A Tourist in My Own Town

There are many murals to see along 4th Avenue

I went on a nice walk around 4th Avenue in the West University area of Tucson. It is a fun and eclectic area with an artsy feel to it. We enjoyed the walk and I took photos of a number of the many murals that we saw. Below is “Joy” outside of Corbett’s on 6th Avenue and 7th Street.

Beginning in 2015, Victor Ving painted murals across the US based on the iconic “Greetings From” postcards. Tucson’s part in the “Greetings Tour” features a postcard-like mural of iconic Tucson scenes. Do you recognize the subjects in each of the letters? The Greetings Tour website tells how this mural was painted on Miller’s Surplus along with describing every item in each of the letters.

Antigone’s Bookstore opened in 1973 on 4th Avenue as a feminist-focused bookstore and has evolved over its 50+ years to be community focused. The mural by Jessica Gonzales is titled “Imagine Navigation Sonoran Sea” and depicts a girl reading a book with the pages coming to life in a dreamlike landscape.

Next to the Antigone Mural in the same parking lot is “The Living Mural” which has a stained glass look. It was created by Jason Lee Nolan.

Across the street is a mural of iconic Rock Stars on the north side of the Hippie Gypsy, a business once described as “Tucson’s most iconic smoke shop and hippie emporium.”

I thought this was an interesting mural but I could not find any information about it. It’s just two mysterious women.

“Campfire” on the Union Apartments is also known as “The Nocturnes”. It is tucked away behind several buildings.

The Epic Cafe is now called Cafe Maggie but still features the same good coffee and pastries. The boy reading a story to his elephant looks like an image that Banksy could have created, but I could not find information on the origin of this work.

“Sonora” is on the east side of the Rogue Theater in the Historic Y building. It was completed in 2018 by Karlito Miller Espinosa with the help of some of his UA students. The figure is reading “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed.”

“Rosa’s Resistance”, by Ignacio Garcia is on the south wall of the Willow Salon on 3rd Avenue. Garcia wrote a poem to describe the piece that begins with:

“In the forge of perseverance, Rosa toils, a symphony of sparks, where metal coils.
Passion ablaze, her craft she adorns, a tapestry of strength, where resilience is born.”

The butterfly mural by Joe Pagac runs almost an entire block on the side of the Goodwill store. It is titled “A gift from Goodwill”.

One small detail depicts the life cycle of a Monarch Butterfly.

Ignacio Garcia created this mural on the side of a building downtown in 2025. Celebrating 100 years of the Tucson Rodeo, it celebrates the Rodeo’s rich cultural diversity. You can watch an interesting video and read a story about the Los Vaqueros mural.

Our walk ended up inside of Corbett’s on 7th Street and 5th Avenue where Linda Ronstadt watches over the wash stations in the hallway next to the bathrooms.

Finally, I thought this was the perfect image to close the series with. Along 6th Street on the side of Reproductions Limited, Danny Martin shares the feelings I had on my mural walk.

4th Avenue is just one more reason why I enjoy living where I live.

There are many resources online to share the locations, maps, and history of the countless and growing number of murals in Tucson. I was inspired to do this walk by a childhood friend, Dorothy Yanez, who leads several different mural walks downtown.