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.

Park Place Chalk Art Festival, part 3 of 3

In this third post of last weekend's second annual Park Place Chalk Art Festical, we'll take a tour through the kifZONE, which was sponsored by Macy's. It covered most of the pavement around the store with small chalk murals. (If you missed Part One or Part Two, click there.)

I took most of these photos the morning after the festival ended, April 8th. These first two show the scene when kids were painting, on Saturday, April 6:

The photos are in no particular order — except that I started at the east end (near the store entrance) and finished at the southwest corner. A lot of the pavement squares were shared between several artists. Watch for the line of quail “walking” through the murals. (And, if a lot of these seem just like kids' scrawls, try looking through anyway... there are some gems in here!) As always, you can click on any photo for a larger view.

Notes about the photos

• I haven't edited them by hand with GIMP, as I usually do. Instead, I used the automated ImageMagick editor. (Here are introductions to ImageMagick that I wrote in 2006: Part One, Part Two, Part Three.) I used -sigmoidal-contrast 5,50% to level the brightness and color.
• These are geotagged. So you can use geotagging software to find the approximate location of the art. (The GPS in my camera doesn't seem to be too accurate.)
• When you click on a photo for a larger view, the photos you'll see aren't as large as usual. To save storage space, I've made the big images 800 pixels wide instead of 1024
• They're in the public domain. I've cut the size and detail, though, for posting online. If any you'd like an original photo, please send me email. (If you use the photo somewhere online or for profit, I'd suggest asking the artist's permission first — and giving their name so they get credit for their hard work.)

(To see earlier entries, click on "Older Posts" below.)