Big Blend Radio

Southwest Artist Ted DeGrazia's Murals, Mosaics, and Originals

On this episode of Big Blend Radio, Lance Laber, Executive Director of the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun, talks about southwest artist Ted DeGrazia's Murals, Mosaics (pictured), and Originals.

DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun is a 10-acre historic landmark nestled in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains in Tucson, Arizona. Opened in 1965, it is home to over 15,000 originals of Ted DeGrazia art pieces including oil paintings, watercolors, ceramics and sculptures. There are six permanent collections on display and several rotating exhibitions each year. More: http://www.degrazia.org/

This Big Blend Radio "Tales of Ted DeGrazia" podcast airs every 4th Sunday. Follow the show here: https://ted-degrazia.podbean.com/

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Duration:: 36m
Broadcast on:: 23 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Welcome to Tales of Ted de Grazia, a big blend radio podcast covering the art, life, and career of Southwest artists Ted de Grazia, as well as the current events and exhibits happening at de Grazia Gallery in the Sun. It's a 10 acre National Historic Landmark located in Tucson, Arizona. Welcome, everybody. You know it is time to go to de Grazia Gallery in the Sun and talk with the Tucson Due to Land's Labor, the Executive Director of de Grazia Gallery in the Sun, and also the foundation that takes care of this amazing gallery and historic landmark in beautiful Tucson, Arizona. What is heating up so one good thing to do is go inside the gallery cool down and look at awesome art from Ted de Grazia and also his wife, Mary and de Grazia. So welcome back lands. How are you? I'm good. Thank you for having me. Hey, so you know a lot of people come to the gallery in the summer right because it's cool. It's like let's go do something during the day, you know, hike in the morning, go to the gallery in midday right that's the thing to do. Well, that's what that's what we hope for. Yeah, yeah. You know, normally we talk about what the exhibits are and today we want to talk about murals. We want to talk about, you know, I know you get calls and emails all the time of I found de Grazia's art. I've got an original and then you have to go through and see if it's true or not. If it's really an original or, you know, a print or, you know, limited edition. And then we keep finding de Grazia, you know, as we travel, especially in the southwestern states, we'll find de Grazia in museums is art in museums or even national park sites. We found it like in Casa Grande. So it's really interesting about that. So how widespread his art, you know, went around, you know, across the country. But before we get to all that, Lance, let's do a quick run through on some of the exhibits that you have two of them. I know are going to be closing in. Was it? Yeah, two of them will be closing in September at the, you know, Labor Day. So this is good to be sure to see this summer. So let's start with the rodeo. So that is the not, you know, that's the Tohono Odom rodeo that he painted, right? Right. Yep. It's a really nice exhibit. There's about, I don't know, maybe 25 paintings. Very colorful. The Tohono Odom do the rodeo every year and he used to go out there and paint it. And so yeah, that'll be up for a few more months. It's really nice, very nice exhibit. Yeah. And then the other one, which I know is extraordinary for people to go and see and really dig into is his Master of Arts thesis paintings. And again, this is on display until September 4th. And this is from when he was at the University of Arizona when he was teaching, right? And this is as part of education. No, this was his Master's thesis. This is what he did to get his Master's degree. Why do you think he was teaching or something? Well, he demonstrated. That's what it is. He was doing demonstrations. Well, the whole thing was, I mean, he created this whole, like, education thing where he created color and sound tests. And he made all this stuff that he presented to students and, you know, gave them these tests and they would do this and he would get all the feedback from it. And yeah, it was just a, it was just a, it's not just like what he did. And there's about, there's about 25 or 30 paintings. We've got about maybe, I don't know, six or seven watercolors up and the rest are oil. They're really, they look abstract until you listen to the music that went along with it. And they're very interesting, very, very cool. Do you have music that people can hear when they're seeing this? No, no, but it's going to be too hard. Yeah. We probably should. But over the years, you know, I've listened to Brahms, you