Art near Tucson Museum of Art

On October 26, 2010, we showed two murals on a wall in a big parking lot just west of the Tucson Museum of Art along Main Avenue. Back then, this blog often didn't show all of a mural; we thought that people would go to see the mural in person. Thanks to Google Maps Street View, though, I found a picture of much of the wall from March 2011:



By January 2021, one of the murals was missing:



Between then and now, a new mural (dated 2022), by Rock "Cyfi" Martinez, covered all of the wall:

The building behind the mural is the Tucson Water Department, so this aquatic mural fits in!

In the first photo above, you can also see a bit of the long mural around the corner (to the right). I'll post closeups of it next time in The ocean and more.

Here's the mural from left to right. I missed the parts behind the cars:

I took those photos on March 20, 2022

Update (November 25, 2022): BG Boyd Photography sent several of his aerial mural photos, taken October 22. Here's one:

Thanks as always, BG.

Another painted intersection in South Tucson

There are several painted intersections in the city of South Tucson. Two are along 8th Avenue: at 25th Street and at 36th Street. Now there's another one — although it's fading quickly, so see it while you can!

Our last post, "Mask Up! Vax Up!", showed a mural at the corner of 4th Avenue and 28th Street in South Tucson. Before the mural was painted, the intersection had been painted; there was a celebration that day.

A video from KGUN9 TV on February 24th, New project in City of South Tucson combines art with street safety, introduced the intersection project. Avenidas Inc. (on Instagram, @avenidasinc) posted the video below on February 21st. Drone photographer Ernesto Somoza (his Instagram account, @easomoza, is private) made the video. If you look at the top edge of the video, you can see the mural being painted. Below the video is the caption that Avenidas Inc. added when they posted it:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jerry Peek (@tucson.art) by permission from @avenidasinc

Every third Sunday, we, @avenidasinc host a Community Re:Investment Day! These days are all about giving back and showing our love for South 4th Avenue; to our local causes and businesses through monetary giving, volunteering and socializing.

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Yesterday, our focus was on public art and COVID-19 awareness, information and resources. We hope these murals will serve as a space for gathering, reflection, healing and an accessible way to experience local art and community. We appreciate everyone who spent time with us, painted, collaborated and sent positive energy. Keep sharing and posting with others. Thank you.

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Crosswalks: Sal Sawaki, from Wagon Burner Arts / Funded by Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona

@wagon_burner_arts
@artsfoundtucson

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@atrujillo_art
@droopydave
@luckysalway
@saguaro_fruit
@yiselaart

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Mural (on wall): Mel Dominguez, from Galeria Mitotera / Funded by Sunnyside Foundation

@melodominguez
@galeriamitotera
@sunnyside.foundation

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@roguetucsonart
@emgk77
@patoaguilarart

Footage by: @easomoza

There's lots of painted pavement around the US by now. Here's an example: the City-County building in Denver, across from Civic Center Park:

(What makes the paint last, I think, is painting streets where vehicles don't go.)

"Mask Up, Vax Up!"

North-facing wall at the SE intersection of E. 28th St. and S. 4th Ave.

Coordinated by Melo "Mel" Dominguez

PandemiDiarios

Pandemic Diaries by Ruben Urrea Moreno on the South Wall of La Estrella Bakery.

The north wall has a mural of a delivery man.

Street Art for Mankind

I just discovered Street Art for Mankind. Founded in 2015, it's a nonprofit organization in New York that has helped 80 international artists create human rights-themed murals and display them on busy pedestrian walkways in major cities. The goal is to capture attention and trigger action — especially to combat hunger, human trafficking and child labor.

Here's an article from the U.S. Department of State's ShareAmerica introducing them: https://share.america.gov/murals-with-message/.

A new long mural along Prince (Murals being made, part 68)

For years, a long mural east of Amphi Middle School has been fading in the strong southern sun. Joe Pagac started painting a new mural in late 2021 and finished it in 2022:

The mural used to look like this (the photo is from our December 21, 2009 post, A long mural along Prince, which also has closer shots):

I found out that the mural was being repainted in Joe's Facebook post on November 9, 2021:



I stopped by on December 18, 2021, hoping to catch the mural in progress. I did:

I snapped close-up photos of the mural from left (west) to right (east). Those pictures are below, the first of each pair of photos. I came back on February 21, 2022 to snap pictures of the completed mural. Those are the second of each pair below:

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(In case you haven't figured it out by now, the school's mascot is a pirate.)

Surrealistic mural at Amphi Middle School

I'm a fan of all kinds of visual art — not just murals. Among the 1,000+ murals I've seen in Tucson over the years, I've never seen a mural like this. It reminds me of the style called surrealism:

It's on a sports court east of the school, just east of the new long Joe Pagac mural. (I think this mural has been here for years, since the time that the previous mural to its west was replaced by Joe Pagac's.)

I snapped this photo on December 18, 2021, when I was here to photograph Joe Pagac's mural in progress.

Cyfi splashes color on Goodwill Industries HQ

Rock “Cyfi” Martinez has turned a standard warehouse, the headquarters of Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona, into a giant desert canvas:

This looks to me like a new style of his — in Tucson, at least: objects surrounded by a white background. (He paints murals in other cities too.) I'll post another of his soon from Ultralights on S. Plumer Avenue.

Here are three closeups, from left to right:

Notice the desert sunset, with other saguaro, inside the big saguaro?

I was at the main post office nearby on Silverbell Stravenue January 11th when I spotted this big mural down the street.

Update (June 18, 2022): Here's another excellent aerial photo from BG Boyd Photography:

Jessica Gonzales was back at Arizona Picture & Frame

Around the start of 2021, Jessica repainted the south and west sides of the store. Like most of us, the store owners probably couldn't get enough of her great murals, so they hired her again to paint the southeast corner — to the right of the mural she painted before:

She wrote on Instagram that the mural is meant to be seen from the corner, like this:

As you see if you compare the photos of the south wall carefully to the ones from last year, the store has replaced their sign near the ground and added one along the top of her previous mural.

Let's finish with details from near the corner. First, I'm always interested in how muralists work around fixtures and other things that stick out the sides of buildings… like this gas meter:

Jessica worked with Dakin Martin:

I was there on January 8, 2022.

Raspados Marymar revisited (again)

On June 28, 2019 and May 8, 2010, we showed photos of this shaved-ice fruit heaven. (¡They sell piñatas too!) When I rolled by on January 8 of this year, I saw that the mural on the south wall had changed and that we hadn't photographed the east wall. So here's the south wall:

The east wall has a mural that's partly covered by a door when the store is open:

I'm hoping to stop by when the store is closed and take a photo of the whole mural. If I do, I'll update this post. In the meantime: The weather is heating up, so head out for some raspados!

Who you gonna call when your vehicle has dents?

If you've seen or heard Ghostbusters (“Who you gonna call?”), you'll recognize the sign for…

…Dent Busters. (The 2002 is their address on North Stone Avenue.)

I'll bet the muralists had fun painting these murals! On June 4, 2019, we posted the mural on their north wall by Clint Tzu of OldPuebloSigns.com, painted in 2018. Here it is again, photographed on December 11, 2021:

The fence at the back of their parking lot is even more fun. Monty SES Esposito (Instagram @theseswon38 and Facebook Monty Ses Esposito) painted it. Here are photos from left (the north end) to right (the south):

I've brightened the right side (in shadow) of the last photo. As always, you can click on a photo for a larger view.

Although “I ain't afraid of no ghost,” I didn't stay any longer than I needed to on December 11, 2021.