Jessica Gonzales does a lot of painting outside the Rialto Theatre downtown. On the northeast corner, she — assisted by Dakin Martin — paints murals for upcoming shows there. Here's one example from her Instagram: the May 17 and May 21, 2024 murals. (She wrote “I love that these show murals allow me to experiment and learn new things in the process.”)
From here, walk south along the alley (formerly Herbert Avenue). You'll pass murals that we'll see in part 2 of this series. At the south end, turn around to see this mural on the south wall:
Their signature is at bottom right:
This sign, painted to the right of the mural, says the mural is Album cover art for Gabriella Pietrangelo’s “Back to the Heart” and first single “Tucson”.
The music video, on YouTube, shows Gabriella singing in front of the mural as Jessica and Dakin paint it. This clip starts at 1 minute, 3 seconds:
A bit west from 1st Avenue, not far north of Grant, is the fun mural I found on February 6, 2024. It is (or was) along the back side of the building that has (or had) High Level Smoke Shop.
At the far end of the first photo is the Santa mural from our previous post, High Level murals. I'm not sure if either mural is still there.
At the bottom right of the last two photos, you can see the artist's signature: stenz.co.uk. (Click there to visit the website in the United Kingdom.)
I took photos of these murals at High Level Smoke Shop, 1st just north of Grant, on February 6, 2024. When I wrote this post on May 15, I couldn't much online about it. Have they closed? I did find a location far south, 4990 South Campbell.
Have the folks on 1st spaced out? I don't know, but I do have these photos. These weedy people are/were on the north side…
…and Stoner Santa is/was on the south:
Farther west (farther from 1st Avenue), on the same building, is a long mural we'll see in Spray paint villains :).
Update (June 19, 2024): The murals are still all here. Although I didn't stop in, the business seemed to be open.
Last time, we saw a mural downtown by Germaine A Pesqueria, New at English Salon & Spa. He started another mural in January 2024 at Parent Aid — on 22nd Street just east of Tucson Boulevard.
I stopped by on January 28th to see the mural in progress:
He posted this nighttime photo to his Facebook that evening:
(He hadn't finished the left hand yet.)
A few months later — May 9, 2024 — I stopped by near sunset to see the finished mural:
The right edge of the mural, around and beyond the fence, is darkness (and also in the late afternoon shade here). Germaine wrote me that the mural is “a visual narrative of transformation and hope, depicting a young soul leaving behind the shadows of sadness to step into a radiant future filled with possibilities.”
Two closeups:
He's painted shadows of plants on the mural; there are also real shadows.
Fifteen years ago — May 29, 2009 — we published two colorful walls of murals at the Armory Park Senior Citizens' Recreation Center. That post is Giant plants (or tiny buildings).
Now, the murals have faded and been tagged too. Here are the walls today, on the northwest corner of 13th Street & 5th Avenue:
According to the Ant-Dogg Facebook page intro: “Ant-Dogg is an Independent Recording Artist/Songwriter in genres - Hip-Hop, RnB, Rock and soul.” Here's a mural in (I think!) Ant-Dogg's honor:
As always, you can click on the photo for a larger view.
The mural is on the east side of the wall around 826 W. Calle Ventura. It's a one-minute walk west of N. Calle Central through a vacant lot; the GPS coordinates of the spot on the wall are 32.247520, -110.984947.
Here's a Google Maps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/j1MRDuUM947pwJH9A.
Drive a block south of Grant on Calle Central to see these:
I was there on January 27, 2024. (A sign just to the left of these warns that anyone photographing on or around the grounds will have their camera confiscated. This seems to be about ceremonies in the park behind. The park was empty.)
On August 11, 2021, a new eegee's location opened way out Valencia Road, near Cardinal Avenue — far enough that the area is called Drexel Heights, not Tucson. (It's just west of the car wash in our previous post, Wash and watch.) Jessica Gonzales painted the column supports along the outdoor dining room (which was a first for eegee's, KOLD News 13 wrote). The front of the store is along the south (left) and east (right) walls:
Next, both sides of the column supports — and a couple of close-ups:
(The first closeup shows a customer dipping a spoon into the landscape, next to some saguaros. Yum.)
When I was there on February 6, 2024, the column supports along the drive-thru hadn't been painted:
From the southeast end, this carwash doesn't look very special:
The center of the wash bays has a fun mural:
And once you're at the west end, it's a different story:
The area behind the wash bays is lined with murals. (There are so many photos that I haven't done my usual careful editing to straighten, fix color, etc. Sorry about that.) These photos run along the wall from the west end to the east:
I stopped by to watch (but not to wash) on February 6, 2024.
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