As you walk around Lisbon you’ll come across plenty of eye-catching graffiti, but none will grab your attention as instantly as the colorful cakes and ice creams painted on many of the city’s most decayed buildings.That’s the work of one artist, and her name is Maria Imaginário. Yes, it’s a female artist (not so common in the world of street art), and she brings some joy and life to otherwise sad and dead walls. 

One of her “delicious” ice creams is seen in one of GoLisbon’s photo galleries, but for a collection of her work visit her page on Flickr.

Imaginário has taken her imagination outside Portugal, and was recently responsible for a mural in Bethlehem depicting a bulldozer destroying a heart.  It symbolizes the destruction of houses by the Israeli army in Palestinian territories, and no matter on which side of that Bethlehem wall your politics stand on, you can’t help but stop to process that message in your mind.

What made Imaginário do it? She’s in that divided region collaborating with the ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions), helping to rebuild demolished homes.

But you don’t have to travel that far to see Imaginário’s imaginative statements –- just keep your eyes open as you walk around Lisbon.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Lisbon General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.