Murals for children of all ages...

…including you? 😁 The Children's Museum downtown has lots of murals outdoors. Some are inside the fence that's locked much of the time the museum is closed. There's also a longggggg mural on the concrete support underneath the fence; it might be open at night, but it's near the bushes and police may not think you're just there to have fun… 😉

Inside the fence

As you face the museum, these photos generally show murals from the left (south) to the right (north):

I Am Somebody

On the outside of the fence, the mural farthest to the left has a story. It's on the south-facing part of the fence, just off the left end of the other fence murals:

The four murals spell I AM SOME BODY. It's a slogan of I Am You 360, a nonprofit working to create a tiny home community for vulnerable youth. The details are in our September 27, 2024 post I Am You 360.
The last panel in that mural is signed MOCA Minor Mutiny:

(MOCA is the Museum of Contemporary Art.) From the MOCA Minor Mutiny Facebook page: “MOCA Tucson offers a safe space for high school students to hang out, snack, talk, create, get help with homework, and more. We welcome Tucson area GSAs.” The “more” includes art. An old post on their page says “Head over to MOCA at 3:30 to make stuff with us! I think slime is in order!”

Overview of murals along the fence

Here's a long view of the fence to the left (south) and right (north) sides of the gate to the museum. Next we'll see each mural in detail.

Ana Santos Ancinas painted both long murals. Her Instagram (newer than the one listed in the photos below) is @ana_santos_acinas; her murals webpage is anasantosacinas.com/murals.

Tip for seeing mural sections below

If you can't use a computer or tablet, the easiest way to see the photos below is first to turn your mobile phone on its side. Then tap on the first photo. You should get a screen like the one below with a row of small “thumbnail” photos at the bottom. Tap on each thumbnail for a big view of that photo:

That tip works well on a desktop or laptop computer, too… though you won't need to turn your screen.

Mural left of the gate, section by section

We'll finish with closeups of the long mural under both fences from the left (south) to the right (north). First, the murals to the left.

(I usually edit photos carefully, but I took so many along the fence that I'll have to do only light editing.)

(That Instagram @ginger__love is old. The new one is @ana_santos_acinas.)

Mural right of the gate, section by section

The previous section showed murals to the left (south) of the gate to the museum. Next, the murals to the right.

(I usually edit photos carefully, but I took so many along the fence that I'll only did light editing.)

See them in person

Even if the museum is closed, you and/or the kiddos can have fun walking along the fence!

Long-lost Indian Village Trading Post mural revealed?

Yesterday I spotted construction at the former Indian Village Trading Post at the corner of Congress and Scott. Next to the entrance was this:

When I looked closer, I saw that it had been covered with stucco or something else. I'm guessing the construction workers uncovered it. Here's a closeup:

This Arizona Daily Star article has a photo from 1986 showing all the murals that used to be there: Indian Village Trading Post.

I searched Duck Duck Go (a search engine much more private than Google) for photos. Here's a link to run the search: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Indian+Village+Trading+Post+tucson&atb=v411-1&ia=web

I especially like to have photos of murals before 2006, when this blog started. (This blog shows Tucson mural history, but only a few murals are from 2005 or befeore.) If you have any to share, please use the "Contact Us" form at the right side of this blog page. Thanks!

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!