Limeira - Sao Paulo

Day four began with a two hour bus ride from Sao Paulo to Limeira, Zeh Palito’s home town. We arrived around four in the afternoon only to change into our battle gear and went straight to the wall with our bags of aerosol cans. We arrived at the graffiti drenched wall which was in an open field where soccer is played. Three enthusiastic little girls who knew Zeh Palito came running up to where we dropped our bags. One of them was full of energy, very comical and animated…so she became the face for my next piece. I took a quick picture of her and the fumeroification process began. At one point, they asked if I knew the New York born celebrity Chris Rock. They wanted me to tell him that they love his show,

‘Everybody Hates Chris’. Unfortunately I do not, but told them I would include their compliment in the article. There was also a young boy from the neighborhood hanging out with us as we worked. He was very quiet and stayed by my side as I painted stroke by stroke. He played with the spray cans and was very diligent in lining them up in orderly columns like little soldiers. And as the day came to a close, my quiet little friend helped us pack up when we were finished; nice kid.

The following day, Zeh and I met with two talented graffiti artists. Medo, like Zeh, has many murals throughout the neighborhood and specializes in his unique letter stylization. Sipros is a realist and uses the spray can as a fine artist uses a brush. Today our walls were in a field of the elementary school. More children came to watch and play, so as we waited to buff the walls, we joined them in a quick game of soccer.

Sipros and Medo collaborated on one wall, while Zeh and I had the other. Our piece was based on a split face portrait of Zeh Palito. We each illustrated half of his self portrait in our own distinct way and personal style. We used a green background which I thought complimented the color I used for the braided hair. We included our own personal signatures and Zeh painted a cluster of his colored geometric shapes and lines, while I painted a multi-colored Table Series Logo.

The children hung around throughout the day and were always curious about the foreigner. They were trying to teach me Portuguese words, and Zeh Palito translated their questions about English. It was fun to have them around. They added to the ‘good-energy’ day and before I knew it, the hours turned into minutes when the sun set for the 2nd day in the city of Limeira, Brazil.