A Long Journey Home

Between 2006 and 2008 Pima County exhumed an estimated 1300 bodies from a downtown cemetery that was in use from 1862 to 1875.  Nearly 1200 of those remains were re-interred at the All Faiths Cemetery.  Four tile memorial murals were created using photographs from the 1860s and 1870s.  Apparently, the photos had deteriorated with age.

The first photo below is a sign at the entrance to the Memorial that gives more of an explanation than you see in the preceding paragraph.  Hopefully you will be able to read the sign once you click on it for a larger image.  If not, you may have to use your browser for further enlarging.

The sign at lower right reads "E J Smith Undertaker"

The photos are from Aug. 2, 2017 and you may click on any one for a slide show of larger images.

Doggies On The Wall

The original mural at the Transformation Pet Center appeared in The Tucson Murals Project on Sept. 15, 2008. See Meow Mural with Mutt Motif. The mural has since been re-done and there's no longer a meow. This photo is from Aug. 2, 2017:

 Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

Update (February 25, 2021): Here are two closeups that Jerry Peek took today:

Monty “Ses” Esposito painted the dog on the left and Rickey “Sketch” Bush painted the dog on the right.

Update (May 29, 2023): Sketch brought Jerry to see this long-time Tucson mural… still here after 20 years or so:

Years after the mural was painted, Sketch and Monty stopped by the business. The owner had been trying to find them to update the mural… she didn't want anyone else to do it. They painted the side and front of the building teal and added the black paw prints running along it.

Sketch told me the names in the signature at the left side, but I didn't write them down… I'll need to ask him again. Here's a closeup from his print, followed by a photo today with higher contrast to help the letters stand out:

2009 Bookmans mural of a dragonslayer

This mural is on the Throwback Thursday page of the Tucson Daily Photo blog:

Dragon was slain!

I haven't gotten permission yet to show the photo. If I do, I'll add it here. Otherwise, just click on that link to see the blog page with the photo.

"Carmelin Castro Ítom Usím Children's Park" (revisited)

The park is in the City of South Tucson along the Julian Wash beginning at S. 10th Ave. & W. 40th St.  It extends from S. 10th Ave. to S. 12th Ave.  It's a great place to take the kids.  It has a nice playground and plenty of places for the family to have a picnic or just sit and relax.

Images from the park were originally posted to the Tucson Murals Project on 12/02/2011.  There's so much more to add that I've decided to start over and show all of the murals in the park. Here are the photos I took on July 20, 2017:

Welcome

South wall of small structure.

North wall

West wall

East wall

Stand alone mosaic.

Stand alone mosaic.

Stand alone mosaic.

Stand alone mosaic.

Stand alone mosaic.

Stand alone mosaic.

Marker along the bike path.

Marker along the bike path

Marker along the bike path

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

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the names of any of the artists.

I also tried to find a translation of Ítom Usím.  I couldn't find any matches in Yaqui, Pima or O'odham.  It might be a proper name.

"Pie Allen"

By Catherine Eyde, 2013.
Found in the Pie Allen Neighborhood on E. 8th St. between N. Tyndall Ave. & N. Park Ave.

 Click on the photo for a larger and sharper image.

"Serape Sunrise"

Rock "CYFI" Martinez and Fernando Leon have recently completed a mural on the north wall of the Desert Suds Car Wash.  It includes Our Lady of Guadalupe, a UFO and a 1964 Chevrolet Impala convertible.

The south wall of the car wash has a Luis Mena mural.  See Classic Car 
Click on the above photo for a larger and sharper image.

Maybe a mural, part 77

Another Dunbar/Springs Roundabout.  This one is at the intersection of W. University Blvd. and N. 11th Ave. The artists are Zach Lihatsh and Troy Neiman.  The north and south sides of the column are devoted to the history of the neighborhood.  The east and west sides depict some of the people who made that history.

North Side

South Side

East Side

West Side

All of the photos had to be taken at an angle.  The black and yellow traffic warnings block a direct view.

I encourage you to click on any photo for a slide show of larger and sharper images.

Maybe a mural, part 76

Roundabout at N. 9th Ave. & W. 5th St.

Mary Lucking was commissioned by the Tucson/Pima Arts Council in 2003 to create artwork for three Roundabouts in the Dunbar/Springs Neighborhood.  This is the third of the three.

