La historia del Güero Canelo, part 1 of 2

The popular restaurant El Güero Canelo has two very long murals along the parking lot at its South 12th Avenue location. The murals show its story, beginning in the 1960s. David Aber did a tremendous service to all we art-lovers by taking lots of photos and stitching them into panoramas of each mural. We'll see the east wall first.

As you can tell — even if you clicked on the image to get a bigger view — the whole panorama is way too long to show in the little space on this blog. If you'd like to see the whole mural, try clicking on this link:

El Güero Canelo mural, east wall: panorama by David Aber

That page is so wide that it still may not be easy to see on your phone or computer. In case you couldn't see it, here are some excerpts. These are closer views of pieces of the mural that have places and dates, from left to right:

Again, if you'd like to see the whole mural, try clicking on this link:

El Güero Canelo mural, east wall: panorama by David Aber

The next time, the south wall!

Over Olive again

About five years ago, we posted two photos of a series of murals along Speedway at the U of A, over Olive Road between Mountain and Euclid in Down under (Speedway). I stopped by on November 6, 2015, to take a closer look.

These photos show a bit more than the pair we posted back then. They run from the left (east) end to the right:

Tucson Arts Brigade murals being removed

I'm sad to announce that Tucson Arts Brigade Executive Director Michael B. Schwartz has told me to “Remove all tab murals from your site immediately.”

TAB does a great service to the community — for instance, working with youth (some who've been tagging buildings) to teach them to paint murals. Though I don't understand Michael's request, I'll do what he asked ASAP. If you love TAB murals, here's a Google search you can click on to see them while they're still online:

"Tucson Arts Brigade" OR TAB site:tucsonmurals.blogspot.com

Three years ago, I posted a list of Murals on TAB's Facebook page. You might find some newer photos there as well as on TAB's website.

By the way, I won't be removing the entire blog entries — just the photos.

Mural near the feast

We usually only cover murals that are open to the public, for free. This one is a bit of an exception. It's behind the front gate at Wat Buddhametta. This Thai center also holds a number of classes and community events, as well as a monthly Thai buffet on the third Saturday of most months. (To find out more, click on their website, above. Also see the Tucson's Pocket Parks blog entry.) During those times, at least, you can come in the front gate and find this tile mural near the main entrance:

And a closeup:

I was there for the monthly buffet on December 18th. I snapped the photos at sunset.

Murals from TPAC's archive

As the TPAC (Tucson Pima Arts Council) website says, they administer Percent for Art programs for Tucson and Pima County. In other words, one percent of the cost of construction goes to public art… including murals like these:

http://www.tucsonpimaartscouncil3.org/dynamic/publicart/collection/collection.asp?cat=Mural&s=

Lost horses

Back on June 28th, 2015, Mark Fleming sent photos of a mural we'd covered, briefly, in our January 19, 2008 entry 10th Avenue (On The Edge of South Tucson). As I was looking through photos that I'd gotten by email last year, I realized that his photos still weren't online. Let's fix that!

First, here's the mural from the south end:

Next, some details:

I'm sorry I missed these, Mark.

Maybe a mural, part 67: Decorated gate

In almost 1,100 posts, we've seen 66 that are “maybe” a mural: art on a wall that isn't just paint or a lot of tiles completely covering a space. This is the 67th of those posts.

As you stand outside that gate on Paseo Grande, you're greeted by lots of little images; flowers, birds, butterflies, and at least one saguaro. Here's a closer view of the right side:

I was wrapped up in the detail on November 6th.

Faint (and not finished?)

My photo of this mural on the home's front wall made it look faded — or, at least, faint. So I've darkened the photo to help you see what's there.

Do you think the mural also looks unfinished? It seems that way to me, but (thanks to the comment from a previous wall's owner who commissioned her mural), I realize that my guess isn't always right. (If you'd like to see the comments, click there to see the mural and then scroll down to see the comments).

If this mural wasn't finished when I snapped the photo on October 26th, maybe it's different by now — or will be in 2016? Whatever… Happy New Year!

More mural-ific

Back on June 11th, in an entry titled Mural-ific!, we showed David Aber's photos of a very long mural at PPEP Tech High School (and admitted that mural-ific isn't a word :). Back then, he wasn't able to get near enough to make closeup shots of the second half of the mural. This autumn, though, he did. (Thanks!) David emailed these photos on November 25th:

As always, you can click on a photo for a larger view.

Maybe a mural, part 66

October 25th, after I visited an artist on one of this year's fall Open Studios Tours, I looked up the block and saw a home with an artistic wall out front, on the side along Silverbell. Here's a look from the left (south) end to the right end:

But that's not all. There's an artistic mailbox out front. Click there to see it on the Tucson Mailbox Art blog.

For some reason, Blogger couldn't find this home's address. Here's a Google Map of 239 N. Silverbell.

Villa de Jardín

That tile mural graces the wall along the front of this multi-unit complex, which runs from 3345-3395 East Second Street. I passed by on my bicycle November 6th.

Lazy day at Bookmans (thanks to Joe Pagac)

I'd seen this mural on the east wall of the Bookmans location on Grant for months before I snapped a photo on September 27th:

Fountains of life

These side-by-side murals that David Aber found at the Fountain of Life Lutheran Church symbolize the church name, don't you think?

He sent them on November 25th.

Mission Manor murals!

Here's a series of murals at the Mission Manor Elementary Head Start. These first five are a series of arches; the fourth has IRC Oct 2007. I don't see artist name(s) on these:

Now another mural, this one by David Tineo and school students. It's quite a bit older, signed at the upper right (of the last photo) STUDENT MURAL ~ NUESTRA ESCUELA (our school) - Mission Manor (words covered by the light fixture?) School District 1990. First, the whole mural; then, closeups of the two halves. Letters of the alphabet run through the mural from left to right:

(As always, you can click on a photo for a larger view — on a desktop computer, at least.)

David Aber sent these on October 24th. The camera data in the photos says he took them on October 23rd. Both David and Mark Fleming rescued me then — when I was almost out of mural photos — and sent a lot. Since then they've sent more, and I've found more too. We're good to go until a month or two into 2016, I think! Thanks for these, Dave.

Update (February 6, 2017): I'm going through the last three years of mural photos — including the ones I've received in the TucsonArt.info mailbox — to see if I've missed anything. A few days after taking the photos above, David stitched them into panoramas that show the whole mural at once. Somehow I missed them — and the hard work he put in to make them exactly right. Very sorry about that, Dave!

There they are. You can click on the image for a larger view, but Blogger's new image-viewer still shrinks the width to fit your screen. For full-size images that you can scroll across to really see the mural, try these wide views mural 1 and mural 2. (And if you want the original, really big version, please contact David or me.)

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!