more photos, and information.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Volcano

There's a mural at the back of a parking lot on the NE corner of N. 6th Ave. and E. 6th st.


Painted by Joe Pagac

Click on the photo for a larger and sharper version.

Update (January 1, 2024): There are more photos in today's post Murals being made, part 75: Volcano in detail.

Friday, December 08, 2023

Raspados y Antojitos

Translation - "Scrapings and Snacks". A Raspado is very similar to a snow cone.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

Tuesday, December 05, 2023

Fourth Time

Arizona Palms Tinting has appeared in The Tucson Murals Project three times - 11/30/2011, 05/18/2018 and 01/19/2021. Each time with a different paint scheme. Here is number four:

Friday, December 01, 2023

"Comida del Barrio"

Translated as "Food of the Neighborhood"

SW Corner of S. 10th Ave. & W. 32nd St., Tucson, AZ

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Tribute to Dino of Tino's Pizza

Maybe it's too soon after Thanksgiving to think about food, but… Did you ever visit this pizza place that was a favorite of lots of Tucsonans?

Or maybe you didn't visit it in person. Tino also delivered, as you can see in this photo from their website… I copied it (with their permission) in June 2023:

The restaurant's last day was February 2, 2022. As of November 12, 2023, the website (tinospizza.com) was still online. It had a link to a story on KOLD News 13, Tino’s Pizza prepares to close after nearly 4 decades of business.

I'm glad that I could catch photos of the mural; it's on the west side of the building. I was there on June 6, 2023. I'm a bit swamped, as usual, so these are only lightly edited… but you can still see the love that family members, friends and former employees painted for Dino. (As always, you can click or tap on any photo to get a series of larger versions.)