Granada's Street Art

Not street art per se, but I laughed when I saw this sign on a stall in a Christmas Market. My poor brother Mark--Spain hates him!

"Fumar Mata" was tagged all over Granada. It roughly translates to "Smoking kills." The embellishments were added later, I'm sure.

A lovely Spanglish tag. The rough translation would be "One looks for murder."

Part of a very beautiful wall in a nondescript back alley.

The translation is roughly, "A million machines could never make something as beautiful as a flower." While I was taking the picture, Molly overheard two older men as they paused to read the message. Their conversation went something like this:

"A million machines could never make something as beautiful as a flower."

"True. True."

"I think also, a million machines could never make something as beautiful as a woman. No?"

"It's true. Nothing is more beautiful than a woman."

Sigh.... Somedays old Spanish gentlemen are the light of my life.

I love graphitti. Well, good graphitti. Granada has some amazing street art--much of it with a social conciousness that is not usually found in graphitti. The Granada street artists are having a debate about life and politics. Many of the messages are positive and life affirming, often the graphitti is more mural than anything else. Some even mimmic that mujedar style (a combination of northern african muslim design and spanish catholic motifs) like in the picture above. Unfortunately, some of the beautiful murals are scarred by lame graphitti and there are way too many unimaginative spray paint atrocities, but it was refreshing to find such creative messages and beautiful designs shining amidst the teenage angst.