How cool is this house?  How annoying is that graffiti? Oy vey! The graffiti! Salvador didn’t seem to be quite as rife with it as Rio was, but it was still everywhere. On overpass supports and such, there were often elaborate pictures and designs painted there, and many were fantastic and beautiful. That’s really a different thing altogether than the graffiti above, isn’t it? But it kind of begs the question: “What is ‘acceptable’ public art?” Did some official in the government of Salvador allow the overpass artists to paint unmolested? Does somebody regulate that kind of thing? Did the government know about it, or was it a surreptitious creation? In the case of the graffiti above, it could just as well be something by Basquiat, but it’s still graffiti.

On this little excursion, Jean wasn’t there because of her massage with Luciana. Carol was going to show us her gym, the Villa Forma, which was extensively renovated by her architect friend, Arilda Cardoso. The gym is in an old colonial-era building that is incredibly beautiful, especially now that it’s restored. Note the building next door that has not been restored. It’s almost like a bad Photoshop job.

Arilda’s modus operandi is to use an eclectic array of not only local materials, but many recycled materials, and incorporate them in an artful fashion with as much of the original interior as possible. Some stairs were colonial, but the ones that weren’t were treated differently, one with a random adornment of tiles.

Tiles are everywhere in Brazil, and I was totally enamored with the look. Arilda’s combinations were fantastic, because of the total random placement. It made them blend with the natural elements of the place.

In the pictures above, you see the entrance viewed from the aerobics studio that is above the pool. The pool and aerobics studio above are shown on the right.
By the time we finally went in the front door from the courtyard, I had already shot several pictures. The two young Brazilian hardbodies working the desk informed me that I couldn’t take pictures without permission. I meekly put the camera in duffel position #2 and continued to gawk at the imaginative renovation.

Carol, who is from Indiana, politely doesn’t take any shit off of anybody. She did or said something, and within a few minutes, I had permission to take pictures. Carol remarked that it’s amazing how low level people with a modicum of power usually wield it. At any rate, her incredible Portuguese, and my usage of “beleza” and “suado” won us the keys to the kingdom.

Here are those stairs I mentioned, and here’s Robo not only making me feel bad about myself with his fitness, but being in a terrible backlight situation. It’s just like him to do that.