Valentine's Day Mascara

Here we have one of Banksy's clever takes on everyday life, painted in his signature stencil style. A 1950s housewife in a teal apron and yellow rubber gloves smiles and waves, looking every bit the cheerful homemaker. But the closer you look, the more you notice she has a swollen, blackened eye. The bruise hidden behind her friendly face tells a much darker story than the cheery image first suggests.

This piece, sometimes known as "Valentine's Day Mascara," appeared on Valentine's Day in 2020 in Bristol, England, the city where Banksy is believed to have started out. The original wall actually included a real upended chest freezer placed nearby, hinting that the woman had tossed her abuser away. Banksy created it to raise awareness about domestic violence, a serious subject he addressed with his usual mix of dark humor and bite. Like much of his work, it transforms a plain street wall into a sharp comment on something people often prefer to ignore.