Mary has used her art to tell the story of the neighborhood.  Mary also filled the center with desert plants.   Here are the results:

North Side

South Side

East Side

West Side

Note - The photo of the west side had to be taken at an angle due to lens flare from the morning sun.

Some of the panels are starting to show the effects of age and weathering.  It also looks like there was some vandalism that had to be painted over.

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

Maybe a mural, part 75

Dunbar/Spring Roundabout at N. 9th Ave. & W. 1st St.

Mary Lucking was commissioned by the Tucson/Pima Arts Council in 2003 to create artwork for three Roundabouts in the Dunbar/Springs Neighborhood.  This is the second of the three.

Mary has used her art to tell the story of the neighborhood.  Mary also filled the center with desert plants.   Here are the results:

North Side

South Side

West Side

East Side.

Note - The bottom panel of the East Side photo is probably a reference to the old Court St. Cemetery.  See Neighborhood atop cemetery

Some of the panels are starting to show the effects of age and weathering.

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

Joe's signature is back

Joe had prepared for his mural (the huge one on the south side of Epic Rides, next to Stone just north of 6th Street), to be trashed. That's why he'd sprayed a protective clear coat over the finished project. The coat can make it easier to remove paint on top of his. It can also help protect the mural from sun and weather damage.

On July 2, or maybe a few days before — just after he'd lovingly finished the mural — someone crossed out his signature. I don't know much about the stories behind the art that hateful groups paint, but I sure wish they'd stop making Tucson uglier and breaking the hearts of artists and art lovers for their own selfish wants.

When I checked back a couple days ago, the signature had been restored.

Maybe a mural, part 74

Roundabout at N. 11th Ave. & W. 1st St.  What is a Roundabout you might ask.  It's a circle of concrete curbing placed in the middle of an intersection.  If you work for Tucson's Dept. of Transportation it's a Traffic Circle.  To the rest of us it's a Roundabout and a pain in the posterior.

Mary Lucking was commissioned by the Tucson/Pima Arts Council in 2003 to create artwork for three Roundabouts in the Dunbar/Springs Neighborhood.  I suspect the motive was to give drivers something to look at while they figured out how to make a left turn.

Mary has used her art to tell the story of the neighborhood.  This is her story of the old Court Street Cemetery.  The cemetery closed in 1908 but only about half the bodies were moved. The remaining 4,000+ still lie beneath the streets and homes of the Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood.  May they rest in peace.

Hallowed Ground

East Side

North Side

West Side

South Side

Some of the panels are starting to show the effects of old age and weathering.

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

Here's an article you might like: Neighborhood atop cemetery

CyFi & Pagac paint underwater Bowie mural

Browsing Facebook on June 20th, I came across an incredible video by Seattle-based Ten Hundred Art. It shows Tucson muralist Joe Pagac and born-and-raised (former) Tucson muralist Rock "CyFi" Martinez painting a mural of David Bowie at the bottom of a swimming pool. As the video ends, the pool fills with water and the mural shows through. Amazing!

I'll try to get permission from Ten Hundred to link the video here. In case I can't contact them, though, you can find the video on their website. As of this writing, it's the fifth video on this web page:

www.tenhundredart.com/videos/

On that page, the text under the video says:

Ten Hundred - Bowie Pool Mural

Making of the David Bowie swimming pool mural.

Closeups of Epic Rides mural

Here are some close-up photos I grabbed of Joe Pagac's mural on the south wall of Epic Rides. I took most of them on June 18th and the last on June 23rd. (You can see the mural being painted, from March through June, in our three pages starting with Murals being made, part 46a: Tucson's biggest.)

To help you get oriented, here's the whole mural on June 21st. This photo is a fair amount bigger than most of the ones in this blog entry, so it's especially worthwhile clicking on it for more detail:

Bring on the close-ups!

!*?%&#= TAGGERS!!

I've never belonged to a gang, had "rivals," fought for "my part" of town, or had no qualms about destroying property. A lot of graffiti taggers consider themselves artists. It used to be that taggers would leave more-traditional artists alone; ruining real art — especially crossing out someone's signature — was basically unheard of (in Tucson, at least)… it was an insult to your brother or sister artist.

Half an hour ago, I pulled into the parking lot near Epic Rides' new mural by Joe Pagac. Needless to say, I was horrified. This majestic mural took three months to finish.

If for some reason you haven't seen the mural, we've posted three long blog entries here showing the mural taking shape. The most recent one was Murals being made, part 46c: Tucson's biggest.