Brushstrokes and New Beginnings: Inside Tucson Gallery’s Grand Reopening

✅ Tucson Gallery Grand Reopening
Explore the exciting expansion of the Tucson Gallery in its new location at 245 E Congress St—now bigger, bolder, and better equipped to showcase Tucson’s vibrant art scene.

🎨 Spotlight on Jessica Gonzales
Revisit our intimate conversation with one of Tucson’s most beloved muralists. Jessica opens up about her journey, inspirations, and her evolving relationship with public and personal art.

🖼️ Featured Works Inside the Gallery
Get the stories behind Jessica’s original pieces showcased in the new gallery space, including:

• “Nesting Instinct” – a fusion of mural style and studio reflection

• “Dysregulation” – a raw exploration of control and chaos

• “The Loft Mural” – a dream-inspired celebration of cinematic emotion

🌆 Tucson Together and Beyond
Hear the powerful backstory of Jessica’s “Tucson Together” mural—created during the height of the pandemic—and how her art continues to serve as a voice for unity, identity, and resilience.

🎭 From Tucson to Netflix
Learn how a Rialto Theater mural turned into a Netflix collaboration with comedian Cristela Alonzo, highlighting how Tucson art is making national waves.

🛠️ Art as Expression and Empowerment
Jessica discusses how art helped her overcome extreme shyness and offers heartfelt advice to emerging artists on staying true to their voice while stepping into the public eye.

🚀 What’s Next for Jessica
A sneak peek at upcoming murals, future road trips, and how Jessica plans to take her Tucson-rooted style to new cities.

The heartbeat of Tucson’s creative community just got a little louder.

In this episode of Life Along the Streetcar, we celebrate the grand reopening of the Tucson Gallery, now located in a spacious and stunning new venue at 245 E Congress St, Suite 101, right next to the Ronstadt Transit Center in the heart of downtown Tucson.

This expansion marks a new beginning for local art in Tucson. To honor the occasion, we’re revisiting a fan-favorite interview with one of the city’s most celebrated muralists, Jessica Gonzales, a longtime contributor to Tucson’s visual identity and one of the gallery’s featured artists.

🖌️ The Gallery Reimagined

The new Tucson Gallery space is a hub for connection, creativity, and community. With expanded room to showcase original works, limited-edition prints, and art-inspired merchandise, this space allows Tucson artists to shine even brighter.

The gallery’s mission?
To bring Tucson’s talent to the forefront, give artists a platform to thrive, and invite the public to engage with the people and stories behind the art.

🎤 Featured Guest: Jessica Gonzales

In this episode, we hear from Jessica Gonzales, whose murals have become iconic fixtures across the city. From the “Tucson Together” mural created during the early days of the pandemic, to her ever-changing show walls at the Rialto Theater, and even her Netflix stage collaboration with comedian Cristela Alonzo.

Jessica opens up about:

• Her journey from introverted kid to award-winning muralist

• How art helped her find her voice and connect with others

• The tension between public mural work and personal studio creations

• The deeply personal stories behind her pieces “Nesting Instinct”, “Dysregulation”, and “The Loft Mural”—all featured in the new gallery

Through her words, we get a glimpse into what it means to be a working artist in Tucson, how public art transforms communities, and why this new chapter for the gallery is so meaningful.

📍 Visit the Gallery

Be part of this exciting new beginning! The Tucson Gallery invites locals and visitors alike to experience art up close, meet the artists, and take home a piece of Tucson’s soul.

🗓️ Grand Reopening Event: Friday, October 3rd
📍 Location: 245 E Congress St, Suite 101, Tucson, AZ
🎨 Featuring original works, prints, and more from Jessica Gonzales and other local favorites

🎧 Tune In & Connect

Whether you’re an art lover, a supporter of local culture, or simply curious about the people shaping Tucson’s downtown energy, this episode is for you.

👉 Listen now on SoundCloud: Click here
👍 Follow us on Facebook: Life Along the Streetcar
📸 Explore the gallery and meet the artists on Instagram: @LifeAlongTheStreetcar

Let the brushstrokes guide you, and discover the stories behind the walls of Tucson.

Tom Heath
Good morning. It’s a beautiful Sunday in the blue. And you’re listening to Katy. Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your lunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson community. Sponsored, all volunteer powered rock and roll radio station. And this week, sure, we’re going to honor the grand reopening of the Tucson Gallery later this week by revisiting an interview we did there with the fabulous muralist Jessica Gonzalez.