know, the Brahms that he painted and I've listened to most of it. And it's really interesting what he got out of it and how he portrayed it. Pretty neat. Well, I'm excited because, you know, we're going to come by the gallery this July as we cross the desert of Texas to get to you. We're going to be driving from North Carolina to Tucson. So he makes it through the heat. We'll be at the gallery and we're going to come cool off, you know. I know, didn't you guys just have his birthday celebration? His 115 year anniversary. That was yesterday. Cool. Cool. Yesterday, we had cake cake and ice cream all day long for everybody. And yeah, yeah, he would have been 115. Wow. Amazing. Amazing. Okay. So now the newest exhibit is Ted Grazia's textile designs for fuller fabrics. That podcast got a lot of traction last month, like extraordinary amount. And I'm going, what the heck is going on with this? What is it? Are you noticing any kind of interest, extra interest on this exhibit because it seems, I don't mean it's across the board on all outlets. So I'm going something's up with this. It's a really beautiful exhibit. Jim Jenkins, who is our collection manager, and he puts all these shows together. He just did an amazing job with the textiles. I mean, framed stuff. He reached out to people and got people to donate and to loan us skirts. And it's just, he did a bang up job. I got to say, it's probably one of the best exhibits he's ever curated. And people are coming in and going, wow, this is, because not everybody is really aware that Grazia did all these textile designs. And one of the more obscure things that he did, but it was one of the bigger things that he did because, I mean, they literally sold thousands of square yards of these fabrics, these textiles. And skirts were made blouses, dresses, and they just sold tons of this stuff. There's just kind of a neat aspect of his career that not really everybody knows about. So that's something to go and see and see something completely unique and different, which it shows fashion history. I think that's also part of that draw to it. It's something that kind of went away, I think, with industrialization and machine. And now it's coming back in fashion. You know how fashion goes in style, cycles. So I think that's the other fascination is people would wear this. Like now, I would. It's cool. Now, I kind of look at the designs and stuff and wonder if they're a little bit dated. They were done in the 50s. But when you look at them, they're really not. They're very interesting. A lot of them are kind of abstract. But I agree. I think people would actually appreciate that today. Yeah. And you could make curtains and things to embedding. And I think textile design is fascinating. Oh, yeah. No, you could make anything with them. You could make just what you said. You could make curtains. You could make whatever. And he did so many. He did so many different designs. Really a lot of different designs. Sorry, I keep repeating myself. But he did. But he did. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. And he never stopped on things. You know, I think he went down like rabbit holes of interest and like, oh, I've got this idea and I'm going to do it. And then he goes for it. You know, and I'm excited to see this exhibit, particularly in everyone. This one is on display through January, 2000 and 25. So if you're visiting Tucson in the fall in the winter, you've got that opportunity. And if you look there, obviously, like go, you know, there's always something new as well as the permanent exhibitions exhibits. And whenever we go to Tucson and when we live there, we visit the gallery, just to even look at the permanent ones, because there's always something, you know, you can't take an all art, all at once. So it's really cool, like, to just slow down. And every time I go, Lance, it's, I always see something new, even if it's the same. So every time I go, I see something new, and it's been many years. So there's the places filled up with so much stuff that generally I see something different or something I haven't noticed over the years and it's like, oh, wow, forgot about that. That's new. How would, how would I miss that? How much stuff? Cool, cool. So now what, what about, let's talk about murals. That's the one thing we want to talk about is, I think, did he get his, because I know that there's been some around Tucson. I think even in one seat, there was one in Globe, Arizona. But did he start his murals from when he was painting with Jose Orozco and then Diego Rivera did that kind of inspire his mural work. I'm sure it did. I don't really know what started him on that other than being cash poor. I mean, all over Tucson, he was painting, painting walls and murals for people. And, you