Public Art on Tucson's 4th Avenue

This is part one of what I intend to be an ongoing series on this blog showcasing interesting sculptural work, graffiti, miscellaneous objects of interest, and other trippy stuff around Tucson.

All up and down 4th Avenue, a commercial district/tourist trap emphasizing small boutiques, bars and restaurants, and resembling in some ways a miniturized version of the Haight in San Francisco, you find lots of sanctioned, professional graffiti art—or is it considered graffiti when it's not illegal? I don't know. Some of it might not even be done with spray paint, but it all adds the kind of bohemian vibe businesses on the avenue like to present.

Some of these have been around for years, others went up in the last year or so.

I'll start with this great collection of images just off of 6th Street and 4th. This is some of the coolest mural work in Tucson right now. I don't know the name of the artist or artists, though some of the work is signed with the crew names.

 

 

 

Here's a rattlesnake and a Day of the Dead-style skull on the outside of a place called Creative Ventures.

 

 

These Spy Vs. Spy guys guard one side of the Magpies Pizza.

 

 

Did you love the 60's and 70's?  Do you wish you were born earlier than 1991 so you could have seen classic rock before it was classic?  Hippie Gypsy knows how you feel.  The exterior of the building is a love letter to an era.

 

This mural has been on the southeastern corner of 4th and 6th Street for a long time. I think it depicts local characters from over the years. It's shown in two parts here, top picture the left side, bottom the right.

 

A medusa head stares from the wall of Medusa Kabob House (side comment: this place used to be a terrible restaurant called The Casbah, where the staff was stoned and the food was the worst kind of vegan).

This would make a great tattoo. It's on the upper wall on the south side of ZOE Boutique.

These patriotic images are on the side of Miller's Surplus, naturally.

This is on a wall on Stone Avenue, just before the downtown underpass.

Here's a woman worshipping produce on the side of The Tasteful Kitchen on Stone (I seem to have wandered away from 4th Avenue).

And finally, this stuff on the side of an art gallery on the northeast corner of Stone and Speedway.

 

Some of these are better than others, but isn't that true of everything? It makes for a better urban environment, as far as I'm concerned, and there's a bunch of it all over town. I'll post more as I collect more pictures.