12 Sep Love Grows Here

While traveling this past July through São Miguel, the largest island of the Portuguese Açores, I couldn’t help but notice all of the incredible street art. You can check out my previous post featuring the amazing work by ARM COLLECTIVE  here.

This large scale fish resided right outside the apartment we were staying in Vila Franco do Campo. I loved the bright colors and whimsy of this piece and couldn’t help but be intrigued by the simple symbol and tag of the artist…YVES.

And with my utter appreciation of the universal heart and incorporation of them into my own artwork you can imagine my delight at finding YVES’s art everywhere!

Upon doing some digging, I came to discover that the artist’s full name is Yves Decoster. His work is all over São Miguel. He is a Belgian painter that has been residing in São Miguel for 25 years. Over 200 of his signature heart paintings live on the outside of bars, restaurants, schools and private residences. Yves uses the word “positivism” when describing his work…bringing color and life to the people. 

My husband and I traveled the “old road” through all of the little villages one of our last nights there. Around every turn one of us was shouting, “There’s one!”, “And another!” and “There he is!”