Tom Heath
Today is September 28th, 2025. My name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to Life Along the Street car. Every Sunday we shine a light on social, cultural and economic forces shaping Tucson’s urban core. From a mountain to the University of Arizona and all stops in between. You get the inside track right here on 99.1 FM streaming on downtown radio.org.

Tom Heath
Also available on your phone if you get our downtown radio Tucson app, you can do that in a Google or, Apple or Apple stores. If you want to connect with us directly on the show, you can go to life along the street car talk. You’ll find most of our episodes audio, and a lot of times video information about our book.

Tom Heath
Past episodes and, things you can, ways you can reach out to us. You can also follow us on social media. It’s life along the street, cars, the handles on Facebook and Instagram. Well, today we got a great interview. It’s going all the way back to 2023. It’s with Jessica Gonzalez, a prolific, talented muralist here in Tucson.

Tom Heath
Wanted to celebrate that, on a Friday, October 3rd, just coming up here in a few days, the Tucson gallery is reopening, and it’s a much larger space. So we, the new space at 245 East Congress. It’s suite 101 all the way down the block there, right next to the Ronstadt Center at Arizona Avenue. And the, just all kinds of festivities planned for that and wanted to celebrate in some way.

Tom Heath
Kind of busy to get the, I was at two business partners on that that are, traveling. Couldn’t get them on to, to hype the, the opening and talk about their excitement. So I wanted to reach out to someone that I thought was fabulous and get this interview that we did with Jessica inside of the gallery.

Tom Heath
A little noise in the background, and everything was part of a process. We called Meet the Artist and again, recorded in 2023. They we are joined by the one, the only, the fabulous. And you must be exhausted. Jessica Gonzalez.

Jessica Gonzales
Hi.

Tom Heath
So, yes, to the exhaustion.

Jessica Gonzales
Yes. Absolutely.

Tom Heath
Every time we try to schedule, she’s like, absolutely. Oh, wait. No, I’ve got 74 things that make you push it. Push it back. You are crazy busy right now. How have you been? Crazy busy for a while.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah, I have it. It kind of feels like I’m waiting for, you know, some break in it, and it’s like I have to plan a vacation for that to happen, because it’s. Yeah, it keeps going.

Tom Heath
I think your last vacation was you got married or something.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah. Honeymoon? Yeah.

Tom Heath
Like, you know, I’ll get married so I can just really get a break from the business.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah, right.

Tom Heath
So what? What are you up to lately?

Jessica Gonzales
Right now I’m working on, collaboration. A collaboration with Ralph Martinez, and we’re painting, along the Rito River. A long mural there. Okay.

Tom Heath
Where abouts?

Jessica Gonzales
It’s at the end of Country Club, where the Tucson Racket club is nice. Okay. And it’s just right across the bridge and along the retaining walls there.

Tom Heath
Yeah. Heavily traveled area. So it’ll be, Well, well seen, I’m sure. Yeah. And you’ve, you’ve are you mostly into murals at this point and you’ve done some bridges which we’ll talk about, but is mostly your life consumed with these huge projects?

Jessica Gonzales
Yes, it is, and I hope to to kind of balance that out in the future and, and do more stuff in my studio. But right now, murals keep me busy around the clock.

Tom Heath
So and has is late painting. Is that always been your your medium or do you do anything else I sculpture or.

Jessica Gonzales
I mean I played around with it in college, I enjoy it, but yeah, painting is is definitely my favorite.

Tom Heath
So let’s kind of go back to the beginning then. When did you get started in art? When did you know this was like a passion for you?

Jessica Gonzales
I’ve been lucky enough to always know, you know, I it’s it’s something I loved as a kid. And, I mean, a lot of kids do, but I think my parents, especially my mom, who’s also an artist, she saw a little bit of extra, you know, she saw something special in what I was doing. So she always supported me continuing to do art.

Jessica Gonzales
So it’s like I always knew I was going to do art. I didn’t know in what capacity, but there was never a question about what direction my life was going to take. So I’ve always felt really fortunate for that reason.

Tom Heath
When you went to school, then it was that a focus like when you go to college, was that a something you were intent about doing?

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah, definitely.

Tom Heath
Okay. And then how did you get into the mural side of things that.

