The wall next to the Tucson Water building, where a graffiti mural sparked outrage from neighbors earlier this year, is being painted over by a group of spray-paint artists similar to those who did the first mural.
However, this time the graffiti mural is not controversial. The city-sponsored graffiti art class has been repainting the mural with images acceptable to the city and to residents of nearby El Presidio Neighborhood.
The first mural was painted in late December during a festival called Winta Fresh, which was put on by Rocky Martinez, who also teaches a graffiti-art program for the city called Arts in Reality.
Although the city did not directly pay for the Winta Fresh event, many neighboring residents were outraged by the images on the nearly block-long, city-owned wall, which they said looked like trashy boxcar graffiti. In addition, some were outraged that the city paid for graffiti classes at all.
People are also reading…
To make things right, Martinez and his class held several meetings with the neighborhood, the Tucson Museum of Art and others to design a mural that would be more acceptable.
Tom Pashos, an El Presidio resident, said the mural's new focus, to paint some of the history of the area, including nearby homes, was much more acceptable. However, he said a small portion of the original graffiti mural that was painted by a famous out-of-town graffiti artist will not be painted over.
The city's Arts in Reality class, funded in part by $8,000 from Councilwoman Regina Romero's discretionary funds for youths, is painting the new mural.
Much of Romero's $8,000 will go toward the new mural, which is on a wall adjacent to the Tucson Water building, just off North Granada Avenue and West Alameda Street
Romero said the new mural evokes the Sonoran Desert and other elements of Ward 1, which she represents.
"From a misunderstanding and a bad situation, they turned a bad situation into something really, really good," Romero said.
Romero also said she wants the Arts in Reality program to create a public-service announcement where youths teach other youths that aerosol art is good but not if it's done illegally without permission. We want to show them "illegal graffiti is not cool, but art is, especially when you follow all the rules."
The new graffiti mural will be unveiled Aug. 25 during a celebration in the adjacent parking lot, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
