Subtle mural on the south side

Most murals have bright colors and a bold design, but this mural is different. Drive up close to the Family Resource & Wellness Center, on Michigan Drive just west of 13th Avenue, to get a better look.

Amazing mural in a surprising spot

I spot murals in some out-of-the-way places, but I still wouldn't expect to see an exquisitely-detailed desert mural next to a nondescript freeway entrance ramp. Thanks to a tip from a man who takes the ramp from Irvington to northbound I-19 every workday, I headed out with my camera to find this gem: It was worth the trip: finely detailed life-like plants and animals on the wall between an ugly onramp and a generic shopping center. As soon as you make the turn north from Irvington, be ready to pull off... and watch for potholes as you try to park. Here's another section (click to enlarge): The mural is signed www.muralbyjos.com, but the website seems to be down. I found a listing, though: "Jos Villabrille, Tucson artist painting murals for home and business." Update (August 12, 2011): Philip Synder has great close-up photos of parts of this long mural on his SmugMug page Irvington mural, Tucson.

Lots of water on South 15th

This water-themed mural is on the wall in front of a Tucson Water well at 4734 S. 15th (the corner with Tennessee):

Four great murals on Irvington

You'll find long and spectacular murals on the tops of the buildings at El Pueblo Neighborhood Center, 101 W. Irvington. The eastern building is topped by this mural signed "79 D. Tineo D. Garza":

(You can click on any image for a larger view. Click your browser's "back" button to return.) Next is a mural signed "S.D. Egan 5-5-86":

The third and fourth murals are unsigned (as far as I could see). They're also showing their age, with some peeling paint and water damage:

(That's part of a tree covering the top of the mural.)

(That's a streetlight in the middle.)

One more mural is on the side of the building between the first and second, but it's almost completely covered by a tree. It's faded, too, so check it out yourself before it's too late (or before it's restored?).

Baseball murals at Rudy Garcia Park

The snack bar by the baseball fields at Rudy Garcia Park, on Irvington east of 6th, is covered with murals about... baseball. Here's the east wall...

...and the north wall, which is behind a fence and partly covered by other stuff:

Territorial Sports Bar & Grill

This mural covers the north wall of Territorial Sports Bar & Grill, 3727 South Palo Verde.

Murals by moonlight

I'm an early riser… when the weather gets hot, at least. Last week's hot spell and the full moon gave me an idea: head out just before sunrise with my tripod to try photographing spooky murals by moonlight. It didn't work out as well as I thought it might because the streetlights in the area I picked — Toole Avenue and north on Stone — were a lot brighter than the moon. But the photos were spooky.

First, here's a shot with the full moon in the sky behind this mural-covered building at Council & Toole. (Also check out the daylight version.)

Across Toole, on the side of the building that's recently become the new home of the Tucson Youth Collective (usually called Skrappys), is this bizarre collection of scenes from Tucson and somewhere in the Universe (which you also can see in daylight):

North on Stone, just north of the corner of Speedway and Stone (1122 N. Stone), is a mural that's colorful in daylight but eerie in moonlight/lamplight:

This was a long time exposure — a minute or so — which gave me plenty of time to walk in front of the mural and paint the skulls with a flashlight to make them brighter (as Tucson photographer Stu Jenks might have done). As always on this blog, you can click on any photo for a larger view.

No missing Nimbus

It's hard to miss the Nimbus brewery location as you drive by 6464 E. Tanque Verde: this mural fills almost half of the front of the building!

Update (June 19, 2016): I'm pretty sure the artist was Rock Martinez. I saw a Nimbus Brewing mural mentioned as I was updating our article Rock Martinez in the Tucson Citizen, 2008.

Update (April 15, 2019): I hear that this mural is gone. Google Maps shows a medical office there.

Tattoo murals

Tattoo shops seem to have murals on their walls... showing off their artists' skills in a big way, I guess. (To find more of them, type tattoo into the search box near the top right corner of this blog.) Here's the view at K42 Tattoo, 6142 E. 22nd.

Maybe a mural, part three

Got an ugly trailer surrounded by ugly stuff? A big piece of metal with a mural could be just the thing. Of course, when the design you paint is repetitive, you might call it a wall treatment, as I think the Tucson-Pima Arts Council would in this case.

This stormy-day photo is at 2968 E. 30th Street.

(This "maybe a mural" series continues on May 12 with part four.)

Maybe a mural, part two

So are mosaics on the ground or on benches — like the ones above, at the Pantano River Park at Lowe's — "mural enough" for this blog? Well, you know what I think. :) They're just east of Kolb on Speedway.

Update (December 2, 2013): There's a photo of the (mailbox-shaped) entrance in yesterday's post on the Tucson Mailbox Art blog, Pantano River Park (at Speedway).

Maybe a mural, part one

Depending on how you define "mural," these mosaic panels on an overpass might or might not qualify. (Here's what dictionary.com says.) I say that if it's creative and it's on a wall (and it's not just a bunch of taggers' initials), a lot of art lovers will probably enjoy seeing it.

Whatever these are, they're on Speedway between Pantano and Camino Seco.

Monster Mural on Country Club

You can hardly miss this mural on the west side of Country Club just south of Glenn. (Click on the mural for more detail.)

Got mural?

As I explore Tucson's side streets on my bicycle, I'm pleasantly surprised at how many murals I find in out-of-the-way places. My guess is that these small businesses and homeowners want to beautify their property, be good neighbors, and share their love of art with passersby.

Here's an example: a fence outside a home on Fairmount Street at the corner with Torino:

Boot Bunkhouse

Need some boots or "cowboy flip flops"? Head for a store with a full-length mural on its front side: Boot Bunkhouse at 5126 E. Pima.

The famous hidden 100-foot-long mural

For this 200th post on the Tucson Murals Project, I wanted to cover David Tineo's well-known Linda Avenue mural. It's huge — 120 feet long, I've read — and hard to find. When I got there yesterday, I spotted it in an overgrown lot, surrounded by a chain-link fence with NO TRESPASSING signs:

Here are some close-ups (thanks to my zoom lens and the amazing free GIMP photo editor):

You can see that it's worth a visit! Bring your binoculars. :( At least the artists' credits are easy to see. At the bottom of the left-hand panel is Special Thanks to all who Painted! Gracias ‘LaLo’ © 12/2006 – Tineo.

You might think of driving in on Linda Avenue, but the gate there was locked — and far from the mural. The easiest way to see the mural is to drive along Congress a bit west of Linda and take the next right into the El Rio Health Center. There's a wall along the east side of that property. On the other side of the wall is the mural.

(Update: The story of the mural, and much more about David Tineo's life, were covered in the Arizona Daily Star article The end of one chapter in artist's life, by Tom Beal, on December 26, 2006. The article says the mural is actually 200 feet long — appropriate for our 200th post, eh? Tineo didn't choose the images in the mural but guided the neighborhod kids through choosing what they wanted to paint. Some local artists painted the intricate parts, including Fernando Gonzalez at the south end, Ruben Moreno at the north end, and Tanya Alvarez in the center. And it quoted David Tineo as saying that this would be his last mural. His eyesight is failing.)

Update (May 15, 2012): This mural was covered back on March 24, 2008 on the Community Arts and Murals blog. There are great photos, too; the third photo shows the whole mural. The post is Something about Tucson Murals: The Linda Avenue Mural.

Update (October 1, 2014): Here's a story from the archives of the Tucson Citizen: West Side story being told in Linda Vista mural.

Update (February 28, 2019): Pima County Supervisor Richard Elías (District 5) posted photos and credits on Facebook.