art

More Floripa Diaries

Yeah I know you’re all like “Geez Louise Ofentse how many more Florianapolis posts are there?”. Well I was there for a month and you all know how trigger happy I get with the shutter button on my camera, so I’ve got a bunch of pictures and where else can I share them if not here 🤷🏾‍♀️.

This post is about what I consider to be the highlights of the trip.

Favela da Mariquinha Street Art Tour:

This was a tour of the favelas and the artwork in and around the Favela da Mariquinha which could be considered one of the largest outdoor galleries.

A ARTE SALVA VIDAS which means ART SAVES LIVES

Our tour guide Alex was born and raised in Favela de Mariquinha and is a community leader and all round Mr Congeniality (He knew everybody in the neighbourhood and they all showed love) . He is involved in various projects aimed at increasing visibility and making a positive impact on his community through teaching kids about art, soccer, surfing & jujitsu . Alex knows the stories behind all the paintings and is passionate about sharing them. Here are a few of my favourite paintings:

And the view of the city from the favelas was absolutely gorgeous

* Check out Favela de Mariquinha on instagram @roledamariquinha

The next highlight was our visit to the Olodum Sul which is like a centre for the kids from the favelas. They have all types activities and programmes for the kids to learn skills from dance, to music, art and general life skills. It really is a great place they even have psychologists at the school. My favourite part is how they instilling a sense of black pride in the sense they teach the kids about black history and black pride which is very important as the region they’re in Santa Catrina is a predominately white area (80% white population). Being black is a struggle worldwide so having a space like this really is amazing.

We did a mini tour of the centre, did some dancing and we did capoeira with the kids it was so much fun.

Below are images of historic black people all over the walls as well as their new podcast studio, it really is so cool how they are teaching the kids all of this.

20 November is Black Consciousness Day in Brazil.

An honourable mention to the list of highlights for me in Florianapolis was without a doubt sugarcane juice (I miss it so).

Sharing more content

So I’m the type of person who takes a bunch of pictures and videos which I do nothing with, my friend has nagged me into sharing more of it so here we go. Lets call this a continuation my last post.

I Love Paris

Ever since I could remember I have been drawn to Paris, but to be honest as time went by I fell in love with the idea of it more than anything else. I avoided going there over the years in fear that it would not live up to the dream, the idea I had created in my head. But since I am in the year of yes I figured oh well Ofentse its time to take Nike’s advice and JUST DO IT and boy am I glad I did.

What I did may have seemed crazy to some… going to a foreign country where you don’t speak the language all by myself. Crazy or not I did it and loved every second of it.I would like to say for the record Paris lived up to my imagination, it was whimsical quirky and cool in other words the city version of me.

I went full blown tourist out there guys as you can see from my happy snaps:

thumb_SAM_1463_1024
Processed with VSCO with hb2 preset Le Palais Royal

Processed with VSCO with hb2 preset Paris Opera

thumb_SAM_1478_1024 Louvre Museum

thumb_SAM_1485_1024 thumb_SAM_1487_1024 Tuileries Garden

thumb_SAM_1597_1024 Arc de triomphe

And I fell madly in love with the Eiffel Tower day and night.

thumb_SAM_1564_1024 thumb_SAM_1565_1024 Sacré-Cœur

thumb_SAM_1533_1024 The stairs leading to the Sacré-Cœur

Montmartre was a workout for sure with all the stairs and everything being uphill but I did enjoy how busy and vibrant it was.

The streets were lined with artists sketching cheesy tourists like myself.

thumb_SAM_1538_1024 thumb_SAM_1540_1024 20170923_144712

Thank you Paris I will be back again that is for sure. 20170924_135956

<a href=”https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19143175/?claim=p6wm5dapr5x”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Out and About

This weekend we braved the cold cold Joburg winter to check out the Winter Sculpture Fair held at Nirox Sculpture Park, you know to take in some culture as one does. We saw some interesting pieces, ate some good food and broke the no-fun-can-be-had-outdoors-in-winter curse.