120 South Calle de Jardin

The home in this artsy corner of the San Clemente neighborhood has a couple of murals (bring binoculars or a zoom lens; they're far enough into the property that you probably won't want to walk up to them).

Appropriately enough for a home on a street named “garden” (in Spanish), one mural is the climbing flowers that start in an actual pot (click for a closer view; look for the green paint inside the pot). There's also a mural with two quail and an “address rock” by the driveway that's painted with critters (in cave-painting style, maybe?).

The home also has one of a pair of bright green mailboxes in an artistic setting; click there to see it on the Tucson Mailbox Art blog.

I wandered through on April 25th. (You can find more on Calle de Jardin by typing the street name into the search box at the right side of this blog.)

Love Bug Road

The sign over the Volkswagen “bug” in the carport is just one of the bits of art on the front of this (obviously) well-loved home at 5772 E. Whittier:

It's along the route of my favorite shortcut from “the back door” of Park Place Mall toward the south part of Tucson. I'm hoping to add routes like these to my Tucson Bicycling page (which, like so many of my volunteer projects, is waiting for me to find more time to finish it). I rolled by on July 19, 2012.

Maybe a mural, part 45: Garage door with tile

Our occasional “maybe a mural” series is for art that you might or might not think of as “a nural.” This garage door fits that description:

The home is at 106 S. Calle de Jardin — part of an art-filled neighborhood that's worth a visit! Here's a Mapquest map. There's a close-up of the maildrop on the Tucson Mailbox Art blog (click there to see it).

I stopped by (for quite a while!) on April 25th.

Murals, mailboxes & more in May

The Tucson Mailbox Art blog has been online since December, and the Tucson Art Information website (including its public art section) is being expanded. Last week, when I was in an art-filled corner of the San Clemente neighborhood, I saw artistic mailboxes, murals, and sculpture together... and realized that I could cross-post homes or businesses that have (say) both a mailbox and a mural. So, from time to time during May, you'll see posts like this one — with a link to click so you can see (in this case) the mailbox in the middle of the mural. Other days I'll post a mailbox and add some sculpture to the public-art section. So “stay tuned!”

That's the front wall of 233 S. El Volador on April 25th. See the mailbox at the left side? (As always, you can click for a larger view.) There are two close-ups on the mailbox blog.

Tucson treasure lost

This was the scene three years ago at 2939 E. Monte Vista... which I dubbed “Mary’s Street”:


Since then, things changed (as you can read in our posts four months ago and one month ago). Here's the same wall early this morning:

When I opened my email last night and saw this message from Mary's daughter Crystal (who's one of the kids on that mural, by the way), I knew where my morning bike ride would be:

The grey is sprayed over the windows, too. I get the feeling that the new owners wanted to obliterate all of the color. But they've missed some! See the red squares and yellow stripes on the sidewalk above — and the splash of blue on the inside of the wall at the right. And the little pool still has some blue tiles:

Perhaps they'll re-paint in a benign beige or a pastel pink?

I'll miss Mary's Street.

Update (5:30 PM): Crystal emailed to tell me that KGUN9 covered the story last night. Beware: there's more heartbreak in their “KGUN9 on your side” story.

Childrens' playground mural (un-)tagged

Back on July 19, 2012, I photographed a mural on an out-building at the northeast corner of campus of Annie E. Kellond Elementary, 6606 E. Lehigh (the building was near the corner of Lehigh and Mann). The mural had some really regretable tagging — just the thing that shouldn't be on a playground where kids spend time every day.

That's the cleaned-up version. (I wanted to post it on Sunday but didn't have time to "Photoshop out" the tags — with the fabulous free GIMP editor — until now.) If you want a copy of the unedited original, just let me know.

Sigh.

Jos wraps (up) Good Ole Tom's: murals being made, part 18

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you've seen Catch Jos at work! (Murals being made, part 16) two months ago. He (Jos Villabrille, of Murals by Jos) is one of Tucson's most popular muralists. He does beautiful work that you've seen all over town. (The photo I showed in that entry is to the right.)

I wrote that February 28th post after driving by the corner of Broadway & Wilmot (actually, by 6305 E. Broadway), where Good Ole Tom's was about to open a new store. They'd hired Jos to paint their building. As time went on (and, I'm guessing, they saw what great work he was doing), they asked him to wrap their building in murals — even the windows at the front and east sides. Jos worked there until earlier this month: I drove by as he was finishing the front windows, but didn't have a chance to snap photos then. When I stopped by earlier this week, the person I spoke with said that she believed he was finished.

