Good morning, graffiti friends!
Welcome to another post in the Street Art community!
How’s your week going? It’s already Wednesday, and before we know it, the week will be halfway over. This week was shorter because Monday was a national holiday—the Day of the Establishment of the Portuguese Republic, which took place in 1910.
As a result, the weekend ended up including a holiday on Sunday, which was perfect. I didn’t have much time, however, to rest and do the things I enjoy most—which include spending some time away from home without worrying about schedules or appointments.
That said, this week I wanted to share with you something I saw in the northern part of the country. I was visiting some friends—the parents of a child for whom I’m the godfather—who were celebrating her tenth birthday.
It’s always nice to see old friends again and give them a hug, and to be able to celebrate the tenth birthday of a child as full of life as my goddaughter.
The town of Lavra, located in the parish of Matosinhos, is essentially a village nestled by the sea, with a strong connection to the ocean and to fishermen. It’s a land of hardworking people; you can see it in the faces of those who live there—marked by wrinkles and weathered by days spent on the beach, summer and winter alike.
People with hard-working hands, calloused, but it’s not just the apparent roughness of their hands that conveys the greatness of their hearts.
Very close to my friends’ house, a new piece of graffiti has appeared in recent months on a rustic, single-story house that has fallen into disrepair over time. The blue house, with its bricked-up windows—there’s no point in having bricks covering the windows, since its roof has actually collapsed—is now open to anyone who wants to use it, making it a potential gathering spot for some people who use this type of dwelling as a place to use drugs. Although I’d heard from my friend that there were some drug users in the area, I’ve never “run into” any—at least not during the day.
Painted above the left door of what appears to be a row house, we can see a vibrant, colorful character in shades of hot pink, with eyes set wide apart and a heart tattooed on its forehead. Its greenish eyes and mouth form a grimace and an expression of rage that warns passersby not to approach the abandoned property.
Its creator, Wonka, is a French artist known for painting these whimsical and colorful creatures on the urban walls of abandoned buildings. The artist’s goal is to beautify cities by bringing color and fantasy through his little monsters and fantastical creatures, which he spreads across murals weathered by time.
The artist has a long career and is recognized not only in his home country—France—but also in Spain.
Bem Hajam🍀
| Name of the Piece | Artist | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Pink | Wonka | Lavra, Portugal | 2026 |
Photographed with Samsung A26 by @xrayman in 2026, September 26 Photographic edition with PhotoScape X Source for this post: https://artquemy.com/artists/wonka/ Original text in Portuguese written by @xrayman, translated with DeepL.com
