Youth On Their Own administration building

Youth On Their Own is a Tucson nonprofit that helps homeless youth graduate from high school. They moved into a new headquarters building in 2023. There's more about the building and YOTO on this website page: yoto.org/yoto-has-a-new-home/. That page lists their address as 2525 N. Country Club, but the mural in this post is just south of 2509 N. Country Club.

Our June 23, 2020 post Youth On Their Own shows murals on what I think is their first location, near the southeast corner of Pima and Alvernon. It's since closed; everything has moved to the new location.

Along the south wall of 2509 is a long mural painted by Hannah Long; her Instagram is @whereoceansmeethb. The building used to be for Southwest University of Visual Arts, which (the YOTO page says) closed in 2019. Google Maps Street View shows a different mural there in February 2022. I also found the mural in a photo during April 2023. So this mural was painted sometime since April 2023, and before I took photos of this mural on January 13, 2024.

The photos below show the whole mural from the east side, nearest Country Club Road. Next are closeups of the mural from east to west:

The back wall (the western edge) has paint around the plain grey blocks:

Adios, Carniceria Don Juan II

On December 27, 2023, I noticed that the former Carniceria La Noria had become Carniceria Don Juan II. (A carniceria is a meat market. It often also has a restaurant inside.) I took the photos below.

Back on June 18, 2012, we showed a mural on Carneceria La Noria: Frida by Enuf.

This Google Maps Street View shows the front of Carniceria Don Juan II in January 2022, as it was about to open:



Carniceria Don Juan II had a new mural on its west side. I think that the man on the right is Don Juan (Don is a term of respect for a man) and the banner about tortillas for sale hides the business name:

A closeup, including a recipe for caldo de queso:

And the artist's signature… I'm guessing that 23 means 2023:

The Carniceria Don Juan Facebook page shows that as of February 5, 2024 the location is closed (negocio cerrado). I believe the origial location on 1924 S. 4th Avenue is still open; our September 20, 2019 post Tortilleria Don Juan shows one of the murals on front and has a link to a photo of another mural.

Update (July 29, 2024): A new Tucson Rodeo mural was added next to this mural sometime before today — but after I took the photos above on 12/27/2023. See today's post Carniceria Don Juan II una vez más.

Casa Molina on Speedway gone?, fading

I think it was a kitchen fire a couple of years ago that closed the Casa Molina location on Speedway. I was driving along Rook Avenue, just west of the restaurant, on Christmas Day 2023. The mural by the entrance to the parking lot there is in rough shape:

The Speedway side doesn't have any sign that it's closed or for sale, so maybe the restaurant will come back:

Update (May 22, 2024): Today, the Arizona Daily Star published Iconic Tucson Mexican restaurant could face the wrecking ball. The restaurant had a lot of issues that would need to be fixed before it possibly re-opens.

Galaxy Smoke Shop on Fort Lowell

Our previous post showed Galaxy Smoke Shop on 22nd. Their location on Ft. Lowell is more spectacular. Here's the building's west side, a closeup of the store's name between the posts at the left, and a closeup of a small part farther to the right:

Next, the east side. It has the artist's signature:

I hit my car's brakes when I saw this building March 29th.

Galaxy Smoke Shop on 22nd

The mural on Galaxy Smoke Shop South is much simpler than the spectacular one we'll see next time at their North location (on Fort Lowell):

I spotted it as I rolled by on December 23, 2023.

Ben's Bells at Pima Country Day School

Ben's Bells has kindness murals all around Tucson. A lot of them are at schools — like this one:

I spotted this tree mural as I was driving along Country Club on December 17, 2023.

Welcome to Cabrini Neighborhood

Just east of Country Club on Presidio Road, on the north side of the street, is this sunny sign. Maggie Mae Mosaics is just behind the sign, so I think I know who made it.

I took the photo on December 17, 2023.

Maggie Mae Mosaics

The Maggie Mae Mosaics building is covered with… you guessed it.

I was there on December 17, 2023.

This fence rocks

This home near the corner of Country Club and Blacklidge has a painted fence along the alley side and a rock fence along Blacklidge. I'll start at the northern side of the fence around the alley, then show photos around the fence.

The posts along the fence have a mural-like pattern.

I was there on December 17, 2023.

Youth murals on TDS and next door

In case you aren't familiar with it, The Drawing Studio teaches art classes — and much more than drawing. Somewhere in the mix is the MOCA Tucson Minor Mutiny (see the second photo below). Their Fall 2023 page says “Minor Mutiny is a leadership program for high school students between the ages of 13 and 18 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson. Selected participants will receive a $350 stipend for the Fall 2023 semester. Participants will work with museum staff and community partners to design and implement public art projects.”

I'm not sure how this all fits together. But I do know that there are murals on the west side of The Drawing Studio building and just south of TDS along Tucson Boulevard on the boarded-up front of what looks like a former convenience store.

The Drawing Studio

The second mural is just south of the first one:

Just south of TDS

Here's the storefront…

…and each mural, left to right, along with two closeups:

Not my market

Last December 16, when I saw Jerry's Market, I naturally stopped (my name is Jerry…) and noticed that the whole west side was covered with murals:

I couldn't fit it all into one photo. So here's the left side…

…and the right side:

My photo of the center had deep shadows. So I came back on a cloudy day a month later — January 22, 2024 — to take another:

South Park is the neighborhood: just west of Park Avenue.

Long lost (by me :) Joe Pagac butterfly mural

Tucson has so many murals that it's easy to lose track. David Aber and I share a spreadsheet listing murals to post on this blog, but sometimes I forget to add a mural. That happened with this mural. Joe painted it in 2019. The photos are from April 12, 2020. Last week, I started looking for them on the blog. Oops.

One advantage of my forgetting is that these photos show the mural when it was almost new. By now, four years later, the mural has started to fade.

First, the whole mural — which fills almost the whole block of 8th Street from 4th Avenue to Hoff Avenue:

If you stand close, you'll notice that the top left corner of the mural shows the stages of the butterfly's life:

Even closer:

The left side of the mural, to the left of the glass doors:

Middle of the mural:

Right side:

If you're looking at this on a small screen, you might not notice the people riding giant butterflies or the prickly pear cactus pads flying as if they were butterflies. (As always, you can click on a photo for a slideshow of larger views.)