know, it was, it was a way for him to make a few bucks. Sadly, over the years, a lot of the murals that he painted have been destroyed. There's still a few really good ones left, but, you know, you can basically count them on one hand locally. And there may be a few, like in Globe or, you know, around the state, but not too many. It's very sad that they, you know, painted over them or tore them down, you know. Well, because they do go, they need to be restored. Like, you know, and that's the thing we see as we go to across the country with murals. And I mean, we're creating this huge map of murals across the country because they tell the history of a town of a community of, you know, and then he does. He tells the history of, you know, a lot of times it's, you know, the people, the, you know, the local communities. And when we go across, you see, like, you know, they'll have this amazing mural, but it's completely faded because no one has invested the funds into keeping the color bright. And, you know, because it get, they get weathered from the sun. They get weathered from the rain. Paint has changed over the years. So that's how people end up getting a new one or, you know, I think the one in Globe, didn't that building burned down or something? I don't think there was a fire, you know, yeah, there was a bar or something that you know, there were so many murals and so many different ways they were destroyed. There was a, there was a big mural in Phoenix. That was like the history of, of alcohol. And there was a big painting of a, like a ballerina spinning in a, in a martini glass. And there was a, there was a mural of a couple of hillbillies with their still and they asked us to try to see if there was some way that we could eat these things or restore them. And the bottom line was that they were getting ready to destroy the building and put something else stuck. And that's exactly what they did. We couldn't figure out a way to save this. And, you know, the bulldozer and the, they just knocked the building down. And that was the end of that, you know, the best we could do was take some photographs. Now, what about that one house that didn't, I mean, I think this happened when we were in Tucson for those couple years in Midway of our tour, right? That somebody had a degrazia painting at their house in Tucson. And they found it. And then there's two really well known murals in Tucson that are really, really good and still in great shape. One was down by the U of A, down by the University of Arizona, a professor owned a house over there. And it's a historic neighborhood, a historic district. And it was a huge mural that covered their whole back patio. And it needed some restoration and our conservator who had since passed away. Her name was Charlie Burton. The public broadcasting did a whole thing on her about her restoration of that. And it just came out beautifully. And then there's another one. There's kind of a historic home in Tucson that was owned by Alexander Graham Bell's great nephew. His name is also. Yeah. Yeah. The Bell's home. And it's a big, big, big home that has a big observatory on the up. Anyway, degrazia painted the history of tequila down in their bar, which is kind of downstairs and there's no windows in there. And that mural looks like it was painted yesterday. And it is and it was painted like 1946. But it's just gorgeous. It's just a beautiful thing. And anyway, so that's one or two of the murals that still survive. Wow. That's incredible. Like to think about that, you know, private homes. When you guys come to Tucson, I can call my friend and Jackie Bell, who owns the home. And I can arrange maybe for us to go over there and see the bar. I mean, I want, you know, I want to go to the bar. But that is definitely amazing. Yeah, these people are amazing people. They hosted George Bush. When Bush was president, they hosted him at the house. Wow. They had a big, you know, this big Republican thing. And then several years ago, she called me up and said, Lance, we're having a, you know, like a Republican fundraiser, which, you know, obviously I'm not. But she invited me to go. And I shouldn't have said that. And Sandra Day O'Connor. I got to meet Sandra Day O'Connor. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, she was not sure. Maybe she had already retired, I think, from the Supreme Court. But, yeah, she was very amazing, very sweet. She knew to Grozian and was really excited to talk to me about this. And it's like, this woman actually wants to talk to me. But, yeah, so, you know, they've opened up that house for people to see the mural. They don't keep it to themselves. Anyway, it's, no, that's amazing. Sandra Day O'Connor, I mean, and talk about what she's done for women. She's, she's an icon in women's history, you know, and for so many reasons. And we met her, her brother, Alan, he's been on our show a number of times. We went to his house a few years back. Yeah. Well, he's a, he's an amazing author. And he's done a lot for wild horses. And, you know, and of course they talk about their ranch. Lazy, I think it's lazy. Oh, it's a lazy something. Lazy Day. Lazy Day. Yeah, Lazy Day Ranch. So, yeah. And it's, it's a, he wrote a memoir that kind of connected, you know, his growing up and Sandra's growing up out on the ranch. So, it's cool history. I mean, yeah, I want to go. Yes. Yes, please. Let's, let's do that. Yeah. No, I'll, well, you give me a couple of weeks heads up when you guys are heading to town. Yeah. Everybody stay tuned. Stay tuned. If anything, we're definitely going to do like a, you know, we're going to visit the gallery and do a recording at the gallery for the next episode. And we'll see what we can do on that. So everyone, cross your fingers. We can do this because then we can get some good photos and stuff too. So that'd be fantastic. But his murals, I mean, the one, it's, it's a mosaic that you have on, on, at the gallery itself. Yeah. Can you tell us about that one? Because I mean, it's, I know it's not technically a mural, is it? If it's a mosaic? Yeah. It's a giant, it's a giant mural. It's a three and a half ton standalone mural of that is actually made up Italian glass. It's huge. And the history of this thing was early in the, in the mid sixties or the early sixties, there was a medical plaza on the east side of Tucson that commissioned him to do this mural. And the theme was a called the desert medicine man and the garage had painted an oil painting called the desert medicine man. And so they, they took this image and they turned it into this giant mural. And it was there for many, many years, but over the years, the heat in Tucson, the sun managed to bake it. And most of the tiles had fallen out of it. And they, the medical plaza had changed hands. They had sold it and they called us up and asked us if we wanted the piece. And Mrs. DeGrazi at the time said, Oh, absolutely. We want to, if you wanted to block out one of the roads, you know, by the gallery. So they, we paid to have it delivered to us. I spent a month or two finding tiles for it. And myself and another guy, a tile center. We spent all summer, the most miserable summer of our lives. Out in the sun, gluing tiles back on. Took a couple months to restore it. And then we put it out there. And that's where it is. It blocks out Swan Road and. It's a giant, beautiful desert medicine man. And I love that. Every time we go there, I go there and see it just every time. I love it because it's, it's really unique, you know, especially with this tile, you know, that that's there. And the other thing that, you know, if people want to see murals, because this is what's so fascinating. But what we're talking about is, you know, DeGrazi is, you know, likely the most reproduced artist in the world, right? But then murals are an original, just like, you know, the original paintings you have, you know, the permanent ones and what you show at the gallery. So that's really exciting to be able to see that. But the murals are part of that. And one of the murals, you know, some of the murals, if you want to see that is also inside the mission at the gallery. That would be a way. So people looked after the fire. Right. But you had, you had that one lady restore work on the restoration and it looks like you guys have done a good job. Well, you know, I mean, we didn't, we didn't replace any of the murals that were burned up. We just kind of painted around them and to make it look a little better. They had, they had to reclass to the inside of that. It was all gray. It looked terrible. So I got this artist, her name is Ginny Moss. That's right. She's awesome. Yeah, Ginny. And she came in and she fixed it. And so, you know, the murals that are left are original. They're left. And that's it. That's the way it's going to be. That's a good point because it's interesting in historic sites, right? Like even the, you know, the mission, like to McCacry, right? They have to work on the Adobe. Like, I'm sure you guys at the gallery always deal with UK. Here comes the monsoon season of God, you know, safety, you know, you got to keep an eye on it. You have to keep an eye on all that kind of stuff. But at the same time, like, you know, a lot of the forts we've been to, there's keeping it up. But if you, if you mess with the fort and rebuild the fort, then it's not you've lost the historic integrity. It's kind of this weird thing about history of you don't want to, you can't repaint DeGrazia. You know what I mean? He had repar-, you know, your production's done. But