Great mural close-ups from Philip Snyder

Thanks, Phil Snyder, for your email message this week. Philip has lived in Tucson for two years, and he's posted close-up photos of murals on his website philipsnyderphotography.smugmug.com. He wrote:

I am particularly interested in murals that have a real "artistic value", if you will, similar to the the two I have already visited. I very much enjoy completing portions of the murals to appear as paintings. If any you know of come to mind, please let me know.

In Memory of Crystal

This beautiful mural is on the corner of Rosy's Beauty Salon, 4453 S. 6th. The signs near the bottom (which you can see below) say "In Memory of Crystal Salazar 3-26-98 to 8-17-99" and the mural is marked © Mary Miranda. (Her first name was a bit hard to read. I hope I have it right.)


I took the photos December 12, 2010.

Update: Here's a photo of the mural as it looked in the year 2000.

Update (October 16, 2014): The left half of the mural has been painted over, and the right half has faded more. Today's entry has the 15-year story.

Delicious on South 12th

This is the front of Rincon Tarasco a la Michoacana — 4505 S. 12th (just south of Michigan Drive) — last December 12.

Mural-covered porch

These gorgeous murals are on the front porch of the home at 4476 S. 3rd Avenue (at Michigan).

Korean War Memorial

The Korean War Memorial is part of the Pima County Kino Veterans Memorial Sportspark & Centers, Ajo Way & Forgeus Avenue. It's well worth a visit! I discovered the memorial in December of last year.




(That's a flower at the bottom right of the last photo.)

You can read more about the memorial in the June 23, 2000 Tucson Citizen article Korea’s dead get their due.

Update (January 13, 2014): There's a photo of flags at the memorial in the Tucson's Pocket Parks blog on the page Korean War Memorial (click there to see it).

Around the corner...

...from the mural you've probably seen on the west side of the shop at Grande & Congress is this one on the back (south) side:

I took the photo on December 3, 2010.

Maybe a mural, part 17

If the wall in the previous post looks like a mural to you, here's another "maybe" with fewer tiles and more wall. (I didn't count the tiles. This one just seems more sparse to me.)

This act of devotion in front of 505 S. Columbus was finished just a month or two ago. Here's a close-up from the north end:

Update (May 2, 2013): There's a close-up of the mailbox in the distance (at the near end of that far wall) in today's post on the Tucson Mailbox Art blog.

Maybe a mural, part 16

A tile or two in spots around a stucco wall can look nice, but I wouldn't say they make a “mural.” If there's a variety of tiles around everything, I think a wall might slide over into the ‘maybe’ category. What do you think about this one?

It was at Another Man's Treasure, 2601 E. Grant, last November 25.

Art breakout!

This is part of a longgg mural along the south wall by the parking lot at 2509 N. Country Club: The Art Center Design College.

Since I took the photo on November 25, 2010, I think I've seen some tagging :( along other parts of the mural. I hope it's been cleaned up by the time you get there.

From camels to sailing ships...

You can make that (virtual) journey yourself outside 2817 N. Country Club (just north of Glenn). At the time I shot these — November 25, 2010 — they were on two empty-looking walls next to Caravan Import Foods. These tile murals are signed “Abdulla” - Hand Made - Ja(?)sim, AZ.Tucson"

Who needs a garden?

The ultimate xeriscaping may be: hire a muralist to paint plants on your walls!

Well, I'm not sure that's what the folks at Casa de Ladrillo (the house on north side) - 3131 E. Glenn (e. of Country Club) were thinking, but the thought crossed my mind. (I took this photo back on November 25, 2010.)

Update (September 12, 2013): The shot above was taken from the southeast corner of the home. Later, I found a mural near the southwest corner and posted a photo today.

Bright desert mural

This little tile mural is almost small enough to be in the "maybe a mural" category. But I decided it was big enough. :). It's on the white house at 2808 N. Dodge (just north of Glenn, on the right side). I snapped the photo on November 25, 2010.

Cortaro Farms, now and then

These photos are from Howard Rains, who wrote on Thursday that he loves tracking down murals as he rides inside and outside of Tucson. Above is his photo from near the corner of Cortaro Farms and I-10, on Cortaro just east of the railroad tracks. Below, I've cropped to just the mural and stretched the photo a bit (with the GIMP editor):

Thanks as always, Howard!

Update (September 23, 2016): The steam locomotive depicted (Southern Pacific No. 1673) is on display at the train depot on Toole Avenue in Tucson. Thanks to David Aber for the tip.

Mixed murals

El Rancho Sereno, at 3800 E 4th Street (just west of Alvernon), has a variety of murals that you can see from the street side of their property:

Maybe a mural, part 15

Here's another piece of “wall art” that isn't painted on, fresco-style or otherwise. Tucson has lots of cut-metal gates like this one, on Stewart, just north of Drachman. Is this a mural? Or is it just a piece of art that a lot of people will enjoy?

Maybe a mural, part 14

This artistic address on the wall of a home at 1208 N. Plumer is painted directly on the cinder-bock wall around their home. It beats a simple number on the wall... but is it “a mural?”

On the other side

In May, 2010, I spotted a faded mural on the south wall of the Family Resource & Wellness Center, at Michigan Drive just west of 13th Avenue. But (maybe because the gate into the schoolyard behind was locked?), I didn't check the north side of the building:

This view is from two months ago: May, 2011. This mural on the north wall is behind an area covered by a canopy.

As Martín Moreno pointed out to me while he was re-painting the south wall of the La Pilita Museum, murals on the south sides of buildings face the worst sun and fade the fastest. That's probably why this north-side mural is in much better shape than the one on the south side.

Posner's looking good...

I've stopped by Posner's Art Store, 1025 N. Park, a few times since Rock Martinez started to paint their front window. Every time the mural has been better. Sunday morning (the 10th), it looked “finished” to me:

You can compare the mural to Posner's logo (and, for now at least, see a poster advertising the start of painting on June 25) at PosnersArtStore.com.

Maybe a mural, part 13

Here on the Tucson Murals Project, we run an occasional series called "maybe a mural." (What about a couple of tile "blankets" or "serapes" that have teen "tossed" across a stucco wall? Are those murals??) We generally leave those questions to you. (Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder...) What about a "mural" that's destined to be cleaned (or fade) away — like a mandala made of sand?

Anyway, we're back to the archives... back to a time when it was cool enough outside that people wanted to stand on the pavement and spend a lot of time enjoying (what you might call) murals drawn on the sidewalk. These are during an exhibition opening, October 29, 2010, on the big patio at the Tucson Museum of Art. The were made by students at the Museum School, in a Day of the Dead theme, and they were gone after that night.

Murals? That's for you to decide. Art? No question.

To find other murals on this blog that have vanished, scroll through the table of murals (or use your browser's "find in page" command) to look for the word GONE. Then click the link in that line for a photo of the (now-)missing mural.

Murals being made, part 7

Three months ago, we showed David Tineo's team painting a new mural in Murals being made, part 2. They were working indoors, painting separate panels that would eventually go onto a frame on the east side of Mountain Avenue. Here's that frame yesterday:

There's not much to look at yet, I know. An artist on the project said this frame is bigger than the last time she saw it. So, if you're driving on Mountain Avenue just north of Glenn in the next few days, look between the trees by the church, near the corner of Adelaide.

(If you see something different, I'd appreciate an email or a phone call -- (520)302-4402 -- to let me know. A photo would be even better!)

Update (May 18, 2012): Part 8 of this “being made” series was posted today.