Murals being made, part 77: TUCSON is back

There's been a mural on the south side of the building on Stone, just north of Speedway, for at least 18 years… maybe longer. The wall in the photo above was painted in 2023; there's lots more about it farther along in this post. Thanks to Kevin Blow — from England, UK — for the photo.

The years 2006-2022

The wall first appeared on this blog in Randy Garsee's August 8, 2006 post How to Ruin a Mural:

Randy wanted to promote Tucson murals to visitors as well as Tucsonans. He wrote that a dirty, vacant lot in front of a mural was a bad idea.

By 2010, Rock “Cyfi” Martinez had painted a mural on the wall… still with a vacant lot in front. See New mural, same lot. (Cyfi was also leading an urban art festival called WintaFresh just north on Stone. Our first post about it was Winter Fresh in July (?!) on July 6, 2011.)

On January 1, 2015, the blog showed a new mural that spelled T-U-C-S-O-N in big letters:

The post with that photo, TUCSON, has close-ups of the original letters and the artist who painted each one.

By May, 2019 — more than ten years after Randy's complaint — there was a Popeye's restaurant directly in front of the mural that blocked the view from Speedway! (Google Maps Street View shows the restaurant went up between June 2018 and May 2019.)

By February 15, 2022, the mural had faded. The post TUCSON is fading… shows the sad scene.

Ready to restart: April 2023

A bit more than a year later, a new mural was coming. This Google Maps Street View shows the empty wall in April 2023, ready to be painted:

Jerry's photos on May 23, 2024

From the west end (near Stone)

From the east end (away from Stone)

T by Kati Astraeir

U by Donovan White

C by Coda One

S by Ruben Urrea Moreno

O by Salvador Duran

N by Johanna Martinez

After May 23, artists kept painting. As you can see above, some artists had farther to go than others.

Artists' progress photos

Thanks to artist Ruben Urrea Moreno and Johanna Martinez for the 140 (!) photos and videos they shared with me. I picked 22 of them. There are three videos; the rest are photos. They aren't exactly chronological; I put them in an order that felt good to me. Thanks, both of you!

Finished: December 16, 2023

The next time I stopped by was mid-December. The mural was done. (At the top of this post is a photo of the whole mural by Kevin Blow. I'm not sure when he took it.) My photos are below: first from the right (east) end, then letter-by-letter from the left end. I've also included some close-ups; they're always underneath the photo they're taken from. Again, the artists were: T=Kati Astraeir, U=Donovan White, C=Coda One, S=Ruben Urrea Moreno, O=Salvador Duran, and N=Johanna Martinez.

Thrive in the 05 by Salvador Sahuaqui

On January 24, The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona — which, among other things, adminsters government-funded public art — announced a new mural in the 85705 zip code: Community unites to celebrate new mural at Old Pascua Community Center. (If you'd like to see the announcement and photos, click there.) The area is named Thrive in the 05; you can read more at thriveinthe05.tucsonaz.gov and thriveinthe05.com.

Here's the mural, photographed on January 27:

Our previous post, Thrive in the 05 by The Desert Pen, showed another mural in the area and hadinformation about three artworks being created as part of the project. KGUN 9 TV reported January 8th: Thrive in the 05 brings community-based artwork to 85705 area.

Thrive in the 05 by The Desert Pen

The mural is named for a collaboration of members dedicated to improving our community.

By Pen Macias, aka The Desert Pen

Click for a larger image.

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Updates by Jerry Peek: On October 23, 2023, before the mural had been painted, the Arizona Daily Star published This local artist wants your input for a new Tucson mural. A quote from Pen Macias:

“The mural is going to be created as if it's fabric-draped over the side of the building and then it'll have a night sky with a giant moon,” she said. “Where the community stories come in is I have papel picado flags that are going to be draped across the moon sky. And each of those flags are going to tell a different story that I'm getting from the community.”

The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, which organizes funding for and manages public art, released an article December 20, 2023: Press Release: Arts Foundation unveils artists for Thrive in the 05 project.

Our next post, February 14, shows another area mural: Thrive in the 05 by Salvador Sahuaqui.

Guitarist tops the Rialto

For seven-plus years, if you were driving east out of downtown on Broadway you saw, at the top of the Rialto Theatre, Bill Walton riding a jackalope. Here's the story in photos from 2016: (Downtown) Murals being made, part 35: Ignacio Garcia.

Just over a week ago, January 29, Ignacio was putting the finishing touches on a new mural that covered (as he called it) “Jack and Bill”:

Here's a video from his Facebook account December 21, 2003 that shows the change:



The mural is called La Guitarrista: the (woman) guitarist. An Arizona Daily Star article from yesterday, February 8, tells the story — and lots of news about Ignacio's career and other plans: Tucson mural: Giant guitar player replaces jackalope-riding Bill Walton downtown.

Next, a few more photos of Ignacio working on January 29th. (I wasn't with him up there! I was in the parking lot in front of the mural, using a camera with a great zoom lens.)

Closeups of the mural:

The Star's article says the mural was inspired by 17th century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer’s “The Guitar Player.” A Wikipedia article The Guitar Player (Vermeer) has this photo from Wikimedia Commons:

I used my photo editor to crop that photo to just the face. Was the whole image sharp? If you click on the photo below for a larger view, you can see the cracks in the paint:

The finished mural — lit by downtown lights — last night, February 8th:

Tanna's Botannas on 6th Avenue

This is a second location of a candy store owned by Tanna Cole. The first was shown in our previous post Tanna's Botannas on Prince Road.

By Camila Ibarra

The mural is on the west side of this little building.

Click for a larger image.

Tanna's Botannas on Prince Road

Fiery Mexican candies are the specialty at Tanna's Botannas. (I'm guessing that the spelling is a play on the Spanish word botanas, which means snacks.) Their retail location and factory are on Prince Road; there's another on South 6th Avenue, which we'll show in the next post. Both have murals. Their drinks and snacks are icy, spicy, and both… so you might call this mural “Fire and Ice.” This is on the west side of their building:

Their delivery truck is decorated, too. I saw it on the Instagram account of Mr. Baker the Ave writer, @trip.down.ave:

The mural on the 6th Avenue location is completely different. We'll show it in the next post.

El Rustico on Park

The murals at this restaurant probably weren't very old when I stopped by on May 14, 2023. The parking lot was dirt/mud and there was a “Coming soon” sign at the edge of the street.

Cloeups from left (south) to right (north):

When I made a quick stop a few weeks ago, the murals were the same — or almost the same. In the detail photos above, you can see at least one missing face that the artist might not have finished on May 14 of last year.

Update (September 16, 2024): I'm not sure if this place has the same owner as their other location on Oracle. Today's post El Taco Rustico on Oracle has photos. The two murals were painted by different artists.