it, like when you're keeping the integrity of the history of even what happened with a fire, right? So that's even part of the story of DeGrazia is what happened with it. And that mission is still just, it's an icon. That is a Tucson icon, for sure. You know, when people go to Tucson, if he was alive, he would have retained it. Oh, yeah. Because he's, because he's not, and you know, we want to, we want it to be authentic. You know, I didn't want to have anybody repaint, you know, and have it be a fake. Yeah, exactly. You have somebody else do it. Yeah. That's integrity, you know, to his art. And, you know, what happened is part of that, the narrative, the story of DeGrazia, it's part, it's all part of it. You know, even, you know, the fire was, you know, devastating. However, you guys, you know, restored that mission as best you could. And it looks great when you go in, it's still an icon. And I always say to people, when they go to Tucson and go to the gallery, go to the mission, you know, also, you know, go to places like Tumacakari and San Xavier Delbock. Did I say that correctly? Because I always mess it up, San Xavier. I'm not saying, I can't, I say, "Sawara" right now, but not. So, what was I saying before? "Sawara," I can't, I can't pronounce anything. "Sawara," you're the one who taught us how to say it properly on the first podcast you came on years ago. You're fine. Hey, you know, if you don't live there, you don't know. If you don't visit, you don't know really, you know. Well, when you get here, you'll be saying it right. Exactly, exactly. But I always say, go to see the mission at DeGrazi. Go to the missions because they're so incredibly different. You know, they're different, yet they obviously share similarities, but it's just, it's all different. But there's like, because so many people, you know, the altar, they leave offerings and pray there for sick loved ones and, you know, and those are past. So, it's a very deep, as a personal spiritual space. You know, there's weddings and everything, but there's this other altar in Tucson. More in the Barrio district that people go to. Have you seen that? I need to go look that up again because it's super cool. Like the, like the wishing shrine? I think that's what it is. That's it. That's it. Yeah, yeah. That's pretty cool too. I mean, if you were into that kind of thing, check it out when you go to Tucson and go to the Barrio district and all of that. You know, Tucson is such a growing city. It's vibrant. The amount of murals that people can experience in Tucson and the art is incredible, including the food. I mean, you guys are UNESCO World Heritage site for food. I mean, you know what? That's I just saw that the other day that Tucson and San Antonio are the only two cities in the United States that are UNESCO food sites. And Tucson was first. Tucson was the first. Astronomy there. That's the word. Yeah. Astronomy. And I think honestly, when you look at that, that's incredible. And the food is the food in Tucson is so diverse. I mean, it's and delicious and. Mm. I'm hungry just thinking about it because yeah, you got. Yeah, there you guys have like real Mexican food. You know, you can go all over from Mexican food in this country, but certain places don't. It's just sad that it's sad that the pandemic really knocked out some of the best Mexican restaurants and some of the best restaurants in Tucson. And it's amazing that we're still considered a good place to eat because we did lose some really, really good restaurants. I've heard a few are opening back up. I think, and I don't want to say the name in case I'm wrong. So I think a few are like, okay, we can do it again, you know. And maybe it's just changed too, but you also have a good food truck scene. That's another thing. Food truck food, you know. Yeah, they do food trucks. They do Sonoran hot dogs. You know, the cuisine in Tucson is very interesting and very diverse. Mm. It's true. Now, when you had cake and ice cream for de Brozio's birthday, did you do trislet cheesecake? Did you do that or no? No, they were Costco. Well, I'm just saying for next year, Costco ice cream. Hey, you know what? I'm not going to knock it in Costco does good pizza and hot dogs too. Yeah, it was good. And there was a lot of, you know, there was a lot of people that showed up. Yeah, they wanted their free cake and ice cream too. Oh, I want, I want cake and ice cream. I don't care. I'm like, I'm a sucker for that. You know, going back to the murals in the mosaic and the original part of it. Now, you have a consignment section of the gallery. You've got the shop. Oh, my gosh, you guys, you know, the shop is dangerous. There's books. There's things for your home, kitchen and gifts. And there's a, I mean, music, DeGrazi is music is