Have you ever wanted to see a couple of blue whales fly through the air with a beautiful desert sunset in the back? Believe it or not, you can see it right on Campbell Avenue.
Tucson has the great privilege to be one of the cities with a rich variety of street art decorating a wide array of buildings throughout the area. It’s always nice when a drive down the street is briefly interrupted by something bright, colorful, inspirational or just plain awe-inspiring to make you smile or draw you out of a tough day. With over 100 murals spread around Tucson, it’s impossible to be here for any length of time and not be entranced by some of these images.
The aforementioned flying whales can be spotted on a mural painted by Joe Pagac and represent thriving even in a hostile environment. Pen Macias painted a mural in Oro Valley welcoming people to the town. A mural called “Los Tres Amigos” was painted by Ignacio Garcia in celebration of the centennial of the Tucson Rodeo. Tucson is even home to the largest mural in the state known as “Sonoran Skies” by Jessica Gonzales at Park Place Mall, which is over 26,000 square feet in size. There are many other examples with diverse kinds of pictures to see around town, turning the typical, grey-tinted concrete jungle into a series of vibrant displays.
The Tucson Arts Brigade even organized a mural program in 1995 to collect some local artists and get brushes and paint in their hands so they could get to work in making Tucson into a street art destination. The idea of a city mural program is one that would make any resident who gets bored of the typical city landscape happy to see a golden example of city collaboration with the goal of making their chosen spot shine. Unfortunately, the Tucson Arts Brigade disbanded in 2020 due to financial difficulties, and after 24 years of existence, those dreams became more difficult when it went away.
Art and paintings are rarely a profitable industry. It is a great disappointment to see a mural program fall in such a way. A mural program can provide good connectedness for the community to see something pretty that multiple people pitched in to make. The sense of joy and inspiration that passers-by are struck with from these ambitious artworks would be under threat if new murals are diminished.
However, Tucson’s mural community was not halted by this development. Many of the town’s murals, including the massive Sonoran Skies, were made after the Tucson Arts Brigade disbanded. Clearly, the creative juices of Tucson artists are still as strong as they were in 1995. The sense of community and the inspiration spark that art gives us can still stay just as strong.
If you are someone who always cracks a smile when you see a moving piece of artwork on our streets, then it’s important that we remain encouraging to our town’s artists, and if you yourself have a passion for leaving your mark on the cityscape, then maybe you should think about what you can do to put your art out there on the streets. Be the one who brings change to the city and inspiration to others. After all, what better canvas is there than the ones we see everyday?
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Ian Stash is a junior studying Journalism at the University of Arizona. In his free time, he loves video games and chilling with his cats.
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