Favela Painting

Favela = shanty town. In Chile we called these areas "las tomas". 

If you have never had the privilege to visit, walk amongst the inhabitants, and talk with the people who live in these conditions, it is truly a human experience. Stripped of the audacity that comes with appearance and material possessions, you feel as if you are communicating soul to soul.

Abject poverty in shades of dirt: 

dirty animals

 and dirty kids. 

I can still almost recall the smells of dirty laundry water, urine, floor wax (like turpentine), wood, and dry dirt.

The expanse and masses that live in these conditions is breathtaking.

They surround major metropolitan areas in Latin America.

Stacked house upon house.

The higher you live (farther from the city), the poorer.

Laden with crime, gangs and drugs, the poverty is only part of what inhabitants face.

As an effort to lighten lives of those who live in favelas in Brazil, two Dutch painters have created masterpieces on cement and cinder block. 

It's favela painting.

Check out this river with koi fish, painted on a retaining wall.

Or making this

into this...

Whether or not it achieves a greater purpose in alleviating poverty by giving hope,

I think it's pretty cool.