CD and everything there. Please remember me. And there's so much in that shop. So if you like to shop, you should go to DeGrazi's because it's not anything you'll find on, you know, these big commercial websites. You know what I mean. If you want something unique to the Southwest, that's where you should go. And go to the gallery or go online to DeGrazi.org. Sorry, let me be commercial here. It's true. If you want something really Southwestern, this is the real deal. But then the consignment shop. So I know he has limited edition prints and things like that. But is that mostly originals, whether it's painting or sculpture. Tell us a little bit about that. The consignment room is all originals. That's the only way that we can get away with selling original artwork is through the secondary market. We have rules about selling out of our collection and the rule is we don't. So, yeah, well, there's so many paintings that DeGrazi did. It would be a glut. I mean, he gludded the market with so much artwork when he was alive. And it would probably be a disaster if we opened up this vault and started selling a lot of art out of there. It would just glut the market even more. So, you know, I just, I take in consignment art or I buy art on the secondary market for sale and it works out very well. Yeah. So when you get these calls, because I know you get those calls and emails every day, right? Someone's like, I found a DeGrazia in my grandmother's collection or something in the attic. Yeah. Mostly the Southwest or do you get calls from like New York? Because I know you spent time in New York City. I mean, I get calls from everywhere. Really? I get calls from, yeah. I get calls from Minnesota. I get calls from New York. I get calls from Florida. I get calls from Arizona. I get calls from New Mexico, California, everywhere. Wow. Is that because he, he, did he travel all the, like the country or is it mostly because people vacationed in Tucson and saw his art in person? All the snowbirds, all the snowbirds that came to Tucson and visited DeGrazia, you know, a hundred, a hundred and fifty thousand people a year were buying stuff and taking it to every corner of the country. Wow. So this is, you know, people spend a lot of years buying, buying his stuff and, you know, now they're all getting old and they all think that we need to buy it back. That's wild. So it's a consignment. So it benefits everyone that way. That's pretty cool though. But it's, it's amazing how prolific he, he was in his art and how much he just, he did so. Much. He just, he did so much. You know, it's incredible. It's incredible. And thinking that he would have been a hundred and fifteen years old this month, you know. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yesterday. Yeah. That's why. That's why. How old was he when he died? 73. 73. That's, that's a little young, just saying. But back in those days, but we were changing. I mean, we're humans are changing. We're living longer, you know. You know what, he would have lived a lot longer. He just didn't like doctors and he got cancer and didn't take care of it when he could have. And by the time he did take care of it, it was too late. So that's very sad. 73 years old as I'm approaching that, not too far off. Doesn't seem all that old. Hey, you're going to see me in the last time before I turned 50. So, you know, right before. And then when we come back in November, December, you'll see me like that, that it will be changed. I will officially be over the hill. You know, it happens. Yes. Okay. It does. It does. It does. It happens. I'm way past that. So, let me tell me it's going to be all right, Lance. Tell me it's going to be all right. It's going to be fine. It's going to be fine. I need someone to tell me that it's going to be all right. It's going to be fine. Nancy's in the background going just, you know, shut up all of you. It's going to be fine. Because now it's good. I think we're going to be fine because we're always pickled. Just kidding. Just kidding. But, you know, everyone to Grazia gallery in the sun, again, amazing destination. Even in the summer, yes, go cool down, go walk through the gallery. It's an amazing piece of architecture as well. So, there's architecture. There's the art. Beautiful courtyard garden with fountains, with the Diaki deer dancer, and cactus and bloom. So, go check it out and also go to DiGrazia.org. Thanks so much, Lance. It's always fun and we can't wait to see you in person again. Okay. Thanks, Lisa. We'll talk to you soon when you get here. All righty. Thank you for listening to Big Blend Radio's Tales of Ted DiGrazia show. The show airs every fourth Sunday. Learn more about DiGrazia gallery in the sun at DiGrazia.org. Follow the show at bigblendradio.com. (gentle music)