Metro Gnome loves Mondrian

One of the great things about being an independent business is that you can call your business — and paint your building — almost anything you want. A good example is Metro Gnome Music & Cycle to go, on the south side of Speedway a bit east of Alvernon. (Metro Gnome like a music metronome, right?) Their building is painted in the style of artist Piet Mondrian. Here's the northeast corner (brightened a bit) last week, November 14:

Next, the northwest corner:

To run a Duck Duck Go private image search for Mondrian, click there.

PS: Since we're talking about things painted in Mondrian's style, here's a car at the fabulous Art Car World in Douglas, AZ:

While you're in Douglas, don't miss the Last Supper Museum! It's a lot silly and sometimes kind of profound.

Political mural replaced by (similar) artsy mural

I hadn't seen a mural that was repainted so some of it changed and some of it stayed the same — except the three versions of this one. On November 5 (which was U.S. Election Day), we showed one of those shape-shifting murals on the north side of Speedway in the post Artsy mural replaced by (similar) political mural. It showed the first version as well as the second version, which had KAMALA in big letters.

Five days after the election — November 10th — KAMALA became TUCSON:

That day, BG Boyd caught drone footage of an artist — probably either @lalocota or @icuart1 — making the change:

(BG's murals website is tucsonazmurals.com.)

Here's the mural from ground level on November 15th:

If you'd like to see the original first version of the mural, it's in our February 25, 2020 post "Corazon Saguaro" (Saguaro Heart): Banner mural #3 of 5.

Two other changes I noticed: The wildcat became a cactus with a flame behind, and the signature moved from the bottom left in the first version to the bottom right in the latest version:

Time to see Sonoran Skylines!

Yesterday, November 14, around 3 pm, I saw that Sonoran Skylines, which is billed as Arizona's largest mural, is finished. It's on the south end of the west wall of Park Place mall, around the food court entrance. The barricades that had blocked the parking lot around the right half were gone. A truck was hauling away one of the lifts that the artists had used for a couple of months, from the southwest corner of the parking lot then toward the east:

Another way I could tell: Artists had been working on the top right section of the mural, from the bird at the left (north) to the saguaro at the right (south), since the dedication on November 2. Here are photos from November 7 near sunset and yesterday at 3 pm:

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Closeups from left to right:

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The Park Place Instagram page has a video by BG Boyd that shows the mural from near the start to near the end. Click here to open it in a new browser window (or maybe your app?)… I don't think you need an Instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCAGPOLNL3_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

If that link is broken, here's a version from YouTube. It doesn't have the ending showing people waving from high up on the mural:

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Come see for yourself! (Depending on your screen, the color in these photos may not be as rich as it is in person.) The light is best in the afternoons, when the sun is in the west.

Murals being made, part 82: "Mystery murals" 25+ years later

Murals on south- and west-facing Tucson walls tend to fade faster thanks to our strong sun. So it's nice to see a mural that's stayed bright for more than 25 years. We showed two murals on December 1, 2009 in our post Mystery Murals. I didn't know the murals' history until I met artist Katie Cooper during 2023. It turns out that the murals were painted in 1997. Katie coordinated the mural painting with a lot of children from Keeling Elementary School.

Let's start with a photo of the finished murals that I posted in 2009:

At the right of the photo above is a plaque listing people who contributed. At the end of this post are a closeup photo of the plaque and a list of the names I could decipher from it.

Katie has a photo album with pictures of the murals taking shape, the installation and the dedication. I scanned in the photos. Here they are — not necessarily in perfect order, but generally from start to finish:

Planning

Painting

Installation

Dedication

Artists and other contributors

To the right of the two murals is a list of contributors. First, a 2024 photo of the weather-beaten plaque:

As always, you can click for a larger view. But here's an easier way to see the names. I used the amazing Google Lens to turn the names in the photo into plain text. I've boldfaced the titles and used three dots (…) in places where the text wasn't clear.

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Keeling Neighborhood Association (KA)

…MISSING…
Sally Day, C…
Paula Evans
Amy Rusk-Foushee
Peter Tesluk

PRO Neighborhoods
Arizona Commission on the Arts

Tucson Pima Arts Council : Albert Soto * Anabelle Nuñez
Ward 3 Council Office : Michael Crawford
Keeling Elementary : Art Defilippo, Principal
Amphitheater Extension Programs : Jan Vesley, Director
PAL Program Patti Burris, Director

Staff :

Kevin McNew, Site Director *
Mary Sierra
Cheryl Spenser
Rebecca Colbert

REMCO TV:

Larry Vigansky
Bob Madigan

Installation :

Chuy Manuel, Project Coordinator, City of Tucson *
Marty Birdman
William Flores

Artist :

Katie Cooper *

Keeling and Nash Elementary Students :

Acosta, Reyna
Alberto, David
Arevalo, Emilio
Bass, Andre
Beasley, Charles
Birdow, Chris
Birdow, Jerome
Birdow, Darnel
Brown, Kyle
Byron, Carl
Chacon, Adrian
Durbin, Jessica
Durham, Ariel
Eliot, Casey
Fields, Jon
Fortune, Zachary
Foushee, Ruthe
Garcia, Cassandra
Garcia, Jose Rene
Gutman, Cai
Hall, Megan
Hinthorrn, Richard
Hofferbez, Caleb
Hunter, J.D.
Ingram, Anthony
Ingram, Natasha
Johnson, Mirand
Jones, Ashley
Lockerman-Potter, … *
Locker-Torres, Bryce
Lujan, Grabriel
Lujan, Gabriella
Lujan, Michelle
Martinez, Gregery
Martinez, Trinity
Mata, Abel
Mazitis, Daniella
McCarthy, Harold
McCarthy, Greg
Oyler, Phillip
Perez, Dustin
Perkins, Bryce
Perkins, Guy Paul
Reale, Drew
Richardson, Tiffany
Rubio, Marcos
Rutynowsky, Elizabeth
Smith, Brianne
Stanfield, Aimee
Stanfield, Colin
Tapia, Adrianna
Terek, David
Terek, Lisa Marie
Toland, Thomas
Valenzuela, Mark
Valles, Marco
Viola?, Dominic
Za..., Anthony
Zuniga?, Marisa
Zwerg, Chris
Zwerg, Crystal

* Special Thanks

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Katie and I are hoping that participants will find their names in a Google-type search and discover these photos from 25+ years ago. If you're one of those people, please leave a comment below and let us know!

