Nick DeGrazia mural

I thought I'd follow yesterday's post of the sign from Ted DeGrazia's former studio with a photo of the porch at 146 W. Drachman (on the northeast corner with 10th Avenue).

When I find a mural, I look for a signature. This one, at the bottom left, had a familiar name:

I'd heard of Ted DeGrazia, but I hadn't heard of Nick. A son of Ted's, maybe? A Google search this week for Nick Ted DeGrazia turned up a couple of stories: Bonnie Henry's column Ted DeGrazia: Always time for the kids (Arizona Daily Star, June 7, 2009) and a guest commentary in Tucson Weekly by Ron Butler, Buying DeGrazia on eBay: a tribute (July 21, 2005). Apparently Nicholas was Ted's son, and Mr. Butler's article said:

Nick, who worked as a boxer and a wrangler, decided to take up painting. He copied his father's work in the simplest of styles, mimicked the colors and of course the very familiar and famous "DeGrazia" signature which, one assumes, he was fully entitled to use.

I took the photos on July 27, 2010.

Sign from Ted DeGrazia's studio

Driving along Prince Road two months ago (November 16), just east of Campbell, I noticed something on a building that looked like a mural. I turned around and pulled in. It was a framed piece of weathered wood, and the face looked familiar…

I walked into the business behind the sign, C'est La Vie Vintage Boutique, to ask. The very helpful business owner, Sharon, told me the story. Sure enough, this was artist Ted DeGrazia — the sign from his former studio, which used to be just west of here on the southwest corner of Prince & Campbell. The studio is gone now… but the landlord of the building with the mural kept the portrait from the sign that used to sit in front of the studio along Campbell.

I found more in a biography of Ted DeGrazia. The studio was built in 1944, and… well, I'll let you read the rest of the story yourself!

Update (November 27, 2019): The mural has been gone for at least a couple of months. The business there is Sandra Arce Art Gallery.

Youth Farm Project covers main library

Head downtown soon to see these big photos from the Youth Farm Project — glued to the south side of the building with wheat paste (a vegetable-based glue). Here are some of them. They went up Sunday, and they'll be there into February. (There's one more coming — on the east side, I think — next weekend.)



It's a project of the Community Food Bank. There's a story and a video on the KVOA TV website.

El Rio revisited

Back on May 2, 2008, we posted photos by Warren V. of some of the fabulous murals at the El Rio Neighborhood Center, 1390 W. Speedway.

Here are some more photos that I took on July 20, 2011. If you haven't been there, it's worth the trip to see!

Former residents line Grande Avenue

The streets north and south of the corner of Grande & Huron are lined with freestanding tile murals with photos of people. They're in the same style as the better-known Windows to the Past, Gateway to the Future downtown, but in a lot more intimate setting.

Here's the street from north (top) to south (bottom):

SE corner of Delaware, N. side	SE corner of Delaware, S. side
In front of 901 N. Graande, N. side	In front of 901 N. Graande, S. side
750 N. Grande, N. side	750 N. Grande, S. side
NE corner w/Sonora, N. side	NE corner w/Sonora, S. side

I took the photos on July 23, 2011.

Flowers on North Grande

As I ride around Tucson on my bicycle, I find lots of buildings with flowers painted on the wall. Here's the front of 1006 N. Grande on July 23rd:

Arts for All Inc.

That's the west side of the Arts for All Inc. building on July 10, 2011. And a look around the parking lot... the east end:

the southwest end:

the southeast end:

and the south center (in the middle of the previous two):

That's Gandhi… “Be the change you wish to be in the world…”

(As always, you can click on a photo for a slideshow of larger views.)

Don't look

The former Casbah Teahouse and Restaurant, 628 N. 4th Avenue, had murals all along the entranceway. (You can spot one or two of them in the first photo below.)

If you gazed on Medusa (in Greek mythology, at least), with her snakes for hair, you'd turn to stone. So think twice before you scroll down... :)

Artist Rock Martinez started work on this corner sometime before July 16, 2011, which is when I took this first picture:

I stopped by earlier this month, on January 5th, and found the finished beast:

Finding other murals, street art, etc.

A friend just sent me one of those emailed collections of photos... you've probably gotten some of them in your own inbox from time to time. This one was of amazing street art. I thought of some things that other art lovers (like you!) might want to know:

• Most of those email photo collections don't give credit to the original photographer(s) or the artists. So I searched the Internet to try to find a website with the same photos. I found a page on Street Art Utopia, 106 of the most beloved Street Art Photos – Year 2010. It's a fun site... you can find more photos around that site. You can also search the Internet for [ mural ] or [ street art ], etc. One place I found right away was a Tucson Street Art page.
  
