Pagac paints Poe

Back in September, I put aside an Arizona Daily Star article...

Poe mural at UA Poetry Center

...and rediscovered it today. The mural is in the Children's Corridor and should be up through at least the end of December, a staffer told me on the phone yesterday. Don't wait until the cat on Poe's shoulder (and Joe Pagac's mural of Poe) are nevermore. Here's the Poetry Center Website.

Coming soon: (not) trash murals

Here's the news from Tucson Arts Brigade’s November 24th newsletter:

The Tucson Arts Brigade received a total of 44 applications for the Trash Container Mural Art Demonstration Project sponsored by the City of Tucson Environmental Services Department (ESD) and Graffiti Resource Council, with logistical and administrative support provided by GARDEN Inc. This was a very difficult decision and we were so impressed with all the submissions. These artists are helping to demonstrate that there are plenty of talented artists available to paint murals that will beautify and unify our community and help to reduce the maintenance costs of City property.

Five talented artists, Niki Glen, Johanna Hand, Sasha Lewis, Porter McDonald, Ruben Moreno were selected through a peer-reviewed panel process by seven panelists who represented diverse sectors of our community through their affiliation with the Tucson Arts Brigade (TAB)… Works will be completed by December 18, 2015.

And here's an interview with artist Ruben Moreno, as well as some other info about the project, from the December 4th Arizona Daily Star:

Mural program aims to curb graffiti

I hope to have photos of the gorgeous trash containers to show you by the end of the month.

Update: TAB emailed:

Let's plan on meeting Tuesday, 12/8/15 at 10:00 am at the Container Maintenance site where the painting will take place. It is located at 1450 S. 10th Ave. Contact number for the supervisor on-site is Ramon Polanco 631-7092. We will have a tour of the area the artists will be working and review other incidentals (i.e. storage, restrooms, answer questions, etc.

Update (December 21, 2015): KVOA News 4 Tucson shows the progress of the dumpsters, along with interviews, in Tucson artists put finishing touches on 'dumpster art' project.

A Thursday lunch with Tineo

On a doctor visit at Banner – University Medical Center South (formerly University of Arizona Medical Center – South Campus) (formerly Kino Hospital) July 29th, I walked to the cafeteria for lunch. Past the cashier's station, I looked out the windows and saw…

…a mural that wrapped around the outside patio. I was too much of a wimp :) to eat outside in late July so, after lunch, I headed out for a closer look. Here's the mural from left to right:

At the top of the right end (see the last photo above) is a credits panel:

The mural is titled “Passages of Time”; it’s by David Tineo and seven artists (five of them students). I took that photo from underneath, then straightened it with the Perspective tool in the free Photoshop-like editor GIMP.

My food was good, too! If you're on Ajo around Country Club, you might want to drop in for lunch and art.

Winterhaven Health Center

Mark Fleming caught a new mural by Michael B. Schwartz, assisted by Valeria R. Hutchings. It's on the south wall of Dr. Nathan S. Conlee’s practice. Here's most of the mural:

Next, a couple of close-ups and the top right corner:

I drive up Country Club once or twice a week, but I haven't noticed this mural. Much appreciated, Mark!

Banda Calaca murals

I'm glad to say that we have a backlog of mural photos again. So I'll be posting mural photos twice a week now (and the occasional “newsy” post like yesterday’s).

Mark Fleming snapped photos of two murals on the freestanding wall outside the Tucson Museum of Art's Education Center. First the south side, then the north:

And a couple of close-ups:

The murals are by Danny Martin.

The exhibition, Banda Calaca: Installation by Hank Tusinski, is very fun. It's up through January 3, 2016. (And don't miss the painted exhibition board with two cutouts for two peoples' faces. No room for a selfie stick, though… you'll need to ask someone else — another friend, or one of the friendly docents — to snap the photo.)

Thanks to Mark for helping create the backlog of mural photos. ;-) No, really: I probably won't be posting murals everyday like we did in years past, but now you'll get your “mural fix” twice as often as you have recently.

And speaking of thanks: Best wishes, everyone, for a happy and artistic Thanksgiving! More murals Monday.