Here are the photos I've taken over the past two months. Notice how he uses parts of the building (for instance, the downspouts) as parts of the murals. The first photo below, and the photos on March 26th, show the right-front windows. After Jos had painted some of them, they were broken... so he had to re-paint the murals there after the glass was replaced. The last photos, on April 26th, show the just-completed front windows and the back (north) side, too. If you'd like to jump to shots I took on a particular date, click one of the dates here:

• February 27
• March 5
• March 22
• March 26
• April 23
• April 26

Update (August 31, 2013): there are many more photos in today's post.

February 27th

^^ South end of east wall ^^

^^ West wall from north end ^^

^^ Center of east wall ^^

^^ West end of north wall ^^

^^ to top ^^

March 5th

^^ West wall finished, north wall to come ^^

^^ North wall sketch (from east end) ^^

^^ Starting a saguaro on a downspout (east wall) ^^

^^ Sketch at north end of east wall ^^

^^ to top ^^

March 22nd

Front in progress

Working near the front window on the east side

^^ to top ^^

March 26th

^^ East side finished ^^

^^ Front nearly done (except the west end) ^^

^^ to top ^^

April 23rd

The murals are done! But my overall photos of the front of the store were blurred. The new versions are coming soon. Here are shots of details:

^^ to top ^^

April 26th

^^ Front (south wall) ^^

^^ Back (north wall) ^^

^^ to top ^^

50-year-old murals on Tucson Bowl

On the east side of Tucson Bowl, 7020 E. 21st, are these three murals. (That's a post between the first and second.) Close-ups of each:

And, from the bottom-right corner of the last mural, the muralist's signature, "Kay Mallek Studios, 1961":

Arizaguaro

At 3412 N Dodge — just south of the Rillito — is this stone mural showing a saguaro over a map of Arizona.

I snapped it on June 17, 2012.

Maybe a mural, part 44: Trader Joe's on Grant

Do a few painted cactus panels along a corrugated steel wall make a mural? Like other photos in this "maybe a mural" series, you decide! I took this early in the morning of June 17, 2012.

There are more murals inside — by Joe Pagac. We generally don't show murals inside businesses or private homes — though we might, some day, if we ever run out of new public murals to show. (Ha! Not much chance of that!)

Dressed-up driveway

This mural is along the driveway of the home at 5142 E. Andrew:

I spotted it on June 15, 2012. (If you happen to go by when there isn't a car in the driveway, I'd appreciate a better photo! I'll add it below, with thanks.)

The corner of 11th & University

In May, 2012, Melodi King sent a photo of a new mural painted on the street at 11th & University:

Update (March 12, 2014): A view from the other side:

It was painted by Rock Martinez, Joe Pagac, and residents of the surrounding Dunbar/Spring neighborhood:

Here are two more views from June 12, 2012:

Unfortunately, as you can see in the last two photos below, the colors have faded a lot thanks to the many tires passing over here... as well as the sun and the rain. At least there's a new memorial tower in the middle of the intersection.

(The current Google Map Satellite View gives an aerial look at how far the mural has deteriorated.)

I took these last two photos on April 12, 2013.

Topping the Dunbar/Spring “Monster Mural”

Way down toward the southern end of what I called the Dunbar/Spring Monster Mural is this creature watching over the whole thing. (Maybe that's why this amazing work of art hasn't been tagged yet — as far as I know? Tag and you're stung? :)

If you haven't been out to see the mural, stop by; here's a Google Map satellite view showing the spot along the mural wall. Also check out all of the other art in the neighborhood, like the creative sign posts in the middle of many intersections and the big mural on the street corner at 11th & University — which I'll be posting next.

I took this photo on April 6, 2012.

New near Playground

Mark Fleming just sent me photos of new Joe Pagac murals on the wall of Congress Street just west of Playground. These are on the vacant space next door, 272-274 East Congress:

The EXIF data in the photos says that Mark took them on April 7th.

A big thanks to you, Mark, for sending photos of all the new murals you find. (We have a lot of new readers here, I think. FYI, folks, I'm glad to get photos from you, too. There's no way I can keep track of all the new murals in Tucson myself!)

Update (September 9, 2013): There are new murals at this same spot.