Jessica Gonzales
I mean, I was always kind of interested in them. I mean, I watched people creating murals around town and was curious about them. But I, I kind of was just thrown into it because I applied for the City of Tucson Mural Arts program in 2016, and I really I didn’t think I’d get it at all. I had no experience painting murals, but I had a, you know, experience painting large canvases.

Jessica Gonzales
So that’s the closest thing to a mural. And I was just really, like, fortunate enough to be selected, and I just, I’m in, like, was thrown into it.

Tom Heath
So in 2016, like, seven years ago is about when you started doing murals. And then I’m seeing all of these murals. All I mean that is a lot of work in seven years.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah. And I didn’t start doing it full time till 2019. Oh my goodness. So you.

Tom Heath
Really don’t have any.

Jessica Gonzales
Time. Yeah I was.

Tom Heath
You’re not just on the east side of you’re actually busy.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah yeah yeah I it keeps me very very busy. And it’s, you know, it’s a, it’s a kind of a trendy thing right now. So there’s, you know, being a mural artist it’s a good time to be doing it. There’s a lot of people that have been doing it forever, but right now it’s kind of a sweet spot, so.

Tom Heath
Well, and and you’re doing something right. I think it was it was a 2022. Your name, the, the outdoor artist of the year. What was the award? You won the.

Jessica Gonzales
Best visual.

Tom Heath
Artist. Visual artist? Yeah. Okay.

Jessica Gonzales
Actually, and it’s been a couple of years. Oh, so not to brag. I’m just saying.

Tom Heath
I’m 21 and 22, and, I mean, it’s. You get that type of award with the type of competition that we have in Tucson that’s that’s phenomenal. And I don’t know if people fully understand, like some of the work they see, they might not even know, like when they go by like the Rialto Theater and they see the marquee.

Tom Heath
You do a lot of those, right? I know marquee.

Jessica Gonzales
But there’s the show murals. Yeah I do, I do them every month.

Tom Heath
And want anyone to.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah, I, I, I repainted the marquee for one. I do one recently and then we do change out the shows. Yeah. Okay. That’s just words spell.

Tom Heath
That’s just words. But I just think it’s interesting because you, you know, you have these big projects and then if you want to get a glimpse of a Jessica Gonzalez, that’s really temporary. You got to go to the Rialto Theater, take a picture of that wall. Because in a in a month or so, it’s going to change. Yep.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah. It’s a really different way to approach mural painting. You know, it’s very like I have to design it, keeping in mind that it’s going to be, you know, changing really soon. And it has to be painted really fast, but it has to pop and it has to bring people in. So it’s it’s a very like it’s a little bit more of a graphic art, kind of commercial art sort of.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah.

Tom Heath
I’m trying to figure out at some point that building just has to grow, because there’s got to be so much paint on that wall.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah, I have actually cut a slice from it. And there it’s like it’s. So Joe Padgett started that right. And then Danny Martin did it for a while. And now I’m doing it. And you can literally see the layers of the different eras of muralists working there. It’s pretty.

Tom Heath
Cool. That’s fantastic.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah it’s it’s really cool.

Tom Heath
Yeah. That’s that wall is going to be worth something one day. They, if they ever, decide to to shave off all of that. Yeah. Let’s see if they can salvage it in some way.

Jessica Gonzales
Right. I think that somebody should make something out of it. I don’t know what. Sculpture, jewelry, something, you know.

Tom Heath
And you’re not originally from Tucson. You you moved here about what time?

Jessica Gonzales
When I was 12. And so 19. Never mind. Turn right.

Tom Heath
Yeah. You’re looking for the specifics when you were 12. And where did you come from?

Jessica Gonzales
I was born in Oklahoma. Oklahoma City lived there till I was six, and then my family and I moved to Germany and lived there until I was 12. And then came here.

Tom Heath
So therefore it when, when the most recent, Visual artist award was announced, I remember seeing on Facebook. And if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. But you were very open and candid about how art helped you through some troubling times as a as a youngster. Do you mind kind of talking about that?

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah, sure. Yeah. I was just really, really introverted and had a hard time, kind of like in the social aspect of being in school. So I did a lot of art and that started a lot of conversations with my peers. And so I was able to connect with people in some way or at least, you know, like start dialogs with other, you know, students.

Jessica Gonzales
And that kind of really helps make up for the fact that I couldn’t talk because I was painfully shy.

Tom Heath
Like yourself. You talk through your images in your in your art.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah, exactly.

