The mural and the dog

The mural and the dog

Sometimes getting lost is the best thing you can do.  Going down the wrong street, I saw an awesome mural behind a metal fence with razor sharp wire.  Of course, I didn’t have my camera with me.  harrumphs.  So I went back and saw this mural on the way.

This mural was tucked away on the alley side of a small building behind an appliance store.  I leaned on the store to shoot my initial images but when I moved nearer to get close-ups a dog unexpectedly started barking at me through the bright red iron door.  I jumped about a mile high.  I didn’t even see that the inner door was open.  In my photo below, you can must make out the dog behind the red. Look to the bottom right — you can see two bright eyes and a tongue.  He scared me?  Really, he sounded a lot bigger!

What surprised me more than the dog was the cool murals within blocks of each other. Tucson has unexpected art that I am only just beginning to appreciate. This reminded me that I saw one near the DMV so you may be seeing a few murals for the next few days.

Nearby is a big building with the sign American Eats Company which is planning to open early 2018 and house 6 restaurants. 1439 S. 4th Ave., Tucson.

The other mural? The one I went back for? I’ll show you …..

What? Can’t I do a cliffhanger? Well, maybe tomorrow or maybe Tuesday.

References:

Mural location: On the alley side, on the building behind
Appliance Parts Company, 1525 S. 4th Ave., Tucson.

I originally posted this text on Senryu : mural kitty with a senryu.

2 Replies to “The mural and the dog”

  1. I love it…..I love finding little things like this. Here in Nashville business’ pay artist to paint the sides of their business’. I love it.

    1. The better murals that cover a full wall are like your town — usually a business owner is paying the artists — some graffiti art if done well is welcomed by folks. I know one muralist who didn’t have much money negotiated with a cafe owner for free coffee for a year in exchange for the mural so it’s not always cash. He went to the cafe a lot so I think he got his money’s worth.

      But when graffitti is done on the “sly”, it rarely covers a whole wall. Hard to do a full mural when you’re worried about getting caught and have to run at any minute. Still some muralists start off as graffiti artists, learn the craft, and move up. One muralist in Tucson who now does murals worldwide started off as a graffiti artist. People who just tag (do the letters only, no art) generally make property owners unhappy. I would really like to be able to get them into a class where they can create fonts, though. All that energy into creating new types of letterings on walls — I wonder if the taggers could afford the font making programs, if that energy can be diverted into producing something that other folks can use.

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