Graffiti Art at Arizona State Museum

Here's a story by Andrea Kelly of Arizona Public Media: Graffiti Art at State Museum Shows Evolving Culture. The project, called Neoglyphix, will be up through the end of this month.

On your walk back from Nogales, Sonora...

…if you leave through the little crossing for pedestrians only, you'll be greeted by this trompe-l'œil mural:

It's on the south wall of Kory's bridal shop. This is on the International Avenue side of Kory's, directly across from the border wall. I took the photo on April 24th.

[If you drive or take a shuttle to Nogales, Arizona and walk through the big pedestrian/car crossing, here's how to get to the pedestrian-only crossing. It's open during the daytimes: right now, 10am-6pm. (I've also made a Google Map of the Mexican part of the route.) Walk a little ways into town, then walk east across the tall railroad overpass. On the other side of the tracks, walk south a bit, cross the street and cut into the little street Plutarco Elias Calles. It runs past the elegant La Roca restaurant; a few blocks north, you'll be at the pedestrian crossing. I've never seen more than a few people in line, so it's much faster than walking through the main crossing. Once you cross back into the US, admire that mural. Then walk west, up the stairs along the US Customs building, and down the stairs at the west side. You're back where you entered Mexico; the shuttles to Tucson and the parking lots are right there.]

Murals being made (not finished), part 30b

As I wrote last time, we left the mural in March. I wrote to the muralist, Jason Cross, once more a while after we'd been in touch, but I haven't heard anything since. That's been eight months ago, and I haven't seen any changes in the mural for months now. This week, the mural looked the same as it had in a few snapshots I grabbed back on May 31st. So I decided to take some detailed photos a few days ago — November 8th — and post them here. If something changes from now on, I'll post Part 30c (at least!).

Here's the whole mural from the south end, at Calle Cortez:

And now the whole mural, piece by piece, from left (south) to right (north). The white spots on some photos are from sunlight hitting the camera lens:

That last panel is about twice as tall as the others: the mural covers part of the building instead of just the wall along the street.

Update (February 16, 2018): The third part of this series is in today's entry Murals being (not quite) made, Part 30c.

Murals being made, part 30a

Every so often, I'll come across an artist working on a mural, or I'll hear that one is planned. So I ask the artist if it'd be okay to take photos of the mural in progress as well as when it's finished. That happened on March 7, when I drove by a muralist with paint cans and rollers along Alvernon a bit north of Broadway. Of course, I pulled over to ask if I could snap a few photos. No problem, he told me. His name was Jason Cross:

This was his very first mural. I gave him my card and asked him to send email when he was ready to paint more. As it turned out, I couldn't make that day (March 15th)… but I said I'd roll by later and snap some photos.

The mural was farther along but not finished. Here's a view of the whole wall, then photos of the center and right (north) end:

More — from much later — next time.

Maybe a mural, part 65: Citizens Warehouse

The railroad tracks cross 6th Avenue and 9th Street near the southwest corner of the Citizens Warehouse building. The building is full of artist studios. (And, from what I've seen so far in the plans, it won't be torn down for Downtown Links.)

Near that corner are three works of art. Two of them aren't exactly murals, which is why I've made this entry part of our “maybe a mural” series. Let's look from left to right (west to east). First, a painted fence with a “robot” on top; next a mural, partly in shade, by Michael Schwartz (see the note at the end of this entry); and a painted window hung off the second-floor wall:

I was there on April 21st, 2015.

Update (February 5, 2017): The second photo above, of Michael Schwartz’ mural, was chopped off and had poor color. I found a better version that I took on May 14, 2016. I've replaced the second photo.

Ft. Lowell crossing Alamo Wash

Driving Ft. Lowell Road east of Swan, you'll cross the bridge over Alamo Wash. Along with the guardrails, there are murals along the bridge. From southeast to northwest clockwise:

The first shows the wall; I cropped the other two to just the mural. The photos are from April 18th. The artist was Robin Riley, 2011.

Slower posts for a while (but maybe not?)

I've been getting a welcome flow of murals, from a couple of contributors, that've let me add new entries to this blog twice a week: Mondays and Thursdays. But I'm running low enough on murals to post that I'm going to drop back to once a week for a little while… a short while, I hope!