Tom Heath
Okay. You have anyone that sees your work. I mean, it’s a distinctive style. It’s very vibrant. There are I mean, it’s just it’s just pops. Everything is just. It’s just like this explosion of colors. Is it always been that way, or did you have, like, a dark period or. It’s just black and white?

Jessica Gonzales
Well, I did a lot of drawing when I was younger, so, you know, just gray. But I know I’ve always loved color. I’ve always been really drawn to color and lots of it. And I’ve definitely experimented with other stuff, and I actually really enjoy a limited palette, and I’m leaning more towards that now. And life and a little bit more toned down.

Jessica Gonzales
But, yeah, color is like my best friend, you know?

Tom Heath
And then your murals also have a sense of history and culture that they all seem to weave that in somehow. So I know obviously it’s intentional, but it does that come from from someplace special?

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah. I mean, I think it has a lot to do with well, first of all, public art, you know, that it feels like it belongs in the space that it’s in and that it enhances the space and also features the elements, you know, the people in the culture surrounding it. But, you know, I’m on this, like long list or lifelong.

Jessica Gonzales
I’m on this lifelong journey to discover my own identity culturally and just as a person, as an artist. So I’m always kind of thinking about those things and exploring those ideas. And a lot of it ends up in my art.

Tom Heath
Okay. Well, it’s it’s amazing to me the, the amount of, of, symbolism and ideas that can come across in an image. And I think you capture really well. And I’m not alone. You have a lot of fans here in Tucson, a lot of fans.

Jessica Gonzales
Thanks.

Tom Heath
Yeah. People come in and they they love your stickers. And people from out of town, they, they grab, they’ll grab like a bunch of your stickers of your murals and they’re like, oh, you know, Jessica Gonzalez like, no, no, they just they just love that. And they, you know, they don’t even realize necessarily that they’re all from the same artist.

Tom Heath
So you have something that really captures people’s, attentions and imaginations.

Jessica Gonzales
Awesome.

Tom Heath
Whether they know it’s you or not. Yeah. Or whether, I mean, you know, it’s a two year running visual artist award or. No.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah, yeah.

Tom Heath
And tell me about this Tucson Together murals right across the street from the gallery. This came at a very troubling time in Tucson. Yeah. What what what would you tell them? Tell us about that.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah, yeah. So, I was approached about the concept. So it was early 20, 20 and when everything was crazy and, the idea behind it was to. For every letter is, every letter of the word together is pulled from a sign of an iconic kind of Tucson business. And the idea was to just kind of unify Tucson, you know, bring something, a message of hope and togetherness, you know, and I painted it in April 2020 with a mask on, you know, a barricade.

Jessica Gonzales
So nobody would get close to me. And, and it was really quiet downtown. It’s quite an experience to us. It was kind of strange, but, Yeah, that’s how that came to be. It was just kind of like to to sort of uplift people.

Tom Heath
And it was anonymous for a brief period, like your name wasn’t on that mural of people like, who did that.

Jessica Gonzales
Was it? It must have been because I.

Tom Heath
You weren’t quite done. It wasn’t quite done yet. It looked on to the rest of us. Yeah. I remember seeing some posts on Facebook like who did this?

Jessica Gonzales
And like.

Tom Heath
I know because I saw her painting it from over six feet away.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah.

Tom Heath
And I the, the G is from Hotel Congress and, and I’m embarrassed to say that I got all of them. I’m like where’s that g from? I couldn’t figure out the g of the G and some of the like points at the Hotel Congress. I’m like, it’s like, right.

Jessica Gonzales
Right there, right there. That oh, that’s what’s so funny about that one too, is it? It’s interactive in that way. You know.

Tom Heath
We’re speaking with Jessica Gonzalez. It’s actually an interview we did as part of a meet the artist. It’s a series, hosted by the Tucson Gallery. This was back in 2023. We are celebrating the reopening of the Tucson Gallery in their new large space at 245 East Congress Street. Suite 101, right next to the Ronstadt Center. And, on Congress near Arizona Avenue.

Tom Heath
We’ll be back to finish up the second half of that interview with Jessica Gonzalez in just a moment. But I want to remind you that you’re listening to Lifelong Street Car Downtown Radio at 9.1 FM, streaming on Downtown radio.org.

