TAB grand opening, overpass update

The Tucson Arts Brigade has brought a lot of art to Tucson. Three of their recent projects were the Barrio Centro mural, repainting Winsett Park, and the 29th Street overpass.

This coming Friday, September 21, is the grand opening of their new offices in the Historic Y. Here are the details. It's a beautiful building full of arts- and community-related people and groups. Stop by and meet the mural makers!

Speaking of TAB murals: Last week I rode by the overpass at 29th & Columbus. Several murals had been finished or tweaked since I was last there on March 14th. Here's an update.

Here's the last mural above as it looked on December 18, 2011:

The west end of the bridge has its mural now — and, ironically, some tiny tags. One of TAB's goals is to turn destructive taggers into mural painters, but I guess not every one was on this project.

Community Chalkboard

Yesterday I saw a story on KVOA-TV about the new Community Chalkboard. (Actually, @DowntownTucson tweeted about it.) I couldn't wait; I headed straight for the corner of Arizona Avenue and Congress to check it out:

(And the artist doesn't have two right arms! I set my camera on the mode that takes two exposures — one for the bright areas and another for the dark — and averages them. His hand was moving so fast that the two exposures caught it in different places. By the way, if you have a fairly new camera, check for that mode. It's great in scenes with a wide variety of brightness.)

The chalkboard is 40 feet long, and chalk is supplied. Since it's cleaned often, it's like a constantly-evolving mural. Thanks to David Aguirre for another creative downtown art project.

West of Leo Rich Theatre

I just came across this photo. I took it on March 9, 2005 (during the annual Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival — the morning rehearsals are wonderful... and free) but never posted it to this blog. It's on the west side of the Leo Rich Theatre, across the plaza from the concert hall. That's La Placita in the background.

(By the way, all of my other photos on this blog are in the public domain: you're free to do whatever you want with them. But I'd like to keep copyright on this one. If you want to use it somewhere else, please ask me first. Thanks.)

Update (December 5, 2014): The area near here has been renovated, as you can see in today's entry on the Tucson Pocket Parks blog.

Cancer Survivors Plaza

On the south side of Reid Park, at the northeast corner of 22nd Street and Lakeshore Lane, is the Richard & Annette Bloch Cancer Survivors Plaza. Besides being a shady spot with a mural-covered fountain, it’s an inspiring place with plaques that have information for people struggling with cancer. I took this photo on September 2nd.

There are more photos at tucsonart.info/cancer-survivors-plaza.

I am Tucson (Kindness, part 4)

This new mural dominates the southern half of the block of Stone Avenue between Congress and Broadway. It's just around the corner from the Kindness mural. Across Broadway is the downtown office of Ben’s Bells, the group behind the series of murals (as well as hundreds and hundreds of little bells).

There are lots of fun details, including a bunch of javelina wandering through the mural. Click on the photo if you'd like a close-up. Here are two:

Tucson Murals on Twitter too

To see the latest murals, you can always come to this blog. Randy has also been keeping a Facebook page.

I've just started posting murals @TucsonArt on Twitter; I'll tweet the name of the mural post, the address, and a link that takes you to the post here on the blog. (I'll also tweet about mural events and artists; a lot of that probably won't be here on the blog.)

From here on the blog, you can find the murals on Facebook and Twitter feed by clicking on the links under “Favorite Links” in the right column. To follow us on Twitter, here's a button to click:

Follow @TucsonArt

Sunrise east of Swan

Look to your left and right as you drive along Sunrise Drive east of Swan. You'll see these panels along with some sculptured agave and some real ones.

I rode by on March 16th.

Sunrise Drive Elementary

As I rode by on March 16, and glanced up the hill, something told me to take the ride up and see if the school had murals. (Schools are a good place to find murals.) Sure enough, the entrance (5301 East Sunrise Drive) was lined with mosaic murals.

This first mural is by the office door: “The Great Kapok Tree: Sunrise Drive Elementary Celebrates the Rainforest. 5th Grade Legacy 2006.”

In open space next to the office is this colorful scene:

First along the parking lot is the long mural shown above. To the left is a closeup I took of the “5th Grade Legacy” sign in the middle. (As always, you can click on either to get an even larger view.)

More murals along the parking lot:

And next to the classrooms are (surprise!) more murals:

Sunrise Presidio Village

This mural (with a few tree branches in front) is on the wall at 4550 N Craycroft, at the northeast corner of E. Center Village Drive. I rolled by on a long ride into the Foothills March 16th.

Glenn Medical Village

I spotted this mural March 16th. It's on the north side of a wall by the parking lot at 5170 E. Glenn. At the bottom left is a tile saying the artists were Mrs. Hall's 3rd grade class at Whitmore Elementary and Robin Riley, 2005.

Desert Sky Community School

This mural is on the south wall of the school, 1350 N. Arcadia.

A porch on Grant

This mural is on the front porch of the home at 1177 E. Grant Road. I found it on March 5th.

Chavez, Gandhi, Tolstoy and Tonan

This long mural at 760 S. Stone is dedicated to Cesar Chavez. The muralist was Melchor Ramirez. I took three photos on February 25th. Here they are, from right to left:

Cesar Chavez and Tonan. After a bit of searching, I found an Aztec goddess with that name. (If you know more, please leave a comment below or send me email.)

Tolstoy and Gandhi

“In memory of Cesar Chavez, Human Rights
and Union Activist, 1927-1993”

Update (April 28, 2014): The mural is part of Cesar Chavez Park, a small city park. Click there to see a photo and details in today's entry in the Tucson's Pocket Parks blog.

Moving mural needs new home ¡pronto!

This art car has been sitting in the Netting family's carport while Jessa was away, but she'll be in Tucson the week of August 27th. She wrote that the car was:

“painted in 1998 by Yokohama muralist Rocco Satoshi. I wondered if you might be able to help me make a connection with someone interested in preserving it.

“In his heydays in Japan and San Diego during the 1990s, Rocco covered buildings, vehicles, civic centers, and bridges with his art.

“Several years ago when I lived in San Diego, Rocco Satoshi painted my car as a part of an exhibition. I drove it in San Diego for a few years and then in Tucson when I returned to my home town for grad school. But since then I moved away to New York and will never be able to bring it out [t]here.

“My family is eager for me to get rid of the car as it has been sitting idle and, unfortunately, is now undriveable. But I haven't been able to get myself to donate it to charity as I know it is likely to be scrapped and the mural destroyed. It would make me so happy, however, to give it to any arts organization or artist just interested in it for the painted frame.

“Would you or your community be at all interested in a saving a rolling mural from the scrap heap? I would help arrange a tow.

“Thanks for any suggestions and I apologize for the hurried nature of this request. Please respond rapidly if you have any suggestions for a solution to save the art.”

I took the photos today. The car is a lot of fun! It's a Mazda 626 with Arizona plates (I blurred them in this photo). If you don't have a home for the car, please check around with friends and groups you know. Tucson loves art, so let's keep this rolling mural out of the junkyard!

You can send Jessa email at jnetting@yahoo.com.

Primavera Foundation

Five Points is a great place for murals. This mural is on the Stone Avenue side of the Primavera Foundation, 702 S. 6th.

5 Points Bikes

The store is at the southwest corner of Stone & 17th & 7th (702 S. Stone), and the mural is on the north wall. I was there on February 25th.

Update (March 8, 2017): The mural has changed a bit. There's a photo of the former mural in our August 23, 2012 entry.

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.