Meet Tommy Gwinn (Music advocate)
Maintenance Schedule Supervisor
Phoenix Biomedical Campus
Update: Feb 2020: An article about the 6th musician to be featured on Gwinn's Valley Rockstar Memorial Mural was recently featured on azcentral.com. Read about the addition of Lawrence Zubia here.
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While not an artist himself, Tommy is in it for the music. In addition to his day job on the Phoenix campus, he manages the local Jazz/Funk/Fusion band, Jade Road. They just released their debut CD, “Ambidextrous” last month. Where music and art come together in his world is in the Valley Rockstar Memorial mural painted on his home’s block wall in Tempe. Read on for more about this impressive mural!
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I didn’t paint it myself, but I commissioned a public mural at my home. I hired a local artist, Gina Ribaudo to paint the mural. I provided her with the plan & supplied her with various photos. I let her know which bits & pieces to use off of each photo to create these mural portraits. She carried out the work just as I had envisioned.
I contacted Ms Ribaudo in February and at that time she was heavily booked for several months, but said she would get back to me on when she could fit me in. Much of Gina’s work is out of state, but the pandemic & travel risk made her decide to hunker down in Tempe starting in late March. She contacted me and we got things rolling. She was grateful to get this commissioning. I coned off an area around my block wall to give her over 10 feet of social distancing from the many walkers who pass by every morning and love to talk… a lot. She worked from first light until about 9 am each day. Acrylic paint starts drying on the brush when it gets warm outside. The memorial is located on a very popular walking and bicycling thoroughfare, so the location is perfect.
The mural is dedicated to deceased musicians who were brought up in the Phoenix area and were an inspiration to other musicians & music listeners. I have named it the “Valley Rockstar Memorial”. It got a writeup by Lynn Trimble in the electronic version of the Phoenix New Times in May.
A friend just completed cutting the dumpster chunks of granite into markers for the base of the last 4 portraits. I will be taking those four 6” x 36” pieces to the engraver tomorrow afternoon. The first marker was completed and installed before the pandemic hit in force. I will include links to the portraits below. The LED lighting is installed for the first portrait. Each will be set up the same way.
I crowdfunded a little under half of the mural expenses. The donations came from all over the US. Most were friends and family members of the musicians whose portraits are on the mural.
There is room for 2 more portraits, but I’m in no hurry to fill those spaces.
Although the mural is complete, I don’t expect to have all of the pieces of the memorial installed until late July/early August. I am still working 5 days/week at the campus, so that just leaves a few hours each morning on weekends. It will be really cool when completed.
The Musicians L to R:
Vince Welnick – Keyboardist - The Tubes | Grateful Dead – West Phoenix High School
Glen Buxton – Lead Guitarist – The Alice Cooper group – Cortez High School
Doug Hopkins – Lead Guitarist, Principle Songwriter – Gin Blossoms – McClintock High School, ASU
Chester Bennington – Vocalist – Linkin Park | Stone Temple Pilots – Centennial HS, Greenway HS, Washington HS
Mike Condello – Music Dorector, Multi-Instrumentalist – The Wallace & Ladmo Show – North High School