Long look on Longfellow

After I spotted the mailbox here at 321 N. Longfellow, I almost missed this mural alongside the driveway, set far back:

I'll never walk onto someone's property to photograph a mural; that's a view from a zoom lens. It's an iridescent mural with a cat (temporarily) on top. I was there three days ago: May 28th.

Back in (actually, on) BLX

(Apologies, AC/DC fans, for that title. :)

The longtime mural on the side of BLX Skate Shop, 7th & Toole Avenues, has been replaced by this one with movie characters:

(That's a support wire across the left edge.) I found it on May 24th.

By the way, that mural is one of the 14 shown in the article The Big Picture, by Paul M. Ingram of The New York Times Student Journalism Institute. It's a great little “newspaper” written by New York Times interns right here in Tucson.

Update (May 11, 2015): That mural is by Danny Martin. He has a little more info about it on his website; he says it's a 1980s film mural with “Beetlejuice Geena Davis / MR Stay Puft / Kurt Russell.” I also found a photo of the mural cut into a skate deck.

A Corvette for Indy 500 Day?

I was looking through my backlog of Tucson mural photos for a race car that would fit the Indy 500. (In case you're interested, here's a long list of Indy 500 history.) I didn't find what I wanted, but I did find this Corvette mural, on the west side of O'Rielly Chevrolet facing Park Place Mall. (Here's a Google Map.) It'd probably belong better at a NASCAR race, but it'll have to do.

I snapped the photo on April 6th.

Half-hidden home mural

As I was ricing along Olsen Avenue last August 15th, I spotted a mural inside the back yard of the home at 2101 East Drachman. The first glimpse was from alley between Adams and Drachman, and the second — the photo shown here — was along Olsen Avenue. It has Trompe-œ’il vigas on a home, and something below... I didn't look over the wall (and we won't show the hidden part of any mural onl a home, anyway), so imagine it for yourself!

South Tucson fire station (murals being made, part 19)

I read Arizona Daily Star reporter Kimberly Matas’ story Scouts battle graffiti with South Tucson mural in today's paper. The story didn't include a photo, though. So I went right over to the northwest corner of West 27th Street & South 5th Avenue — just behind the police and fire station — to see the mural and grab a photo:

Update (June 1, 2013): Here are close-ups after the mural was completed (as usual, you can click on a photo for an even bigger view):

For a bonus, there's an old fire engine parked next to the mural:

The article says that muralist Germaine Pesquiera guided the members of Girl Scout Troop 645, along with troop leader Pilar Ruiz. Thanks, folks, for another great piece of South Tucson street art!

Maybe a mural, part 46: Exquisite on Elm

The home at 2350 Elm Street (it's on the southwest corner of Norton & Elm) has amazing art all along its walls. A year ago, we posted a photo of two dragons at the south end, along Norton Street, in Maybe a mural, part 32: critters glued on. Along the wall on the Elm Street side, though, is another (maybe) mural, fit perfectly underneath the lamp above it:

It's a collage of “quotations” from famous artists’ work. I took the photo on May 14th.

You can see more of the art at this gallery-along-the-street on the TucsonArt.info website in the page 2350 Elm Street.

Joe Pagac at Bookmans, August 2012

Since Joe Pagac stopped re-painting the east wall of the Rialto Theatre a while back (you can see his last — and permanent? — mural in our March 7th, 2013 post), I've still spotted new work of his from time to time on the east wall of the Bookmans store at 1930 E. Grant. (But I haven't stopped by for a while.)

Let's go back to the archives for a photo from August 15, 2012. It's a happy family playing music, games, and reading a book (all things, coincidentally, you can get at Bookmans) in a park somewhere with downtown Tucson behind:

More from 103 S. Calle de Jardin

On February 17, 2010, we showed the mural-covered home at 103 S. Calle de Jardin. Last month, I came back on April 25th for a close-up of the mailbox at the south end of that wall that I'd shot in 2010. While I was there, I noticed murals and tile near the home's driveway — as well as the artist's signature: 11-5-2002 Manny Garcia.

(Here's the photo of the mailbox — from the Tucson Mailbox Art blog.)

Sabor Tropical

These delicious murals are outside Sabor Tropical restaurant, 1929 East Grant:

I took the photos on August 15, 2012.

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.