Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Grant at Swan

Want dessert after Thanksgiving? 😉 Although their website only mentions Tropical Smoothie Cafe, this business is also called Jeremiah's Italian Ice (or has two different stores inside). Whatever, it has a fun mural:

There are several other Tropical Smoothie Cafes around Tucson, but this is the first one I've seen. If the TUCSON mural here is on the other locations too, I'll aim to update this post and not take photos of the others. (This mural isn't signed, which is a bit suspicious.)

I forgot to take any closeups. I enlarged a piece of the mural photo above:

I was there on November 26, 2024 — but was on my way to an appointment, so I couldn't step inside.

Burn some calories around a mural-covered home

If you're having a big meal tomorrow (Thanksgiving), think about taking a mural-hunting and calorie-burning walk around the Barrio Viejo (just south of downtown) this holiday weekend. See our mural map at map.tucsonmurals.org.

Even if you don't take a walk, park somewhere around the corner of Kennedy Street and Rubio Alley (a.k.a. Rubio Avenue). Here's the home along the alley; it's lined with murals and there are more in the yard:

Our blog has posted this home twice before: On October 06, 2017 in Artistic gift to neighbors and passersby and October 13, 2017 in More of Kristin's gift. Here's the alley in the 10/13/17 post. The chimney didn't have its Danny Martin mural yet:

The back yard has also changed, as we'll see soon.

Danny Martin painted several murals around the home. He painted the chimney sometime in the seven years after our last post:

Next (south) along the wall is this mural of the Virgen de Guadalupe, painted by Raechel Running:

Artist and poet Jim Harrison, created by a great long time friend from Flagstaff, Jaybyrd Willison:

Walking a bit more toward the back the alled, just past the home's wall along the alley, look right to see this Danny Martin mural. It's one of (at least) four around the home:

Behind the house is this shed:

It was hard to snap photos through the fence. Here's the east side with a bit of fence at the lower left:

I used my photo editor to straighten the Danny Martin mural:

I don't know which came first, but that mural looks identical to the one Danny painted at the Downtown Clifton. Our June 18, 2015 post Welcome to the Downtown Clifton… shows it. (Click there to see it.)

I forgot to check the back of the shed! Our post More of Kristin's gift shows it in 2017.

Another Danny Martin mural is on the Little Free Library in front of this amazing home. You can see it in our October 28, 2024 post Jackalope wrapped in lights.

La Pilita 12 years later

I can't believe that the last time we showed this mural-covered spot was August 17, 2012, in the post More at La Pilita Museum. I stopped by again on July 13, 2024. It's not a museum anymore. The museum closed February 1, 2015, as explained in the Arizona Daily Star article Museum that displayed Tucson's lost barrio history closes. The murals haven't changed much.

The little area just south is now called Rosendo S. Perez Park:

Most of the murals are in the back yard. It was closed while I was there, so I used a zoom lens to take photos clockwise from west to north to east. The big mural is by Alaina Pierce, dated 2017 or 2019.

Murals for children of all ages...

…including you? 😁 The Children's Museum downtown has lots of murals outdoors. Some are inside the fence that's locked much of the time the museum is closed. There's also a longggggg mural on the concrete support underneath the fence; it might be open at night, but it's near the bushes and police may not think you're just there to have fun… 😉

Inside the fence

As you face the museum, these photos generally show murals from the left (south) to the right (north):

I Am Somebody

On the outside of the fence, the mural farthest to the left has a story. It's on the south-facing part of the fence, just off the left end of the other fence murals:

The four murals spell I AM SOME BODY. It's a slogan of I Am You 360, a nonprofit working to create a tiny home community for vulnerable youth. The details are in our September 27, 2024 post I Am You 360.
The last panel in that mural is signed MOCA Minor Mutiny:

(MOCA is the Museum of Contemporary Art.) From the MOCA Minor Mutiny Facebook page: “MOCA Tucson offers a safe space for high school students to hang out, snack, talk, create, get help with homework, and more. We welcome Tucson area GSAs.” The “more” includes art. An old post on their page says “Head over to MOCA at 3:30 to make stuff with us! I think slime is in order!”

Overview of murals along the fence

Here's a long view of the fence to the left (south) and right (north) sides of the gate to the museum. Next we'll see each mural in detail.

Ana Santos Ancinas painted both long murals. Her Instagram (newer than the one listed in the photos below) is @ana_santos_acinas; her murals webpage is anasantosacinas.com/murals.

Tip for seeing mural sections below

If you can't use a computer or tablet, the easiest way to see the photos below is first to turn your mobile phone on its side. Then tap on the first photo. You should get a screen like the one below with a row of small “thumbnail” photos at the bottom. Tap on each thumbnail for a big view of that photo:

That tip works well on a desktop or laptop computer, too… though you won't need to turn your screen.

Mural left of the gate, section by section

We'll finish with closeups of the long mural under both fences from the left (south) to the right (north). First, the murals to the left.

(I usually edit photos carefully, but I took so many along the fence that I'll have to do only light editing.)

(That Instagram @ginger__love is old. The new one is @ana_santos_acinas.)

Mural right of the gate, section by section

The previous section showed murals to the left (south) of the gate to the museum. Next, the murals to the right.

(I usually edit photos carefully, but I took so many along the fence that I'll only did light editing.)

See them in person

Even if the museum is closed, you and/or the kiddos can have fun walking along the fence!