James Portis
This podcast is sponsored by Tom Heath and the Heath team. Another home loans. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, continue listening or head over to life on the Street Goal.com for current events and information on what to do while visiting Tucson. Tom Heath and MLS number 182420 Nova and MLS number 3087, UK number 0902429. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Tom Heath
If you’re just joining us, we’re replaying an interview that we did with Jessica Gonzalez back in 2023, was part of the Tucson Gallery’s Meet the Artist series. And since the gallery is reopening, in a much larger space on Friday, October 3rd, we wanted to celebrate. And I thought this was a great way to, to do that with an interview recorded in the original Tucson Gallery location.

Tom Heath
So we’re going to finish that up here with Jessica Gonzalez, and your stuff is popping up everywhere. I’m not sure if people are fully aware that you have, a comedian on Netflix that you were designed to stage for.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah, yeah, that was an amazing project. I yeah. So the comedian is Cristela Alonzo. She played at the Rialto Theater. She had a show in 2019 when I was painting show murals, and I did one for her, and she, she she liked the mural that I did and kind of, like, followed me. And, you know, we sort of talked a little bit about doing something together in the future, but there was no, like, clear direction for what that was going to be.

Jessica Gonzales
And then she decided to film her Netflix, her second Netflix stand up special. And, and she was apparently talking with her producer about how to make that back, like, the stage in the background. Interesting. And she thought of me and, you know, having me come in and paint a mural. So it so she reached out. It was like surreal and super fun.

Tom Heath
And I it might be just too much Jessica Gonzalez news, but I completely missed that. And, and, you know, my business partners, the ones that have helped open the Tucson gallery, they were watching just Tony Ray Baker and Aaron Jones. They were watching, Netflix. And they got irate because this comedian was using your art like, they they think they it’s like someone is just copying her style.

Tom Heath
And they were just so upset. And then they see the credits that they’re in, like.

Jessica Gonzales
Oh.

Tom Heath
It is Jessica.

Jessica Gonzales
Oh, good. We don’t have to raise a ruckus.

Tom Heath
No ruckus. Raise it here. It was, it was it just another one of those examples where you don’t always expect to see, it’s just nice to see Tucson being represented and respected in the way that it is. Yeah. Are you are you doing heroes in other cities, or is Tucson really all you can do at the moment?

Jessica Gonzales
I have done a few in Albuquerque because my dad owns a vacation rental and I paint them for him in his, in his rental, which is fun. I have done some just outside of Tucson. So then Sarita and then I have done one in Bisbee. But that is it. Right now, however we’re planning, my husband and I are planning a road trip this summer, and we’re hoping to paint some murals along the way.

Tom Heath
So breaking news here, folks. You’re hearing it first on the Meet the Artist podcast brought to me by the Tucson Gallery.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah. So if you’re in little Rock or, Memphis.

Tom Heath
But listen up, little Rock and Memphis, you’ve got something special coming your way or just good job in disaster zone. You want to hang out and watch her? Watch her paint. Yeah. And when when you when you’re in your studio, are you by yourself or do you have people around you? Do you have noise? You quiet. What’s your environment.

Jessica Gonzales
Like? Nobody around me, for sure. If I can avoid it. Music usually. Or podcasts. That’s what I, you know, I like to get in a zone, have some little bit of, you know, lavender oil going and, you know, just peace and quiet for the most part, which is the opposite of painting publicly.

Tom Heath
So I was going to say that’s the the I can see why you want to get back in the studio a little bit more. It’s therapy.

Jessica Gonzales
It keeps me grounded. You know.

Tom Heath
Well, the, the, the excitement people have when they come in, it’s it’s one of the reasons we open the Tucson gallery, right? Having a place where Jessica Gonzalez can display her artwork and get merchandise and other things with those murals on the public loves it. And and it’s heartwarming to see that, that kind of gratification. But it was also heartwarming when you created a couple of pieces for the gallery and you posted on on Instagram and you showed pictures of them and you said, this is you kind of getting back to your roots, and you were excited by that.

Tom Heath
And, again, you know, talking to Tony Rain there and we all sort of like is like, this is why we do it. It’s so nice to have this. So we appreciate that you were open about that and shared that.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah, I’m I was really excited for the opportunity to have a reason to get back in the studio that that to me was like one of the most valuable things of being part of this. My friends outside. Anyway, yeah, I, I, I just gave me a reason to, like, kind of reconnect with myself as an artist and on a more personal level.

