09/03/13 11:00am

THE LAST REMAINING PIECE OF THE PRUDENTIAL TOWER It made it: The 1952 Peter Hurd mural, formerly of the wall of the demolished Kenneth Franzheim-designed Prudential Tower in the Med Center, has completed its 2-year stop-and-go journey from 1100 Holcome Blvd., to a storage space in Midland, to the brand-new Artesia Public Library in northern southeastern New Mexico. The largest ever to be transported, the 16-ft.-by-46-ft. mural, titled “The Future Belongs To Those Who Prepare For It,” underwent a successful 20-hour installation last week, reports Swamplot commenter Artesia_NM Resident. And Albuquerque’s KOB Eyewitness News reports that the big unveiling of the big thing is planned for November 9. [KOB; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia

04/17/13 10:00am

Regretting what he calls “too much shitty visual culture” in Montrose, artist Cody Ledvina has spent the past few months approaching businesses with ideas for murals as a way of changing that culture, wall by wall. (You might remember Ledvina’s redone Mary’s mural before the leather bar was closed to make way for Blacksmith.) The most recent mural is this elongated weiner dog stretching out on the side of EJ’s Bar at 2517 Ralph St. The photo’s taken from Kueter St. beside Buffalo Exchange and that fenced-in vacant lot on Westheimer near Dunlavy. Also shown here is part of a mural — that’s a skyline silhouette, there — on the side of Urban Leasing & Realty’s building at 1901 Vermont St.

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03/04/13 3:00pm

THE BEST REPAINTING JOB IN THE CITY Iterative Obama muralist Reginald Adams relays his account of the 3 separate murals he designed for the West Alabama St. wall of a Travis St. building for Breakfast Klub owner Marcus Davis — and his responses to the 4 separate paint adjustments made to it by successive vandals: “It triggers some things I was raised around — if someone knocks you down you get back up. Now other people are invested so I feel obligated not to let someone’s ignorance deter my work. I’ve got a lot of paint and a lot of life ahead of me and I think I can outlast the vandal. As crazy as this has all been it hasn’t hurt my brand as an artist. I’ve gotten more PR out of this work than from 150 projects I’ve done. If the vandal wants to keep playing, I’m in it until the end. . . . the vandalism is creating new opportunities for me to think about the imagery, to engage the public in new ways, create new conversations, and to meet new amazing people. The GE corporation wants me for a new mural because they saw the Obama story. The vandal is not thinking it — but he’s enriching my art career.” [Glasstire; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia

01/28/13 3:00pm

Facing W. Alabama, Reginald Adams’s 2012 mural of President Obama was recently given a few extra splashes of color. Of course, this isn’t the first time the mural on the side of the former campaign headquarters at 3710 Travis has been the subject of political back-and-forth. Candace Garcia’s photos show the changes over the years, starting with a replica of Shepard Fairey’s Hope poster in 2008:

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