Next time you’re heading Downtown to your favorite restaurant, gallery, concert, sports event, First Friday, Third Friday, Phoenix Public Market, or one of the many upcoming 20 Years of Progress events, take Indian School Road and you can catch a couple of interesting murals that don’t quite qualify as Downtown Phoenix art, geographically. On the northeast corner of 20th Street and Indian School, check out one of the most famous icons of all. Marilyn Monroe graces the Truckmasters building at 2020 E. Indian School Road. The view is actually better if you turn north onto 20th Street and look to your right.
I haven’t found out anything about the artist, signed “Medina ’02.”
Two blocks west, as you keep heading toward Downtown, on 19th Street, just north of Indian School, you will see this elaborate mural.
Good thing there wasn’t much traffic because she didn’t have her eyes on the road.
What’s she doing? Oh, she’s towing her boyfriend, who is lucky enough to be beating the heat.
This trompe l’oeil goes on and on up the street.
It’s all part of this building’s property.
Pretty colorful for a commercial building. We used to see the artist painting this mural, little by little, in the evenings a few years ago but I never found out his name nor do I see it anywhere obvious on the mural. This building, unfortunately, seems to be a casualty of the economy as it appears vacant and has a “For Sale” sign. Hopefully, its next owner will find it as interesting and fanciful as I do and leave it intact.
Part of the journey Downtown is getting there and these interesting murals will add a little color to your trip.
Phoenix Goddess, A Hidden Treasure
Monday, October 11th, 2010After writing about Elmac (El Mac) in a recent blog post, I emailed him through his blog and he wrote back and told me about another of his murals in downtown Phoenix, the Phoenix Goddess. So I went to see her. She is located in back of an old (1927), well-maintained apartment building at 317 W. McDowell Road, overlooking their patio area, that you probably wouldn’t come across by accident. He told me this one was an “oldie, but goodie.” It’s certainly a hidden treasure.
As you can see by his blog, he works nationally and internationally to much acclaim so he is far more than “P-Town’s Graff-Daddy.” Most of his work is not in Phoenix (sadly for us).
One of the coolest things about this mural, I think, is that the skyline in the painting is the actual skyline looking down the alley. Same poles, same palms, sneakers thrown over the lines (maybe not the same pair)…You can click on the photos to see the details better.
I couldn’t shoot down the alley at the same angle because of the brightness of the sun but you get the idea. Pretty cool idea, don’t you think? Elmac’s murals are certainly worth the trip to see in person.
Tags: downtown, downtown phoenix, downtown phx, El Mac, Elmac, Murals, phoenix art
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