Jessica Gonzales
And so that’s really, really important to me. And I’m really glad to have the chance to tap into that. You know.

Tom Heath
Well, last question here as we wrap up, just just one of the things we wanted to do is also help, artists in Tucson get moving. If they’re struggling in any way, is there advice out there for someone that’s getting into either public art or just really trying to find their voice, or maybe has the issue where they’re they’re not able to communicate as well verbally or socially.

Tom Heath
And, you know, are there any things that you can pass along? That’s a lot of it for me. That’s a lot of stuff to put in. One question.

Jessica Gonzales
Well, I would say for anyone who’s trying to start getting into public art, you know, something that I’ve learned along the way is that when you’re painting publicly and you’re painting for clients and you know, things, it’s easy to kind of like fall into this kind of groove that is, you know, painting the kind of stuff that people that you think people want to see.

Jessica Gonzales
And I just think it’s really important to always stick to whatever you’re passionate about, because that’s that’s going to make everything you do like really worthwhile in the end. So for me, it’s always coming up with something new, painting something new, some new technique or like a different style, even just mixing it up all the time. That’s what keeps me engaged with it and keeps me connected to it, you know, as from an artist perspective.

Jessica Gonzales
So I think that is really important to hold on to. And, see, what was the other question?

Tom Heath
Well, just wondering, the art was very therapeutic and helpful for you and just kind of curious is that did it just come automatically or is there something you had to tap into? Is there some advice you could give someone that maybe has artistic talent, is feeling some of that isolation that you were feeling, and then, you know, what were some of those steps to, to move.

Jessica Gonzales
Forward? Yeah. Well, I mean, definitely showing your work. I know a lot of people create work and then are either nervous to show it or feel like, you know, that’s a big step. It is a big step, but it’s an important one because, you know, you’re never going to be able to really, like, share your thoughts and your work with people and then have conversations that will keep you growing unless you put it out there.

Jessica Gonzales
So that’s important. And there are all kinds of gallery spaces, you know, that offer different types of of spaces, you know, for different kinds of art. So there’s something for everyone out there. It’s just a matter of of, being vulnerable enough to, to do that.

Tom Heath
Yeah, I would imagine that’s, that’s that’s the fear. Right? We all don’t really want someone to say they don’t like something we did.

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah, yeah. And I think everybody has a choice to explain as much as they want to. Also, you know, I mean, sometimes even just coming up with titles is difficult for me. But you can tell people as much as you want to about your art or you can it can be a mystery. They can come up with whatever thoughts they have about it.

Jessica Gonzales
They can interpret it their own way. You know, it’s totally up to the artist to divulge as much information as they want to, but you still want people to see it. So, well.

Tom Heath
I don’t know. There’s a 12 year old in Tucson that, came here shy, introverted, started showing her art, and now she is here at the Tucson Gallery, about to meet a bunch of raucous fans. You can hear them starting to gather in the background, waving to us through the window. So, hopefully over the, the shyness phase.

Tom Heath
And you’re able to talk to some people tonight.

Jessica Gonzales
I mean, yeah, it’s it’s better than it used to be. It’s still challenging, but you got to do it, right?

Tom Heath
Yeah. Yeah. Well, Jessica, I really appreciate your time tonight. And I’m looking forward to to to seeing some more of these, original pieces come out of your studio.

Jessica Gonzales
Cool. Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Tom Heath
You’ve been listening to Meet the Artist, new production of the Tucson Gallery here inside of the proper shops in downtown Tucson. We’re at 300 East Congress, across from the historic and venerable Hotel Congress. Every Thursday, we have a different artist come in for, a session to record the podcast. And then it’s a really casual meet and greet with their fans.

Tom Heath
You can grab a glass of wine, you can check out all the other retailers here inside of the proper shops. And the mission of the Tucson Gallery is to really help the world understand how amazing our Tucson artists are, and to give our Tucson artists a chance to better engage with their public. So tune in next Thursday for another installment of Meet the Artist, or better yet, check out our website, the Tucson gallery.com, and find one of these live events.

Tom Heath
And come down yourself and and make sure your favorite artist is Jessica. Thanks again.

Jessica Gonzales
Thank you.

Tom Heath
I.

Jessica Gonzales
Kind it.

Tom Heath
That’s it almost all of to want to take a little have a little step. And then I’m just going to ask you about these three, three pieces here and then tell us just briefly about them and then we’ll edit that separately into the, the different marketing.

