A monster and a rose

Empire Tattoo has a mural above the store entrance:

Here's a closeup:

I was there May 10th.

Teatime for the bugs

Sarah Herr emailed this photo on Sunday, September 20. The hidden data in the photo says she took it that morning. “Finding murals has been a good antidote for COVID gym closures,” she wrote.

What a fun mural! Thank you, Sarah.

TucsonLifestyle: Making It Matter

I just found this July 25 magazine article about Joe Pagac facilitating Black Lives Matter murals and muralists:

Making It Matter

Roy Metcalfe repainted

February 7, 2014, we published a photo of a faded mural on Roy Metcalfe Automotive. Sometime since then, it was repainted. I spotted it on May 10th while I was photographing the murals on the Chicago Bar next door (which, confusingly, had the same street address):

The artist who repainted it (but didn't do the previous mural) was Gabrielle Ames. As it turns out, she also painted the Chicago Bar murals next door.

"Rhythms of Nature"

The City of Tucson requires that 1% of the budget of a Capital Improvement Project be set aside for public art.  Thus, the East Broadway Road Improvement Project between Camino Seco and Houghton Rd. has included six public art installations.  They were created by Niki Glen Studios.  Niki calls them "Concrete Sculptures".  I call them murals.  Whether you agree, or not, I think you will find them interesting.

"The Bountiful Desert"

Desert Life

Sundial

Waterfall

Desert Stream

Not a mural, but interesting nonetheless.

Photographed on July 27 and Aug. 30, 2020.

Click on any photo for a slide show of larger and sharper images.

Video: KGUN9 interviews Joe Pagac and Ignacio Garcia

KGUN9 TV starts their story Growing mural scene earns Tucson national reputation with a interesting video interview with Tucson muralists Joe Pagac and Ignacio Garcia.

The rest of the article says some things I don't agree with. For instance, it says Tucson has “a dozen artists credited with nearly 60 murals throughout the city.” We easily have more than 100 artists, and this blog has around 1,500 murals (though not all of them still exist). It mentions the City of Tucson's mural map, which shows 25 of those murals… this blog's mural map shows many hundreds.

It's great to spread the word about Tucson murals! I wrote to KGUN9 and suggested they check this blog to find more murals and muralists.

Sahuaro H. S.

Sahuaro High School students painted this one.  I wasn't able to find their names.  Nor was I able to find a title for the mural.  Sahuaro High is located at 545 N. Camino Seco.  The mural can only be seen from E. Vicksburg St. and it was photographed on May 1, 2020.

Complete Mural

Left Half

Right Half

Click on any photo for a slideshow of larger and sharper images.

Your * Planet Next!!

David Aber spotted this amazing mural online and let me know. I'd been to Gospel Supplies, the store on Broadway… this mural turned out to be in the alley behind it. I stopped by on May 10th. What an obscure place for a great mural! Here are closeups, left to right:

Again, note that the mural isn't at the front of the address below (Gospel Supplies). It's in the alley behind:

Cuppa Coffee

Found at the "Barrista del Barrio" and photographed on April 15, 2020.

Painted by Alejandra Trujillo

Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

Murals being made, part 54: Monster trucks! Close up!!

On January 7th, David Aber spotted a logo and two trucks on the west wall of TCR II Suspension Brake & Alignment:

Although it wasn't obvious when he took that photo, the mural wasn't finished. I drove by on May 10th as the sun rose over the building and saw that the artist had added a dune buggy and a background:

There was glare from the sun at the top of the first photo, so I decided to go back on August 14th to get a better photo… thinking that the mural was finished when I saw it in May. Oops again. The artist had filled in the background:

Is it finally finished?? I could go inside the store to ask, but I'd rather leave you in suspense. :) Stay tuned.

Peace Through Yoga

Found in the alley behind the "Modern Mystic Yoga Academy".  The mural is by Jules Muck.  She is a well known graffiti, mural and fine artist based in Venice, California.  She is also known widely as "muckrock".

Photographed on April 15, 2020

By Jules Muck

Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

Maybe a mural, part 83: Desert mosaic mailbox post

Yesterday's entry in the Tucson Mailbox Art blog showed a mailbox on Sandario Road with beautiful mosaics on two sides of the mailbox post. You might or might not think of a mailbox post as a mural… we often say that flat art can count as a mural. Whatever you think, here are the mosaics:

…daytime and nighttime views, with critters to match. (The sunlit plants at the bottom of the daytime view are real.) As always, you can click on a photo for a larger view. Nice, eh?

Thanks to David Aber for finding the mailbox and sending the great photos. He took them on April 2, 2020.