(I'll also add news clips, etc. — like Tuesday's video and clip of Joe Pagac — when I find them.)

If you find a mural photo, I'd be glad to get it! You don't need to worry about making it technically perfect. Just tell me (approximately) where and when you took it. Old photos are welcome, too! The mural must be somewhere visible to the public (it can't be inside a home or in a restaurant you have to pay to get in). Just email me through the TucsonArt.info contact form and I'll send you back instructions for emailing it.)

Thanks, and please stay tuned!

Joe Pagac paints the Rialto

On Sunday 10/18 at 9:23pm, @JoePagac tweeted the link to a video by Julie Luchetta, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6JtBNo4TkM&feature=youtu.be&a, showing him painting one of his many murals of music groups. Along the way he talks with friends and people passing by. He also has time for some beer (I think?). It's a fun video. Click on the photo still or the link above to watch it.

Near Richey Elementary

One of the reasons I'm glad to have David Aber's help on this blog is that he goes to places I haven't. Here's an example. The mural is across 15th Avenue from Richey Elementary — on the east side of 15th Avenue, just south of Rillito Street. He wrote “I assume that the mural was painted by students from Richey.”

My (usual) thanks, Dave.

Flowing Wells Public Library

As David Aber was driving along West Wetmore, he spotted a tile mural on an outside wall of the library:

The camera data says that he took it on September 16th. (He sent it the same day. Thanks for the quick work!)

Artist paints mural on border fence

Ana Teresa Fernandez painted the mural in Nogales on Tuesday. Here's the story from News 4 Tucson (KVOA TV).

Gorgeous Galveston garage

I'm on the road from Tucson and the south-central US back to Tucson. From time to time, I post photos of murals outside of Tucson. That's one of them.

It's in Galveston, Texas, just off Texas highway 87 (the road to the Port Bolivar ferry) along an alley between Strand and Mechanic Streets. The edge of the roof has HP Dodge (which, I'm guessing, is the artist's name) and the hashtag #HarlandArt.

On Thursday, it's back to Tucson murals.

Around the corner at “Mural View” Elementary

On May 11, 2010, I posted photos of the north side of Mission View Elementary — which I dubbed “Mural View” because of the three beautifully-done murals.

When I took photos of those murals, I also tried to photograph the long mural on the west side. But it was too long to fit in one frame… so I put re-shooting it on my “mural to-do” list. (I keep a list of murals that I hear about, see while I'm driving by but can't stop, etc.)

It must have fallen off my (overflowing) list; I never did go back. A couple of months ago, David Aber caught this. On July 25th, he sent a photo and wrote:

On July 21 I sent you a mural from Mission View Elementary. As I mentioned, I had to shoot thru a chain link fence and couldn’t get the last 3 or 4 feet of the mural. Since then I’ve had some time on my hands and managed to stitch together two photos to make a complete mural.

Thanks, David, for your dedication to murals — and to the people who see this blog. I hadn't thought of stitching! Here's the two-part photo:

As always, you can click on the photo for a larger view. And, by the way, that black line toward the right side isn't the stitch; as I zoomed in on the original photo, I could see that it's a tall pole.

Update (July 3, 2024): Sometime in the past nine years, this mural was replaced. There are photos in today's post Mission View Elementary blasts off.

Along the north side of Tucson Greyhound Park

Five years ago, we showed photos of two murals on the north side of Tucson Greyhound Park along 36th Street. Fast-forward to this autumn: David Aber spotted a mural he didn't find on the blog. I searched and also checked the out-of-date table of murals and the murals map (fixing them is on my overflowing to-do list)… but I also didn't find that mural.

I posted Dave's photo here, then removed it once Dave spotted the duplicate. Here's a link to the February 2, 2010 entry showing the mural David photographed and another one.

The White Rabbit and a rainbow fountain

From the El Rio Community Health Center, Dental Care & Children's Health building:

Appropriately for a dental clinic, the Rabbit (from Alice in Wonderland) is holding a toothbrush.

The camera data gives a date of July 11th. Whenever you took the photos, David, thanks as always.