Greetings from Tucson. We passed through this city in Arizona previously and knew would be the perfect fit for our next Greetings mural. We tried several small businesses around town to get a wall to paint with no luck. In a last ditch effort, we returned to Miller’s Surplus in the Historic Fourth Avenue district. A few months prior, we had dropped off our information with them and decided to try talking to them one last time. Often times, business owners think that we are trying to sell them something. However, we are actually giving them our art and bringing traffic to their location. The owner, George Landa, was in the store at the time and was extremely friendly. He was totally open to our project, and we were thrilled to hear him say yes! We got to work and quickly realized how friendly all the Tucson locals are.

We got to work prepping the wall space on back of the building. There was an existing older mural that lived on the side of it dedicated to veterans. We helped clean up some unwanted graffiti on that mural for them. Our hope is that similarly, locals will take ownership of our public art after we’re gone and help maintain it for the community.

For the cultural and historical elements within the letters, we took ideas directly from the local community. In the “T” we featured Sentinel Peak & “A” Mountain as a tribute to the landscape as well as the University of Arizona. This area thrived with a lot of college students that come from all over the country & world. Next, in the “U” we had to feature some Saguaro cacti as the city was close to Saguaro National Park. The “S” featured historic Hotel Congress along with a portrait of the outlaw John Dillinger. Dillinger and his infamous gang hid out at the hotel and was ultimately captured there. For the “O” our original plan was to only paint the Mission San Xavier del Bac but a local stopped by and suggested we incorporate a Tohono Oʼodham (native tribe) basket design. We featured a tribute to the Man in the Maze design. There’s varied meanings to this with one being: “The man at the top of the maze depicts birth. By following the pattern, beginning at the top, the figure goes through the maze encountering many turns and changes, as in life.”

We met Marcos (pictured below) as an employee of Miller's Surplus while we were getting permission to paint the wall. One of the first things he suggested we paint was a Sonoran-style hot dog. This was a signature Mexican street food that was very popular in Tucson & Southern Arizona. We never heard of it at the time but as foodies, we quickly went to try some for ourselves. We learned that locally competing vendors took the business very serious to the point where it even involved cartels and extortion! When we went back to try a Sonoran dog at the highly recommended El Guero Canelo, the manager recognized us from the news, introduced himself and bought us a free meal. That’s just another example of how friendly the locals were in this city.

We linked up with local artist Rock 'Cyfi' Martinez and he showed us around the neighborhood. Rock painted the letter “C” in Tucson. Rock is part Native American and comes from a similar graffiti background as Victor. They both never had any formal art school training and learned their art through having fun with spray paint writing their names. We let Rock him come up with his own creative concept in his letter. He went with a day of the dead style woman who had cactus as her hair. Being that we were close to the Mexico, this was a fitting tribute.

The owner of the Miller's Surplus (George Landa) is in a band called Los Nawdy Dawgs and they let us use their music for recap video at the top of the post! The fitting song is called "Guacamole Man" and "...it's about attempting to get some Guacamole from a waiter at a Mexican Restaurant." George liked the mural so much that he even had lights installed on top so that people could see the artwork at night. It’s become one of the most popular murals to welcome guests to town. Now every time we pass through Tucson we make it a goal to stop by and say hi to George and our newly made friends.

Press:

This is Tucson - Greetings from Tucson: New mural going up downtown

KOLD News13 - 'Greetings Tour' makes stop in Tucson to paint new mural

Letter Guide:

T — Sentinel Peak or “A” Mountain / University of Arizona

U — Saguaro cacti

C — Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) by local Tucson artist, Rock “Cyfi” Martinez

S — Hotel Congress, John Dillinger

O — San Xavier del Bac, Man in the Maze

N — Sonoran hot dog

Year: 2017

Mural Size: 12'H x 21'W

Location: 406 N 6th Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705 (Back of Building)

Greetings Tour Mural Licensing & Copyright Information