Viking Car Wash

The Arizona Daily Star’s August 6 article Tucson Oddity: Haunting mural draws plenty of looks at the Viking Car Wash described this mural at 1120 S. 6th Avenue:

The article says that the mural was painted by Jesus Robles Jr. and that the car wash has been here since 1984. You can see the mural as you drive by on 22nd: look to the north, just west of the stoplight at 6th Avenue. (Or stop in for a car wash!) I drive by all the time but never noticed it. I took this photo on August 17th.

Update (January 5, 2015): There's a new mural here.

Maybe a mural, part 36: Address signs on Adams

Once in a while, I post something here that you might or might not call a “mural.” (The last time was July 20th.)

On May 24th, I was riding along Adams Street two blocks west of Country Club when I realized that the nice little address signs could be murals. But they're small, and there are so many of them around town, that I probably won't post many of them. Here are two, though:

More at La Pilita Museum

One of Tucson's best-known murals is on the south wall of the La Pilita Museum, 420 S. Main. We've shown a previous version of the mural, as well as the repainted mural here on the blog.

Here's a more recent photo, from February 11, of the repainted mural by Martín Moreno and the tile work in front of it:

By the front entrance is a painted chile ristra:

When I was there six months ago I asked permission to go out the back door of the museum to see the murals inside the fenced back yard. A couple of the murals are for a water harvesting project; they surround a big cistern:

That second mural above is a timeline starting from before the time of European contact. It's a nice design, but I didn't notice what it shows: water levels, maybe?

Students from Carillo Elementary School nearby have painted some of the murals at the museum:

El Tiradito under a starry sky, and a weeping woman	The Devil and a Texan (I'm not sure if there's any connection :)
This mural was behind two posts

Finally, here's a sign for either the students or other artists:

Now that students are back at school — six months after I took these photos — maybe there are more murals?

Update (November 25, 2024): Today's post La Pilita 12 years later has photos from July of this year. Some things have changed; others haven't.

El Minuto's murals

In the middle of the line between the redevelopment that replaced part of Tucson's Barrio Viejo with the Tucson Convention Center complex is the long-time restaurant El Minuto, at 354 S. Main Avenue. Here are three photos of the murals surrounding this downtown tradition, from west to east:

I stopped by on January 18th.

Update (May 9, 2014): Today I published a photo of the murals Behind El Minuto.

Where Arctic Son studied

Years ago, not long after I moved to Tucson, I bought a book called Arctic Daughter— the story of Tucsonan Jean Aspen moving to a remote part of Alaska with her family, learning to live in true wilderness.

Fast-forward ten years or so to the start of February, 2012. I saw an article in the Arizona Daily Star about a new DVD being shown — the story of a Tucsonan who moved to Alaska with her family to, well... and I looked on my bookshelf. Same author... but now she was grown up and this was the story of her family.

The sad part was that her son, Lucas Irons, had just passed away — very young and much-beloved. Jean and her husband Tom Irons would fly in to Tucson for one night — to see friends and show the video — at Green Fields Country Day School, where Luke was a student. I couldn't miss this...

I'll leave the rest of the story to Jean's website and the school's Lucas Irons Scholarship page. I mention the story here because the school has murals! It was nearly dark, but I caught four photos. The murals are spread around the campus at 6000 N. Camino De La Tierra.

And don't miss the amazing stained-glass mural in the library made by... Jean Aspen. (She's an artist as well as a writer.) I didn’t get a photo of it.

Horse by Mena

When I rode by this horse on February 3rd, the artist’s style looked familiar...

I stopped to take a closer look (and this photo). Sure enough, one of the back legs is signed “Mena”... Luis Gustavo Mena, the well-known Tucson muralist.

The mural was on a garage door on a west-facing building, on the northeast corner of 22nd & Tucson.

...or this one...

Our previous post showed a mural behind a tall fence topped with razor wire. Here's another one. I found it on February 3rd on a building just north of 744 S. Euclid.

These two murals may be a bit hard to see... but, at least, taggers will have trouble trashing them!

Can't touch this mural...

A high fence, topped with barbed wire and razor wire, surrounds the land and the mural on this building near the south side of the property at 901 E. 12th Street. I was there on January 27th.

A while ago, this was the Sonoran Desert Nursery. Later it was a free community garden operated by TREES PLEASE. Now I see a couple of "land for sale" listings online. If you'd like to see this mural in person, stop by soon! (But don't get too close.)

Update (December 31, 2013): There are more photos from Mark Fleming on today's post Inside the fence.

Sabino Canyon Visitor Center

I've been coming here for years — like almost everyone in Tucson — but I didn't spot these murals until a year or two ago. The first is on the wall of the visitor center:

The rest are around the top of the inside of the ramada near the parking lot — the one where groups meet for hikes (like the full-moon hike I was on tonight). I started photographing from the northwest corner of the ramada, clockwise. As always, you can click on a photo for a larger view...

In case you haven't been there, the visitor center is at the corner of Sunrise & Sabino Canyon.