• Google has a reverse image search where you can show Google a photo and it will look around the Internet for similar photos. (There are other services, but I know Google's best.) To use it, go to images.google.com and, in the search box in the middle of the screen, click the little camera icon at the right side. Then Google will ask you to either upload a photo from your computer or to give the location of a photo that's already on the Internet. (If the photo you want to search for comes from an email message, first save that photo file onto your desktop -- or to any place on your computer -- then upload it to Google.)

Happy hunting!

Balboa Heights Park

This mural is behind a bicycle rack and a eucalyptus tree at Balboa Heights Park, on the west wall, the north side. The park is at 2526 N. Castro (s. of Jacinto). I snapped the photo (with a zoom lens) on July 10, 2011.

Decorated driveway

I found this mural on July 8, 2011, along the driveway at 1240 E. Adelaide.

A fin(e) corner for a building

This car tail fin mural is painted around a corner of Sir Veza's Taco Garage. The building itself is on the northwest corner of Speedway & Swan. My notes say that this fin is painted on the northwest corner of the building, but I think it might actually be the southeast corner. (If you drive by there, would you please post a comment below or send me an email? Thanks.)

I took the photo on July 6, 2011.

A bit newer at 6th & Toole

Last week's post New at 6th & Toole, part 2 showed three sides of the building just north of the 6th Avenue underpass. Yesterday was a view of the southeast wall on June 26.

In between those dates — on October 4, 2011 — I found a mural of a man standing on the southeast wall, with his hand coming out of the south wall:

I'm going to try to stop by this building more often!

Not as new at 6th & Toole

Last week, in the post New at 6th & Toole, part 2, we showed a photo of the new painting work on two (well, three) sides of the building just north of the 6th Avenue underpass. Here's a view of the southeast wall (the right side of that photo from last week) earlier, as some of the old works (and maybe some tags?) had been painted over — and the new ones not painted yet:

I snapped the photo near sunrise on June 26, 2011.

(P.S. Happy Friday the 13th!)

Peppi's House

At the northwest corner of the main TMC (Tucson Medical Center) campus is the hospice named Peppi's House. One outside wall on the east is covered with a tile mural:

Here's a closeup:

That east-side mural is from Santa Theresa Tile Works. On the north side, near the main entrance, are two murals with quotations, names of donors, "Peppi's House dedicated May 22, 2007" and "Artwork created by Nina Borgia-Aberle © 2007:


I took the photos on June 23, 2011. (As always, you can click on a photo for a larger view.)

Update (April 26, 2021): The bottom of the mural has been updated sometime since I took these photos. Today's entry has a recent photo and information about the mural.

Siobhan on Toole

On June 26, I noticed a newly-painted storefront at 197 E. Toole, next to Skrappys.

As seems to happen often these days, I'm posting this photo at the last minute — and haven't had time to find out more about the person or business there. Some online searching led me to Siobhan's page on the Model Mayhem website. I'll try to find out more soon... in the meantime, if you have details, please add a comment below...

Update (6 hours later): Elizabeth Albert answered my email to ask whether she knows anything about the building and mural. She wrote "I am actually the artist behind that mural :). I design clothing but also paint." Along with the Model Mayhem link above, her email signature has more info:

2009 People's Choice Designer - Scottsdale Fashion Week
Website: www.siobhanclothing.com
Purchase: www.siobhanclothing.etsy.com
Make Friends: www.facebook.com/siobhan.clothing
Twitter: Siobhan Clothing
Blog: www.YourLifeLnDesign.blogspot.com

Townsend Middle School, OMA

(No, that's not OMG. :) OMA is a program named Opening Minds through the Arts, and Ft. Lowell Townsend K-8 School is (its website says) an International and OMA Gold School.

Here are photos from June 23, 2011 of a wall and a tile mural on the school's southwest corner. Townsend Middle School is at 2120 North Beverly.

Dodge Middle School

This mural is on the front of Ida Flood Dodge Middle School, 5831 East Pima. (Go Bulldogs!)

Cactus and chile

There are several murals at 5634 E. Pima. Here's the east side (in mottled early sunlight):

And, on the front...

... chile ristras hanging on vigas — but they're actually murals. The chiles had lost their red color when I was there on the morning of June 19, 2011.

Harlow Gardens

This was the early-morning scene in front of the store, 5620 E. Pima, on June 19, 2011.