Public mural you can't see (at TMC)

Until the pandemic struck, you could go inside Tucson Medical Center to admire the art that lines their hallways (the Healing Art Program… click there to see a series of web pages showing some of the art). Jeff Christensen created and donated this mosaic mural in the pediatric courtyard:

Thanks to Jeff for the photo. When I asked for details, he wrote:

it’s my first mural. I started taking classes at Santa Teresa Tile works About 2 years ago. Making tile is very therapeutic. I was inspired by some of the artists at Santa Teresa Tile Works and comics by David Fitzsimmons. I work next door from Tucson Medical Center at Encompass Health Rehabilitation Institute. I know what great work TMC does, so it was a real delight when they accepted my donation and allowed me to put it in their pediatric court yard. I also enjoy customizing garden and memorial benches with my tile. I also enjoy making holiday ornaments. I do not have a website yet, but I am starting to get together an online business called Maggie Mae Mosaics. Unfortunately I do not have this set up yet, however if someone wants information they can reach me at smokingbulldog2@gmail.com.

Rialto-style marquee on Toole goes all “Black Lives Matter”

In November, 2019, the northwest wall of 191 East Toole had a new marquee mural in the style of the Rialto Theatre marquee on Congress Street:

I've driven by it a zillion times. Like I do with any mural, I glance as I go by to see if it's changed. But, when I saw Rob Allen's new video this past weekend, I realized that I hadn't looked closely enough:

So I stopped by that morning, Saturday the 15th, to snap a photo.

Jimmy Stewart's Weather Bus

On May 29th, out mural-hunting, I had car problems. While I waited for a tow, I looked a ways across Columbus and saw…

…TV meterologist Jimmy Stewart on the side of a school bus. I walked over, as close as I could get, and saw Arizona Daily Star cartoonist David Fitzsimmons' inimitable style:

I think the bus belongs to the Angel Charity Place for Girls.

New video: Desert Delirium - The Surreal Murals of Tucson, AZ

A month ago, we published one of our most popular entries in quite a while: Murals of Tucson video by TucsonAerial.com. Here's another mostly-aerial video that I think you'll like:



You can also click here: https://youtu.be/GoL5JtJZkrM.

Rob Allen sent that link. He just released the video a week ago. (You can tell by scenes like the murals in progress on the wall of 197 East Toole.) Thanks, Rob!

"The Triumph of the Human Spirit"

By Kurt Schlaefer for the "Resilience Project", a nonprofit which gives voice to survivors of sexual assault through art.  Found on the east wall of 941 West Congress St. and photographed on April 21, 2020.

Click for a larger and sharper image.

Smoke Rings

Photographed Feb. 24, 2020

Artist Not Known

Click for a larger and sharper image.

Tanked

250,000 gal. water tank painted by Joe Pagac. Located on the Tanque Verde Ranch at the east terminus of Speedway Blvd. Photographed on 04/29/2020.

At distance, it is designed to blend into the desert environs.

Click on either photo for larger and sharper images.

Photos of the mural being made are in our November 7, 2019 entry A mural that hides something.

A similar tank mural in Oro Valley is (was?) in the January 5, 2009 entry These Murals Tank!

Update (March 26, 2021): I found an aerial view from BG Boyd Photography, who sent me a larger version:

After BG took the photo, the property owner said the mural is on private property and chased him away. Interesting info — and photo — much appreciated!

The nurse's connection...

Here's a unique, heart-felt mural that was finished in May:

A nurse is giving pieces of herself to people and to a mother. Let's look closer, from right to left:

I found a photo toward the end of the July 10th Arizona Daily Star article Arizona coronavirus cases top 116,800; 11,172 in Tucson area. You might be able to see the photo by clicking there. In case it's gone by the time you see it, here's the photo caption:

Pen Macias, artist, works on part 2 of a mural for a client on E. Broadway Rd., between S. Columbus Blvd. and S. Alvernon Way, in Tucson, Ariz. on May 25, 2020. Macias, known as The Desert Pen, has been working on her clients mural for the past three months. "It's the one thing I love, I have a passion for and the only thing I could be happy doing," said Macias. The mural represents her client, a single mother of four who works in the health care field. One half of the mural is dedicated to the connection between mothers and their children. The other half is dedicated to the connection between nurses and patients. The client wanted some positivity in the mural to show how nurses give a piece of themselves to their patients hence the puzzle pieces in the nurse and the patients, said Macias.

The address below is just a guess that I plugged into Google Maps. It's actually on the wall to the west of 4222 E. Broadway, on the north side of Broadway. I took the photos on May 29th — which seems to be just a few days after she finished it.