Angelic mural on Santa Barbara

You'll find this inspiring scene in front of a home at 4067 E. Santa Barbara, a few blocks east of Randolph Park.

Update (May 20, 2013): Somehow I missed photographing half of the mural: the west side of the wall around the home. I discovered it on March 29, 2013, when I stopped by to photograph the mailbox (click there to see it on the Tucson Mailbox Art blog). Here's the rest of this gorgeous mural (which, I've found out recently, was painted by Rock Martinez):

Cheerful mural at Giving Tree

The Giving Tree Compassion Hope Center, 4650 E. Eastland Street at Swan, has a wraparound mural on two sides. Here's the view from Swan:

Update (February 1, 2022): There have been different murals here for months or years.

Better bus stop view

If you're waiting for the #1 or #17 bus after shopping at Food City, 22nd at Country Club, you'll be across the street or next to this mural. It's on the wall south of 23rd at Country Club. The neighborhood isn't especially attractive, and this mural could use some touching up too. Still, there are plenty of Tucson features and desert critters to occupy your time while you wait to board the bus.

(Don't feed the javelina.)



Update (September 3, 2012): The mural is badly tagged.

Cars, cars, cars

What kind of mural would you expect to find at Uncle Bob's Used Cars? Right: a mural with cars. This one stretches along Glenn, east from the corner with Stone. Here's the western half. (As always, you can get a bigger view by clicking on the photo. Return here with your browser's "back" button.)


For a view of this mural two years ago, see Randy's post from August 18, 2008.

Not your typical concrete garage

Maybe it's the location of this parking garage -- on Ochoa between Stone and Church, across from the playfully-colored La Placita -- that encouraged the fun murals on the south side?

It looks like the muralist also painted him or herself... as well as groups of people walking by, including one who's painting another (or is that a can of silly string?):

The latest Rialto mural...

...is the one that Joe Pagac painted in the past week:

It replaced the left half of the pair that was there last month, the George Tnorogood mural. Check back here to find out what replaces the right half (for a concert that happened March 5th). Update: Here's Joe's replacement mural.

Mosaic murals along the Santa Cruz

On North Riverside Drive at West Ontario Street, just south of Speedway and west of I-10, is the Santa Cruz River Park. It's full of fine mosaic work in murals, arches, and walls. Bring a picnic or just stop by for a walk. It's easy to reach from I-10 or from the bike path on the west side of the Santa Cruz.

A Prickly View

Catherine Devine, who signed her e-mail as "Bit Devine," is with Rincon Creek Studios. She e-mailed the Tucson Murals Project these photos of a Barrio Viejo mural. (There are others. Just search the blog.) Catherine wrote that this mural "is located on the barrier wall, on Sentinel just south of Granada." (Here's a Google Map of Sentinel & Granada.)


Update (February 12, 2015): This week we posted David Aber's photos from the same spot (the west end of little Mesa Street; you can click there for an updated Google Map). It turns out that there are two murals and that these photos show only parts of them. You can see the two complete murals in Mesa Street at I-10 #1 and Mesa Street at I-10 #2.

Humble (fumble?) murals

This mural, on a wall by the football field in Estevan Park (near the corner of Speedway and 13th Avenue), is showing its age: the paint has faded and parts are peeling away from the wall. But it still adds some lively art to a mostly empty field.

Almost any Tucson mural, no matter how humble, has a home on this blog. (And sorry for the bad rhyme in the title. But hey, like I said a month ago, how many clever mural titles are Randy and I supposed to come up with?? :)

Classy Contzen

In May of last year, we showed a bit of the murals to come in Barrio Anita. The I-10 freeway widening is done, and here's that view today -- closer up, now that the street isn't closed.

Tucson muralist David Tineo grew up in this neighborhood, and I'm wondering if that's the artist standing next to the Anita St. Market (which has murals of its own). If you know, please add a comment or send me email!

Once I was on Contzen Avenue, I could see a new little park snuggled next to the tall soundproofing wall. (At least, it was new to me! The Tucson-Pima Arts Council website says the mural was completed in 2005 and is one of a series of three -- including the Oury Park mural that Randy photographed in 2006.)

Anyway, the wall is covered with a spectacular mural. Here are two parts of it, starting from the north end (the part with the store, shown in the first photo):



The south end has a little ramada and a couple of tables with a 20-foot-high violinist to serenade you while you eat. Thanks to that wall, the freeway noise is just a whisper. (If the city can't pick up the trash, though, maybe one of the people in the neighborhood, or a visitor who's not on a bicycle like I was, could do it once in a while...)



Update (August 12, 2011): Philip Synder has great close-up photos of parts of these murals on his SmugMug page Barrio Anita mural, Tucson.

Update (September 26, 2014): The waymarking.com website has a page with lots of details: The 1008 North Contzen Street Mural.

Update: Google Maps lists an address of 1069 N. Contzen Avenue near the south end of the little park. (It isn't Contzen Street. In Tucson, avenues run north-south.)

Better than concrete

The I-10 widening through downtown Tucson and north didn't just add lanes: it added murals. Here are two of them along the east-side frontage road at the corner with St. Mary's:

The first photo shows the multi-color, multi-media mural at the northeast corner.

And the second photo shows the photos on the northwest corner -- a scene like Windows to the Past, Gateway to the Future in downtown Tucson.

Twelve Tribes on Fifth and Eighth

That's the view of Twelve Tribes Reggae Shop, 345 N. 5th Avenue, from the corner with 8th Street.

(Not) Mural Lovers, part 2

This once-proud mural in the memory of Maclovio R. Barraza (a Tucson labor activist who died in 1980), has been wrecked by vandals. Parts of some panels are still lying on the ground in front of and behind the wall. It's at the 22nd Street exit from Barraza-Aviation Parkway.

(If you'd like to see this sad sight, try parking around 22nd & Wilson, then walking west a block along the south side of 22nd. There's a happier scene nearby, at Wilson & Warwick Vista.)

(Not) Mural Lovers, part 1

This mural by Chris Rush at 15th and Cherry (a block west of Kino Parkway at Winsett) has been up for a couple of years; there's more detail on the TPAC website. All of the detail and variety makes it fun to look at. (Don't miss the souvenir map of southern Arizona.)


When I was here a year ago, someone had trashed the image of a happy man wearing a t-shirt saying "I get high on life" by crossing out "on life". When I came back this weekend, that had been fixed... but a few other panels, like this one, had been tagged. C'mon, taggers, can't you please show more respect?

Update (April 11, 2018): Today's Cactus Catz blog entry has photos of, I think, all the mural panels: WW : Cherry Field Portraits.

What's on (at) the Rialto

At the end of last year and the start of this one, the Rialto Theatre had a Sonic Youth concert mural on their wall, greeting people driving into downtown from the east. That mural couldn’t last forever (we hoped). On a ride into downtown today, that mural had been replaced by two — for the George Tnorogood and Ozmali concerts in March:


The mural is signed by Joe Pagac. Thanks to the Rialto and Joe for giving us something to look at as we sit in traffic coming into downtown.

But that's not all. Next to that mural, just a bit south, is this skull mural next to a side door:


(And then there's the mural on the south end of the wall.)

MORE on Park

The Project M.O.R.E. High School at 440 S. Park has a rainbow of tiles on the front and at spots around the inside: