Along Toole, April 2012

It's hard to keep up with all of the changes to the walls of the building at 191-197 East Toole! I don't think I've published these close-ups I took on April 7, 2012:

Above Siobhan's store

Toole Shed Art Space

Right side of front of Skrappys

Just south of Siobhan's

Painted front of home at 3006 E. Adams

I took the photo on April 6, 2012.

Murals being made, part 17: Rialto revised

Our December 26 post Rialto in progress (Murals being made, part 10) showed the start of a new Joe Pagac mural on the east side of the Rialto Theatre. Joe used to paint new murals often to advertise Rialto concerts, but I'm guessing that the big building going up just east of the Rialto blocked the view from the street — so he painted a new mural that's designed to stay.

Since then I've stopped by several times to see what's new. I never did catch Joe (I still haven't met him... he's one of Tucson's busiest muralists), but I did catch some snaps of the mural taking shape. January 20th, LL Cool J was in his place on the right panel:

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February 2nd

The right panel seemed like it might be almost finished...

...except for this ghostly figure:

And the left panel was taking shape:

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February 23rd

Back from my trip to South America, I rode over the snake bridge to see the mural. It looked finished:

Left panel

Right panel

You can see that it's filled with (mostly) famous people, (mostly) musicians, surrounding Mount (Mick) Jagger. Here are close-ups:

Roger Waters and Kanye West

Elton John and Beck

Susan Boyle

Mick Jagger

Francis Scott Key

Roger Clyne, C.F. and Shakira

Kate Person, Salvador Duran, Fred Schneider, Sergio Mendoza

Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson

Mc Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Nelly

Chris Isaak

LL Cool J, Janis Joplin, Kurt Kobain

That is All

Beautiful bench at Grace St. Paul's Church

At the northwest corner of Adams & Norton, on the east side of the church, is this gorgeous bench:

And the sign out front, along Adams Street:

I took the photos on April 6, 2012.

Gabriel Ruiz Villegas

I met Gabriel this afternoon as I rolled by the east side of 197 E. Toole. Paco Velez — who also has a studio in this building — told me that he'd planned to repaint one of the murals on the east side. Paco wasn't there, but Gabriel was. He invited me into his studio and showed me the mural he's planning to post on the wall near Skrappys:

It's paint on metal. He made the amazing clouds, scribed the edges, and painted the area around them.

He also painted the last mural on the wall along the 6th Street side of the building. It's the border fence:

On the left — the US side — are female animals. The other side has the male animals...

If you'd like to get in touch with Gabriel, I can forward your message on to his email address. Or just stop by the east wall; his studio is behind the two doors in the middle of these murals and just south of the Che Guevara mural.

Revenge of the 35mm cameras?

Mark Fleming found this mural of an army (navy?) of 35-millimeter cameras:

He wrote: “A flotilla of old 35MM cameras bobbing down a river and headed into the sunset (N Echols Av, just north of E University Blvd) no sign of the artist.”

(Is this a retreat from the onslaught of digital cameras and phones? Or are they simply headed to port for repairs? :)

Thanks, as always, Mark!

Catch Jos at work! (Murals being made, part 16)

Even after seeing close to a thousand Tucson murals, I still seem to recognize new ones right away. Yesterday, eastbound on Broadway, I saw two. One was on a shuttered store; that's coming later. What really caught my attention was this mural, on the west side of Good Ole Tom's, 6305 E. Broadway.

This part of the mural seems mostly finished to me. (I tried to catch the artist, Jos — from Murals by Jos — to ask... but he'd just left.) As of sunset last night, other sides of the building were mostly empty white space. So, if you like to watch muralists at work, check the northeast corner of Broadway & Wilmot in the next few days. The district manager told me that they're hoping to have the murals done at the same time the store is ready for its grand opening.

Update (April 26, 2013): I've just posted photos of the murals being painted over these two months in murals being made, part 18.

Paul Bunyan (not a mural) Yarn-Bombed!

Tucson's famous Paul Bunyan statue — at the northwest corner of Stone and Glenn — has a softer touch these days: a knitted scarf. (Maybe it's keeping Paul toasty on these chilly evenings?)

Yarn-bombing a scuplture isn't exactly a “mural.” (It isn't even sort of a mural! :) But I wanted to spread the word now before the mighty lumberman shakes off this sissy scarf... or it falls off.

(By the way, once I re-launch TucsonArt.info, it'll have a section with photos of public art. That's where this sculpture belongs. Stay tuned!)

Thanks to Carlye Dundon for the heads-up and the photos!

Update (March 22, 2013): Paul's scarf is unwrapped. (Maybe, now that temps are in the 80's, it was getting too warm for him? :) Here's a photo:

Sunshine Mile mural unveiling Saturday

The Arizona Daily Star article below tells about a new mural by Jude Cook. It anchors the businesses along Broadway between Campbell and Country Club that are re-dubbing themselves “The Sunshine Mile.” Here's the story:

“The Sunshine Mile”: Tucson merchants hope to revive old name for stretch of Broadway

The mural unveiling will be part of the event, Saturday, March 2, between noon and 5 pm.

Here's more information from a message on a Google Group, forwarded by a friend of mine. The group is private (members-only), but the message seemed like one the group would want to spread...

Celebrate and Cultivate The Sunshine Mile

Broadway Blvd. between Campbell and Country Club
Saturday, March 2nd, Open House 1-5pm, Festivities 12-5pm

Imagine the Possibilities and ask questions on Saturday, March 2nd from 1-5pm at an Open House at 2419 E. Broadway (the former Panda Buffet) to showcase the property which is available for rent to non-profit organizations for 25% of market value. Information about other such properties will also be available and representatives from The Broadway Coalition, the City of Tucson, and the Citizens Task Force (responsible for presenting a roadway design for Broadway to Mayor and Council) will be available to discuss being a part of the uniquely diverse and historic Sunshine Mile.

From noon-5, The Sunshine Mile Re-launch kicks off at 2610 E. Broadway with live music and an unveiling of the newly painted Sunshine Mile mural. Ward 6 Council Member Steve Kozachik and Demion Clinco of the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation will be in attendance to say a few words. Select businesses between Campbell and Country Club will offer special discounts, refreshments, demonstrations and other surprises in honor of the day which also marks the start of a month long Scavenger Hunt making visitors eligible for fabulous prizes.
The Sunshine Mile is essential in creating a vibrant community. It embodies so much of what makes us proud to call Tucson our home, and its architectural heritage is an irreplaceable regional asset -- come celebrate and cultivate it.

Contacts:

Broadway Coalition-
Sunshine Mile Merchants- Jessica Shuman, Business Owner, Kismet 207-9994

Update (March 9, 2013): I've just added the photo. I snapped it on the morning of March 1st.

Maybe a mural, part 42: SCS has a heart

On Christmas Day, I drove past the SCS Tile store at 3394 E. 22nd and spotted a heart painted on the east wall:

A closer look (you can click on the photo for a larger view) showed what looked like a graffiti tag underneath the heart. I'm guessing that someone tagged the building, and someone else (the owhers, maybe?) covered the tag with a heart.

Some people wouldn't call this a “mural,” so I've made this part of our occasional “maybe a mural” series.

Update (March 17, 2013): When I rode by a couple of weeks ago, I saw that the heart had been covered by a new tag. :^(

Was this mural stolen?

This is the Tucson Murals Project, but from time to time we show a mural outside of town. This story is about a mural in a northern part of London, England, that's probably by the famous street artist Banksy. (He keeps quiet about his art.) The mural was removed from the building; it turned up at an auction house in Miami, Florida, ready to be auctioned off. The sale was stopped at the very last minute, even though Scotland Yard and the art auction house insisted that there was nothing illegal about selling the mural.

Here are a few news stories that I (quickly) found about the controversy. They have photos of the mural, the empty space, and what popped up around it:

• Banksy Haringey mural auctioneers ‘will cancel sale if protesters prove theft' (Metro, London)
• Auction in US halted after Haringey residents campaigned for artwork to be returned to shop it was removed from (The Observer, London)
• Banksy Mural Taken From London Wall Withdrawn in Miami (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

So, who “owns” street art? The artist? The public? The owner of the building where it was painted? (Or maybe the tenant behind the wall?) Please feel free to tell us in the comment box below.

Shark! on 22nd

Mural-hunter extraordinaire Warren V snapped a hammerhead shark just east of the Mariscos Chihuahua restaurant on 22nd Street:

I followed Warren's lead and found the mural. Here's a map with a satellite view (the mural is at the green arrow), and here's my snap:

(Check the details on the back side of the building near the mural.)

You'll also find Warren's photo at (or near) the top of his blog, www.TouchTheWind.org. Thanks, as always, Warren!

Saludos de Arequipa, Perú

This beautiful city (the central part is made of local white stone) is surrounded by snow-capped volcanoes. It's also a "foodie" paradise (lots of great restaurants!). Here are two simple murals I've spotted as I walked around town:

The sandbags are leftovers from the terrible floods that hit the city a couple of weeks ago. I didn't get the exact location of the store, but it's pbobably along Calle Paucarpata, not far east of the Plaza de Armas (the main square).

This one was on near a street corner. Again, I didn't get the exact location, but it's probably off of Calle 1 northeast of Lambramani — maybe on Calle 8. The vertical yellow area on the corner says:

Promo 2008
United Ways
Prop. (?) Laura Espinoza M.

If you'd like to know the exact locations, both photos are geotagged — as most photos on the blog are these days. (The latitude and longitude are recorded in the image file, and you can use a geotag viewer to find the location on a map.)

Next, back to our regularly scheduled Tucson murals!

Update (May 3, 2015): I found out last year that Blogger removes geotagging data from photos. It's for privacy, I guess, when people don't realize they're showing the location of their home (or whatever) through a geotag. If you want to know where one of the photos on the blog was taken, send me an email. I can send you the coordinates or the original photo.

Murals being made, part 15: Back@BLX

In the past half a year or so, we've posted lots of murals from BLX Skate Shop at the corner of 7th & Toole.

On January 20, I rolled by (on my bike — not a skateboard :) and noticed that the mural space was blank:

There was just a hint of the previous mural (which you can see at the end of our December 30th post) showing through.

I talked to a man who, I think, was one of the owners. He said they invite a new guest artist to paint the corner — on the 7th Street side, near Toole — every month. (Apparently all of the artists work BLOCKS into their designs — though I didn't ask him that.) He also pointed out that the mural is “skateable”... check out that lip at the bottom of it. (BLX is a skate shop, so why not a skateable mural?)

At dusk on January 26th, I was on the way to dinner with a friend when I rolled by the corner (in my car)... and saw a muralist painting. I pulled over, of course. :) It was ROGO (Rich Rogowski) starting a new mural. He'd drawn sketches on plastic slides, and he had an overhead projector shining them on the wall, one by one, to let him paint the outlines. Here are Rich and the crew:

Another photo from later that evening, taken by one of the crew:

The afternoon of the 27th:

When I rode by on the afternoon of the 28th, I could tell that Rogo had been out there the evening before (with his projector):

Then I left town for a week. When I got back, I checked the mural and found that it all seemed to be there...

...so I emailed Rogo to ask if he was planning to do anything else. Then I left town again. :) He emailed me the following photos on February 4th.

First, he's painting areas of white around the figures:

Next, he's adding green and red. This next photo looks like it was taken with a fisheye lens... a way to catch the whole scene without the power pole in front, and also fun!

Here's the finished mural (at least, the last photo Rogo sent of it... maybe he's still tweaking it as I write this from Perú):

If you haven't seen it in person, check it out soon — before it's replaced by next month's mural!