Brazilian Street Art and Graffiti

As many of you know, Carlie and I have plenty of opportunities to ride the buses here in São Paulo. Fortunately, such travel is free for women over 60 years of age and for men 65 and older. And we qualify on both accounts, although I must add that we get dubious looks every now and again; especially Carlie.

The buses are often really crowded, and when it rains, all traffic stops, sometimes for hours. And while I really don't enjoy such occasions, I do enjoy the opportunity that riding the bus gives me to take in some of São Paulo's street art and graffiti.

As is common in most large cities, there are many inhabitants here seeking an opportunity to express themselves by tagging a public building, bridge or fence. Even private property is often covered with such expressions of individuality. And while I have trouble reading the artists' messages here, that was often the case in Houston, too.

What follows are a few samples of what I define as both the street art and the graffiti between where Carlie and I live, and where we work in downtown São Paulo. I should add that some of these examples are from other parts of the city. The first group I classify as unadulterated graffiti, that can be found in most large cities. This is found mostly on abandoned buildings, and in "run down" parts of the city. As you can see, some messages have a religious tone to them.

This second group of street art is not graffiti, per se, but instead an effort on the part of business establishments to advertise their trade, be it selling automotive parts, computer motherboards and other electrical gadgets, tile manufacturers, nursery schools or bicycle sales. Some are pretty amateurish, while others are quite nifty!

As you can see, some of the art work is painted directly on the heavy metal (I'm not referring to music here) security doors that shut off the business establishments from the street at the end of each business day.

The following two tile murals were quite impressive.

As you can see, even the art works gets tagged at times.

The next group of street art can be found on public walls, and even in two of the tunnels through which our bus passes each day on the way to work. Some of the art work is strange, while other street art is whimsical and entertaining.

Check out the size of this wall painting! In the lower left, you will see a man sitting in the ground. Why? Who knows!

The artists at work!

If we have to have graffiti on the walls of the buildings, bridges and overpasses of our cites, I vote for some of the street art I get to see here every day in São Paulo!

Christmas 2010 in São Paulo

Since this will be our only Christmas here in São Paulo, I felt it deserved a place on our blog.

Christmas in Brazil seems largely associated with gift giving; in other words, a commercial venture.  Perhaps the same thing is becoming more a reality in the USA, too.  However, the biggest difference for us was experiencing Christmas in the summertime. Notwithstanding, there were plenty of decorations on Avenida Paulista in downtown São Paulo.  Here are a few pictures of what we saw, both during the day and after dark.

  

This office building is located directly across the street from the Employment Center, where Carlie and I spend most of our time every week. The following photos exemplify the effort many business establishments are willing to spend to celebrate Christmas. These first photos were taken during my lunch hour; they are followed by pictures of the same building after dark.

The first picture is that of a choir that the Bradesco Bank puts together every year.  The choir performs three 15 minute shows of holiday music each day. Behind the choir are inset areas where holiday scenes are displayed.

 

A group of us got together last Wednesday night to see what Avenida Paulista looked like after dark.

                      

 

 

 

One block west of the Employment Center is São Paulo's Metropolitan Art Museum (MASP) seen below. And directly across the street from the MASP is Trianon Park, where many of the beautiful trees are illuminated at night. Even during the day these trees are beautiful!

Two or three blocks further west of where we work, the City has built a temporary bridge-like structure over Avenida Paulista to welcome the Christmas season. Here is that structure as seen from both sides, as well as the decorations inside when crossing over Avenida Paulista.

 

Here are a few more pictures of Avenida Paulista at Christmas time.

As you can see, Santa is everywhere; seated on buildings,

Santa on a parachute,

Santa on stilts,

Even driving a car!

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For the spiritual side of Christmas, Carlie and I were invited to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day at the Mission Training Center (CTM) here in São Paulo.  On Christmas Eve, we had dinner with the missionaries, followed by a devotional, and then watched Miracle on 34th Street (the remake) with the missionaries, followed by an ice cream snack in the cafeteria.

The following pictures of the cafeteria were taken during the ice cream break.

To culminate the evening, President and Sister Clark invited all the senior missionaries to their apartment on the third floor of the CTM, because they wanted to express their gratitude for all we do while serving at the CTM.  Here are a couple of pictures I took while there.

We then retired to our room, where we had the opportunity to share the same living quarters that each of the young missionaries share.  However, our room was on that side of the MTC that is reserved only for the Sisters. 

On Christmas Day, all the missionaries were invited to dress casually, and spend the morning playing board games (Yatzee, UNO, puzzles, etc).  Carlie elected to work on a puzzle with several other senior missionaries, while I spent the morning teaching a group of six missionaries how to play Yatzee. Other missionaries elected to play basketball or volleyball.

Here are some pictures of the CTM cafeteria, running track, volleyball and basketball courts, and an open air picnic area that the missionaries enjoy during their stay at the CTM.

 

Like Carlie says, we are like "Rock Stars" to some of the missionaries; hence, they wanted their picture taken with us, and we with them.  Here are a couple of them.

I took a picture of these two missionaries, because the one on the right, Elder Delgado, is from the island nation of Cabo Verde, off the west coast of Africa, where Portuguese is the national language.  He has been called to serve in Mozambique.  He has been a member of the Church for 1 year and 3 months, and is the only member in his family. Amazing!

We then said our good byes, and headed home to await the opportunity to "Skype" or talk to each of our children on Vonage.  Only then will Christmas 2010 be complete!