2305

Introducing our new Toro de Osborne which has some Picasso inspired graffiti on it. It's went viral nationally. It got the new paint between Wednesday and Thursday night. We saw it coming back from our shopping last Thursday. Today we stopped to take a shot.

The painting reproduces part of Picasso's Guernica. "Guernica is war and everything it means: horror, abuse, disaster, death, victims, spectacle."

The Murcian artist Sam3 who's done this (has also worked with British Banksy) is against bullfighting (I agree with him totally) and apparently thinks these Osborne Toros that advertise Brandy de Jerez are labeling people as irrational people of the Mediterranean. So it's a statement against war and bullfighting.

Santa Pola City Hall seems to think (fortunately) that this is art and we should not label it as vandalism. How progressive. I'm so proud to live in this town right now. The Santa Pola City Hall will contact the owner of the Toro (the brandy company) to ask if it can stay as it is. 

2009 the same artist made the Toro into a goat (with paint). That was criticism against the economic crises. Then it was painted over. Now we have new people in the Town Hall, but also the Sam3 has gotten some name as the Spanish Banksy and people are recognizing his talent.

"The head of Tourism in Santa Pola sees an opportunity in this change and does not reject the anti-bullfighting criticism implicit in the work. "It has become the most original of all Osborne bulls in Spain. Knowing how recognized the author is and the controversy he has generated, the ideal would be to explain to people who the artist is behind this initiative, and which in recent days has attracted many visitors, who want to take a picture with him. "

The artist also intervened the Osborne bull located in the Community of Madrid, drawing his own skeleton in another metaphor about the economic recession and social crisis that has lived the country in the last ten years."



Now we'll just have to wait and see what the brandy company decides. 



I think as this bull is against war and everything it stands for it's also appropriate picture for today with the terrible news from Manchester. To kill kids and young adults is just such a terrible thought and such a cowardly action. I just can't comprehend. Just kill yourself if you want to but leave other people out of it.