Teatro Carmen's extreme makeover

The old entrance to Teatro Carmen, under the arch, is gone. A new mural is in its place. There's much more news about the makeover after these photos:

Let's look back two years and 16 years with Google Street View:

April 2022

January 2008

You can see that the right (north) building used to have windows next to the sidewalk and a door behind the big arch. There was also a mural on the left (south) building, which you can see better on our August 8, 2006 post Downtown Culture. A reader named Claire wrote in that post's comments: “I noticed on February 13, 2024, that this mural is now painted over. Are there any plans to replace or replicate the previous mural?”

As of this writing — November 9, 2024 — there's lots of info and photos on the home page of Teatro Carmen's website teatrocarmen.org. Also, a Tucson Weekly article from October 27, 2022, Teatro Carmen renovation is close to fruition, has more details and history. A July 15, 2024 Tucson Sentinel article, Teatro Carmen gets restoration funding from Pima County, says that roof reconstruction would start this fall after the monsoon ends. And you can check Instagram @teatro_carmen. (You don't need the Instagram app; you can use a web browser to glance through after clicking that link, but don't click on any photo unless you're logged into Instagram from the browser.)

Finally, a note about the turquoise line and number in the first photo. I made this closeup in my photo editor:

The Turquoise Trail is a 2½ mile loop through downtown Tucson that takes you past historic sites and classic architecture. It's the turquoise line on the sidewalk you can see above. Although the trail officially starts and ends at the Presidio San Agustin del Tucson museum, you can start and return from any point along the way. (For instance, there's currently free street parking not too far from Teatro Carmen, though the parking time limit may be too short for you to walk the whole trail.) The Presidio's Turquoise Trail page has a link to a PDF map/description, a list of places you can pick up printed guides, and a list of walking tours (I think the dates may need updating?).

Dorothy N. Yanez leads mural, public art, and Turquoise Trail tours; her website is www.dyaneztours.com. I've met her once; she knows a lot about downtown.

Update (November 21, 2024): Arizona Illustrated recently aired a 4 1/2 minute segment, Teatro Carmen: Restoring Tucson's Historic Cultural Gem in the Nation’s Oldest Barrio. Click there to watch it on YouTube.

Giant Park Place mural almost finished

Sonoran Skylines, which is billed as Arizona's largest mural, is almost finished on the south end of the west wall of Park Place mall. This was the view yesterday near sunset:

(As always, you can click for a larger view.)

Two artists were working on what I think is the last part to finish: the top right. (Jessica Gonzales and her husband Dakin Martin are the main artists. Neither were here… I think these are other artists helping with this massive project.) Someone had shouted at them from the parking lot below, and they were waving in that direction:

Once the mural is finished, there'll be lots of photos here!

Trash(ed) art

Back in 2018, the city of Tucson commissioned five trash containers covered with murals. The idea was to reduce graffiti. We posted several photos on this blog. One was on November 9, 2018: Beautiful trash containers III. It showed a dumpster sitting at the curb on 12th Street next to Yosi's Creations florist and across a small parking lot from Taco Fish restaurant.

I stopped by on October 19, 2024 to check out Taco Fish. I saw the painted dumpster, which had been there for six years; I snapped this photo of the front and right sides. (I forgot to photograph the back.)

It's ugly now, but it brightened up a neighborhood that's not too photogenic. I wonder if the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona has considered making more — or already has? (Idea: The mural is worn off in the places where the dumptruck picks up the container. Maybe the mural design could allow for that — for instance, an empty area with rust-colored paint around it? Hmmm…)

Artsy mural replaced by (similar) political mural

This blog is about art, not politics. There are at least a few other political murals around town. I thought you might be interested because a five-year-old mural was replaced by a similar mural within the last few months. If you write any comments (at the end of this post), please keep them civil and respectful. Thanks.

I tend to remember murals I see around town. As I was on my way to vote today, I noticed that this mural was gone:

It's from our February 25, 2020 post "Corazon Saguaro" (Saguaro Heart): Banner mural #3 of 5. Thanks to David Aber for the photo.

Here's the new mural (in shade, so the colors may not be the same as the first mural):

Notice that the left side of the mural is the same. Even the artist's signature is in the same spot, and it's still dated 2019:

(I enlarged the first photo a lot from David's original, so it's blurry.)

What's different is that the part of the mural acknowledging Banner Health "This mural by Lalo Cota is dedicated to our Tucson community" has been replaced with "Paid for by Harris for President." nearby…

Update (November 10, 2024): BG Boyd, who photographs from a drone, caught the KAMALA mural being transformed yet again. Now it's a TUCSON mural:

On the post in the Facebook group Tucson Murals and Street Art, he wrote: “Just as soon as it appeared, the Kamala mural is now ‘gone’. I caught the artist transforming it this afternoon. I actually think the idea of being able to change a mural so quickly is kinda neat.” Thanks, BG!