Jessica Gonzales
Component. Okay. Cool.

Tom Heath
Okay. So at the gallery, there are two original pieces that came in. One of them sold very quickly and we no longer have it. And but we do offer it to reproductions. And that’s the nesting instinct. Okay. Can you tell us a little bit about that one?

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah. So working on these canvas pieces is, you know, something that I haven’t done for a while, so I, I found myself when I was thinking about what I wanted to paint, I, I was planning it in the way that I plan a mural. And so it’s like I was referencing the ways that I create murals now and then I was thinking back to the last time I was creating paintings regularly, and that was kind of like college, like it’s been a while.

Jessica Gonzales
So all these things that I used to be into, in these styles that I was kind of more into, were kind of coming out. But then I was also planning it the way I do a mural. So there is this kind of like looseness, but this like restriction that I was holding on to. So I kind of just embraced both of those things.

Jessica Gonzales
So for Nesting Instinct, I incorporated elements that sort of represent both of those areas of myself as an artist and put them together and said, this is good. This is a foundation. This is like, you know, me gathering things and putting them onto something and then seeing what grows from there.

Tom Heath
So what about the other dysregulation that that one intrigues me because I looked at it for a while and I, I do, you know, when you see it, there’s a woman and she’s butting up against the edge of the canvas. And my first thought was, she’s frustrated, but that’s not the case.

Jessica Gonzales
No, she’s she’s more kind of just relaxed. She’s in this position of like total like kind of just like slopped over and and. Yeah, just sort of like, I don’t know that the picture is a friend of mine, and she was just sitting on the ground and she was sort of slumped over, but like in a very relaxed way.

Jessica Gonzales
And so when I started painting, that one was I had no plan. And I was like, I’m just going to, I’m just going to be really free and loose with this one. I’m not going to over plan it the way I was trying to do it with what the other wanted and with murals, but in the end I ended up painting these white lines, kind of cutting through her, and that felt like the exact sort of control that I was trying to avoid.

Jessica Gonzales
So the idea behind it was that no matter what I do to try to avoid some of my instincts, they’re still there and they still come in. So, you know, that’s kind of what that one was about.

Tom Heath
Right? I think it’s good that those instincts still come in, and it’s amazing that she’s still not amazing. But it’s it’s nice that you recognize those and you can see how they’re impacting your art. And and then mural wise you have a lot of popular ones. But in the gallery, the prints and the merchandise that have the lost mural on it, that one has been incredibly popular.

Tom Heath
Is there a story behind that one?

Jessica Gonzales
Yeah. So I was approached in 2019 by The Loft to design their, poster art for their film festival. And I was really just like, I was determined to avoid any of the very typical kind of like, symbols that you think of when you think of film. So no film reels, no popcorn buckets, you know, no whatever else you can think of, but I so I was thinking from the perspective of the, someone in the audience.

Jessica Gonzales
And when you’re watching really good film and you’re like, having a reaction to it, that was kind of I was trying to sort of encompass a, a wide array of reactions, but that kind of style with the hands, the way that they’re positioned in that painting is something that actually I, I had like came to me in a dream a while ago and it was something that I was interested in painting personally, something kind of similar to that.

Jessica Gonzales
So I think that there was just a, a really stronger like, like a stronger connection to that art because it came from such a personal place. And I was like really trying to like, be creative and go outside the box with it. So I don’t know, I just feel like, I’m happy that that one is a popular one because I, I am personally really proud of that one.

Jessica Gonzales
That one feels very close to, you know, some of my more personal interests. So, yeah.

Tom Heath
Any any others that really stand out to you that you wanted to talk about?

Jessica Gonzales
Well, the the one that I did, it’s called, the path unpaved, which is down at Stone in Alameda, on the site of the little one restaurant. That one is also pretty special to me because I spent a lot of time doing that, a lot of time probably the most detail of any mural I’ve done. And I was doing it during the summer.

Jessica Gonzales
It was brutal. And there are busses, city busses, driving by like real fast right behind me, lots of foot traffic. There were a lot of challenges to it, so I kind of overcame a lot, but I was so like into what I was doing that it it kind of like helped counterbalance that.

Tom Heath
Long interview today with Jessica Gonzalez celebrating Tucson Gallery’s grand reopening. Thanks to James and Amanda. We’ll see you next week for more life along the streetcar.