More change (as usual) on Toole: #1 of 3

If there's one thing you can count on about the street art along Toole Avenue downtown, it's that the art is always changing. Another thing you could count on — until a month or two ago, anyway — is that the art was usually eclectic.

Let's start with the north side of the building at 191. For years, it had a mural of Tucson scenes: Train, trolley, and a three-eyed alien. This spring, most of the mural was whitewashed — except the edges of the right side (which you can see at the second photo in the post linked above). Three days ago, I photographed a new mural, wrapped by a bit of the old one, at the right side of the wall:

Not far from the mural is a new sign, dedicated on July 31st. It's by artist/supervisor Amy Novelli with metal fabrication and construction design by Jason LaFleur. There were also ten youth artists.

To the left of the sign are ten painted panels with new scenes. I'll show them next week.

Mark Fleming revisits Jorge's Tire Shop

In 2012, I made a couple of visits to the corner of 10th Avenue and 32nd Street. You can see those photos in the entry Jorge's Tire Shop. Mark Fleming stopped by on June 8th of this year and sent these closeups of the north wall:

Much appreciated as always, Mark!

10th at 27th revisited

Not long after this blog started, we posted photos of murals along South 10th Avenue just as it entered South Tucson from the north. In June, Mark Fleming revisited one of the murals — the fantastic one around the power substation at 10th Avenue & 27th Street. Some of the mural has been trashed by taggers, but overall it looks pretty much the same — more than seven years later.

The Tucson Citizen article (by Charlotte Lowe), quoted in that original article, said: “Perhaps South 10th Avenue, which becomes Main Avenue as it approaches downtown, should be renamed Art Avenue. Or maybe Avenida de las Artes."

Thanks, Mark!

Mural-covered Soviet bus stops

A Wednesday article in the Guardian, the British newspaper, showed photos of amazingly-designed bus stops in countries of the former Soviet Union. From time to time, I like to show murals outside of Tucson... if this sounds intriguing, check them out:

Next stop, Siberia! The strange and beautiful world of Soviet bus stops – in pictures

South Tucson urban style

Mark Fleming (thanks!) took that photo in June.

Just up Stone, something completely different

Last time, we showed a fantasy Tucson scene in the 2700 block of North Stone. Now let's head three blocks north, to the 3000 block. Both sides of Head Hunters Smoke Shop have fantastic murals.

Here are two shots of the north-side mural. The first one shows the part closer to the street. I shot the right-hand part with my cell phone's digital zoom, so the quality isn't as good:

The south-side mural is, again, different. First, the west side and some of the south side:

All of the south side:

And details of the south side:

The north-side photos are from July 14. I took the south-side photos July 29th.

"A" Mountain, Paul Bunyan, a flying VW bus, ...

This mural must have a story behind it... but the high fence topped by three strands of barbed wire, and the guard dogs behind it, made me decide not to try to find out. The building doesn't seem to have a number, though Google Maps told me 2735 North Stone when I clicked on the building. It's the next building south of Tommy's Food and Drink, which is at 2747... I pulled into their parking lot on April 12th to take this photo:

The mural is full of Tucson icons, as well as (mostly) old Volkswagen cars and "buses" (the classic VW camper wagons). (Click on the photo for a larger view and have a look for yourself.)

All of the VWs in the mural reminded me that the business across the street, and just north — at the southeast corner of Glenn & Stone — used to be called Uncle Bob's VW Repair. (Then it was Uncle Bob's Used Cars.) Is there a connection? Hmmm. (Our photos of the murals on that corner are on August 18, 2008... March 11, 2010... and May 3, 2012.) I'll aim to stop by the office at Uncle Bob's and ask.

Murals wrapped around books (in Oracle)

Although we usually cover murals in Tucson, I spotted an extraordinary wrap-around mural — actually, two murals — when I was in Oracle April 12th for their annual Artist Studio Tour. The bigger mural wraps around much of the parking lot, and the smaller one stretches around part of the front of the building.

By the way, the town's website has a library page explaining that the library is staffed completely by volunteers! If you know more about this, or know how the murals were funded, please leave a comment at the end of this post.

Here's the main mural, from left to right:

And the mural on the front side of the building, left to right:

Not-so-floral mural

It was June 28th when I got email from Mark Fleming with photos of a flower shop on South 12th, a couple of long blocks north of Drexel Road. I edited them a bit for posting on the blog, then — it seems — I forgot to post them? I don't see them here, so here they are!

First, the mural. Next, close-ups:

Thanks, Mark. More of your photos soon.

AZ Daily Star: Chris Pratt's mural (in WA state)

Yesterday, Google Alerts sent me email about a story in the Arizona Daily Star with the word “mural” in it. I jumped on it, of course. :) The story was about how a mural in a small Washington town's restaurant had helped bring business in — especially when the story hit social media. Here’s the article:

Cuddle parties; Quidditch in the park; Chris Pratt's mural

When Randy Garsee started this blog almost ten years ago, he had a policy of only showing murals that anyone could see, for free. That especially means: no murals in people's homes and back yards. It also includes restaurants… although people can go into a restaurant without paying, maybe Randy thought sending people in to see a mural wasn't kind to owners or people dining there?

After reading the article, though, I wonder if it wouldn’t be a good idea to promote business owners’ support of muralists — and blog readers’ enjoyment — by showing murals in restaurants (and other businesses, too?). I'd only do that with the business owner’s OK, of course.

If you have any thoughts about that, please leave a comment below. (You can remain anonymous if you’d like to.) Thanks.

More changes on Toole in April or May

We've posted quite a few photos of the two five-mural panels along the northeast side of Toole Avenue — between the street and the parking lot — so many that I have trouble keeping up with them! On April 5th, I rolled by the southern panel — across the street from 174 East Toole — and saw a couple of new panels, as well as one under construction:

The second panel has two rows of difficult scenes, surrounded by flags of nations (if you'd like to see them more closely, click to zoom in):

Here's the third panel:

I just checked Google's Street View and found a similar image in May, 2015. The fourth panel was still part-done (or part-undone?):

Temporary (like a lot of the art) on Toole

These murals were on the south side of 174 East Toole when I rode by April 5th:

April at 197 East Toole

April 5th, at the northeast end of this ever-changing building, were a (former) charcoal grill…

and a (still used) dumpster:

At the southern end of the east side I saw Rock Martinez’ partly-finished mural.

What's next?? (It’s been four months, more than long enough for an update on this amazing building. Stay tuned.)