The (almost) latest at 191-197 East Toole

It's hard to stay up to date with the weirdly-shaped building at the weird intersection of 6th Avenue, Toole Avenue, and Alameda Street downtown. I've been there so many times that I've lost count. But new murals keep popping up, so we keep posting! I took these photos during the second half of 2024.

Southwest side

This is the side of the building along Toole Avenue. First, the whole side on November 10:

As always, you can click on a photo for a larger view. We've shown parts of this side of the building in our page called Layers of murals: histories of a few walls, the section Southwest side of 191-197 East Toole (along Toole).

A couple of things have changed since our last post on January 17, 2024. One is at the middle of the wall: the front of Studio One. Here are the whole front and a closeup of the door on July 21st:

Near the right (southeast) end is the BLX skateboard and tattoo shop. July 21st again:

The south end of the wall is new…

…but the south corner (between the southwest and southeast walls) hasn't changed:

East side

The curb between the building and the 6th Avenue underpass has been painted. (Maybe it's been that way for years and I didn't notice because I was focused on the big murals along the wall). Next are a view from near the building's south end, then closeups from front (west) to back (east):

You can find phootos of the east wall, next to the curb, over the past 20 years or so, in East side of 197 East Toole. It's part of our page Layers of murals: histories of a few walls.

Music Box Lounge

There's just a bit of color in Danny's musician mural:

Closeups:

I was there July 22, 2024.

Underwater on 5th Street

That mural at Kids World Preschool stands next to 5th Street:

I drive by here a lot, but I'd never noticed the mural until July 22nd. (“Yes, officer, I was paying attention!” 😁)

Sushi, then Kava, or vice versa? Whatever. 😎

Two new places next to each other opened at about the same date… and they seemed related to me, as if they have the same owner. One is calld The Kava Bar, at 4376 E. Speedway. The other is in the other half of the same building, Sushi-Kito Restaurant at 4380 E. Speedway. I vote for getting sushi first, then relexing (or whatever) with the kava. (If you haven't heard of Kava, here's a medical article — likely to be pretty conservative — from Cleveland Clinic: When It Comes to Kava, ‘Natural’ Doesn’t Mean Safe. I'm sure there are different choices and alternative opinions.) I was there July 16, 2024, as remodeling was wrapping up, so the murals may be a bit different now.

The Kava Bar has a simple mural on the north end of the west side:

The front of Sushi-Kito looks like this (with Kava Bar at the right edge):

And the mural on the east wall:

I rollled by on July 16, 2024.

Murals being made, part 83: Third mural at Southern AZ Transportation Museum

On May 8, 2024, we posted photos of two murals at the train station downtown in Southern Arizona Transportation Museum. Since then, Bill Singleton has finished the third and final mural showing passengers coming off the train in the mid-1900s. This is Bill finishing the third mural on July 13, 2024:

Next are two photos showing all three murals, then just the new third mural. I took these on July 21st:

(As always, you can click on a photo for a slideshow of larger views.)

Here are six closeups from left to right. I took them July 21st. The two mariachis are portrayed by Bill's sons:

Around the corner from the first and third murals are railroad employees. Here's the one to the left of the first mural on July 21:

And the employee on the right end July 21st:

When I was there on July 13th, this part of the mural didn't have a shadow — only an outline:

The murals are rich with detail — and historical accuracy. Bill told me how much research, and discussion with experts, happened before the design and painting — and also, I think, during the painting. This story from ThisIsTucson.com (and the Arizona Daily Star) has more: This new mural chronicles the arrival of the railroad in Southern Arizona.

Changed mural outside Solar Culture gallery

The last time we showed Solar Culture gallery was December 29, 2014 in Missing (Solar) Culture. Sometime since then, the mural in that post was repainted. (You can click on the previous link to see the old mural.) The new mural is:

The rest of the gallery front is about the same:

There's better detail, from 2013, in the last three photos of the following long post: New on Toole in 2013 (and Happy 2014!).

A better closeup of the dragonfly:

My 2024 visit was on July 21st.

Rock the Spot 2023: All around again

The Rock the Spot graffiti/mural event last happened November 30 to December 3, 2023. I haven't seen the dates announced for the next one. The Instagram page @rockthespotaz (you can click there to see it) mentions 2025.

In case the next one happens soon, I decided to take another walk around the parking lot and see what's changed. This is the route I walked (thanks to Google Maps for the satellite view):

As always, you can click on the map for a larger view of it and the photos.

I compared the photos to our last post, Rock the Spot's second year, 2023. It turned out that only one mural was new (the space was blank before) and another had been changed. I'll flag them below.

Before we start, a note: There are so many photos that I haven't done my usual careful editing.

The mural near the bottom of the photo below is new:

Here's a closeup of that bottom mural:

The gate below used to have two different murals, one on each door. Now it's one mural, in the style of the mural just to its right: