Harriet Johnson Park ramada

At the northeast corner of 25th & Edlin, Harriet Johnson Park has a ramada covered with miniature murals. When I was there on July 30, a few of them had been trashed with paint and a package sticker. Other than that, it's a great spot for a picnic:

(The background colors are actually all the same; the lighting varied.)

This is our 550th blog post. Thanks to the artists, Nina Borgia-Aberle and Stephen Grebe, and to all the contributors who helped make this art-filled ramada. The second plaque above lists the principals of Corbett school and shows part of a mural there; you can see the mural in Cactus and city at Corbett School.

Monster truck mural

I found this desert scene on the south side of Simmons 4x4 Auto Repair Center, 3743 S. Country Club, six months ago: August 5th.

Many hands make...

...light work... or, an interesting mural! I found this on July 30, 2011, on the west side of the parking lot along Langely Avenue, at Sonoran Science Academy, 6880 East Broadway.

(The photo also shows a post and a a few shadows.)

Construction wall under construction

Yesterday morning I turned onto eastbound Broadway at 5th Avenue. This construction wall was along the south side, covering part of the building between 5th and Herbert Avenues.

Most of the mural's left side wasn't finished yet. But the people reading books and the letters R...A-D gave a good idea of where the mural is headed.

Painted planes: The Boneyard Project

The Pima Air & Space Museum is hosting a show organized by local gallery owner Eric Firestone: painted airplanes, planes’ nose cones, and a Vietnam-era bomb. It's called The Boneyard Project, and it's on view at the museum through the end of May. Here's more:

• The Caliente article (look for the related “Meet the Artists” story and the 7 photos)


• The museum's photos on Facebook

Douglas detour

Though this blog covers murals around Tucson, sometimes we stretch the definition of “around” to places like Bisbee, San Francisco and Iraq. :) This photo is from the lobby of the Gadsden Hotel in Douglas on Sunday, January 29. It's 42 feet long, by Louis Tiffany & Co., with desert scenes as well as a gorgeous tree in the panel next to the left edge.

Creative carport

On a sunny morning six months ago, July 30th, I took this photo of the end of the carport at 6912 E. Rosewood Street. (It shows a bit of the car in the carport, and I've edited the photo to brighten the shadows.) Normally I wouldn't walk onto someone's property to snap a photo, but the artist who painted the mural invited me. She painted it in 2003, though she's since moved away. Here's the story, from an email she wrote:

“The mural was designed and painted entirely by me. I got tired of driving up to an ugly brown wall every day, and decided to beautify it. I attended a mural painting class (offered by now defunct Pink Adobe Gallery) just a few weeks before I painted the mural. The class helped me refine my original ideas for the wall. I had no prior painting experience, and my original design was beyond my skills. I love telavera pottery, and Bird of Paradise is one of my favorite flowers, and voila. I had an idea. ... It was a delightful labor of love!”

W. Arthur Sewell Elementary

This energizing mural is along a sports court at the east side of the campus of W. Arthur Sewell elementary school. (Here's a map of the school area.) I took the photo from Chantilly between 6th and Holmes on July 30, 2011.

Hidden on Aviation Highway

Barraza-Aviation (the quick route from Davis-Monthan to downtown) is decorated with murals here and there along its north-side wall — by the highway as well as the bikeway on the other side of the wall. If you're buzzing along in a car, though, you'd better look fast! (Riding a bike, or parking near an exit and walking a bit, will give you a better chance to see the murals.)

These three murals are some of the best-hidden (along with the trashed murals at the 22nd Street junction). They're on the highway side just west of the junction with 34th Street. I took the photos on July 27, 2011.

Garden on Laguna

I rode by this mural, on the east side of 202 W. Laguna (the Castro Avenue side), early on the morning of July 27th.

Update (May 18, 2018): There's a new mural. See today's entry Garden on Laguna II.

Moonlight on Mabel...

...and sunshine, and cactus... are part of this mural on the wall around the home at 815 E. Mabel:

Gemstone Mineral Interiors

Back on July 23, I wondered about this building at 1202 N. Main — wrapped in magnificent murals with no business sign. Google Maps says the building houses Gemstone Mineral Interiors. Though I'm still catching up on the backlog of murals to post — six months to go — at least I'm right on time for the Gem Show!

The photo above is from the northwest, on Main Avenue, and the photo below shows the south side, along Helen Street.


Update (February 15, 2012): I just noticed that Randy found these murals four years ago. His photos are in our September 8, 2008 post Drive-by Dinosaurs.

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: