
TUCSON, Arizona -- A new mural at Miller’s Surplus, 406 N. Sixth Ave., says "Greetings from Tucson," with a local postcard perfect flair “wishing you were here”. Our community will long appreciate your beautiful gift. Thank you!
The work of Victor Ving and Lisa Beggs, who travel the country in a RV to paint and photograph murals specific to the cities they visit. The Greetings Tour has painted postcard murals in 22 cities, from New York to California, and now Tucson. The Tucson mural was mostly funded by Ving, Beggs, and private donations.
Ving does the painting, this mural taking seven days to complete, and Beggs photographs each mural and turns the photos into postcards.
The traveling artists had previously passed through Tucson, and knew the city would be a perfect fit for their next ‘Greetings’ mural.
“We tried several small businesses to get a wall to paint, and finally returned to Miller’s Surplus where we had dropped off our information months in advance,” they posted on their 'Greeting from Tucson' website. “After speaking with the owner, George, we were thrilled to hear him say yes! We got to work and quickly realized how friendly the people of Tucson really are.”
The word Tucson contains different landmarks for each letter:
The letter T contains "A" Mountain;
U has a saguaro;
C depicts Dia de Los Muertos;
S is Hotel Congress and John Dillinger;
O is San Xavier del Bac; and
N is a Sonoran hot dog.
Ving said he worked with Tucson artist Rock ‘Cyfi’ Martinez, who painted the C, to complete the piece. Rock showed them around the neighborhood.
Visit the #GreetingfromTucson tour here https://www.greetingstour.com/murals/tucson-az/ to see the mural progress over seven days work, inspiration for the mural.
KVOA News Video: https://bit.ly/2lPlMap