Winter

Brrrr it's cold. I was hiking in the Collserola Mountains yesterday and it was biting cold. Even though I was moving up hills and across forests the cold air was still getting into my bones. My friend, David, and I were out in the gorgeous landscape for 3 hours at least. When we came back to Baixador de Valvidrella to catch the train back to Barcelona I could barely move my arms - they were frozen. It wasn't until we got a hot chocolate in Placa Catalunya that my hands finally started to have some life back in them. Perhaps it was more the nature of the hot chocolate than it's status as a hot drink. Spanish hot chocolate is traditionally much more dank than what American's are used to but this one went to new heights. It was literally like 4 or 5 melted chocolate bars in a cup - I couldn't even finish it! However I did feel much better after holding the cup and downing half of it :)



I spent this past weekend in Madrid. It was a four day holiday to celebrate the Spanish National Freedom from French invasion. Though it was a chilly and rainy several days it was really nice to be in an authentically Spanish city for a change (not Catalunya) and to see some more art in the HUGE museums there. I was particularly taken with the impressionist paintings in the Thyssen museum. Though I've looked at impressionist work before something was different this time. I was seeing how the overlapping puzzle pieces represented how I see the world: a lot of different ideas and images that blend into each other and make a lot of sense if you stand back and look at it with a broad perspective. When you are closer to the piece you see the inricacies of layers and color blending and the detail of each section is very important. As a whole the artwork is a cohesive piece that speaks symbolically. I think that if I can approach my work form this angle that I might be happier with the results. I tend to try and force myself into creating more literal and realistic interpretations instead of the symbolic. Anyway, this was my Madrid epiphany - hopefully I can do something wonderful with it.

This is the last and busiest week of the fall term - everybody's buzzing about trying to get everything done....including me.

I hope you all have happy and healthy holidays.

Carousel Dreams

OMG!! It's been a month since I posted. Maybe that's okay, maybe nobody's even reading this! In any event, it's good for me to document my life, that's one of my main challenges this year - to develop the discipline to document my work and (finally) create a relevant and FULL portfolio! Apparently I need more work in this area!
We're winding down to the last two weeks of this school term and the hustle-bustle of 'get-it-done' is buzzing throughout the studio. I finally moved the heater into the computer area so that I could actually think about working instead of just how cold I am. I hope that I get some things done before the people on the other end of the studio catch on to what I've done!!

I've been having really vivid dreams the past three nights. I wrote this one down this morning. If you're interested, read on. I warn you, it's a bit long....

It’s 6 in the morning, I just woke up – finally had a good nights sleep. My dreams were stranger than they have been the last two nights, the kind of dreams that are made up of many interlacing stories – and none of them really make sense.
It started out that I was in a boat that was floating near a harbor in New york. I was talking with a woman who was telling me about a magic toy carousel (it’s a round ride that you find at a fair, usually full of fake horses that you sit on and when it spins it plays music) that everyone was looking for. As soon as she said the word ‘carousel’ I knew what she was talking about and I knew where to find it.
Next thing I know I jumped into the water and swam over to the land near by, which was a giant parking lot for trucks and cars. I was running through the parking lot and looking at strange men who were selling clothes and bottles full of wishes. “Whose wishes are they?” I asked one of the venders. “Taken from the lady in the mountain” he said. That made me angry. “How could you steal somebody’s wishes? And what good are someone else’s wishes to you or me anyway?” I was so shocked that I was surrounded by people who were stealing wishes and trying to sell them – so I started to walk faster to the place I wanted to go. AS I was leaving all of the men selling wishes were chanting strange words and their faces turned into watery shapes of muted colors.
Soon I was inside of the place I was looking for. I was in the very back of a building with a few other people and we were all looking at this magic carousel. It was about the size of a desk lamp. The other people did not know that it was magical. They just thought that it was pretty. I was waiting for them to leave so I could talk with the person who owned it.
I had to convince the people to buy some clothes so that they would get interested in something else and then go. It worked! Finally I was able to speak with this very very old woman about the carousel. The showed me how there was a piece missing on the carousel. At the very top of the carousel’s canopy sat a woman with wings in a thin dress and she was holding out her hand. The old woman reached into her pocket and pulled out a tiny tiny little golden light and placed it in the hand of the winged woman on top of the carousel. Once the light was in the tiny hand the carousel began to spin and play music.
The music made me feel SO HAPPY…..and I could feel that something was happening inside of me, something beautiful. I asked the woman how I could get the carousel out of here without other people seeing that I had it for if other people saw it they would want to steal it. She told me that if I held the light in my bellybutton the carousel would shrink up very small and I was to put it under my fingernail. (This sounds so weird to me now that I am writing it, but it the dream it made perfect sense!) So I did. I put the light in my belly button and the carousel became very very very very very very small and I tucked it under my fingernail. I kissed the old woman and gave her an apple and said goodbye. She smiled at me with such love.
Next thing I know I’m standing in a line with people I know from Ojai, California. We are all in a line outside of a spaceship, waiting to receive packages. I see my friends Shael and Michael and their baby Dante and I ask them what they are doing here. They tell me that they have to get a special sticker for their package so that they can fly home. Somehow I know that I need this special sticker too so I start looking around for where to find it – because I notice that nobody is really doing anything. There are a lot of people waiting and no body doing anything. I look around and find a room with lots of stickers in baskets. I start to hand out the stickers to people. Some people take the stickers and others are mad that I am doing this. They say that it has to be someone else handing out the stickers, that I am not authorized. I just smile at them and say “You have to make your own wishes or you will end up in a bottle.” After I gave the stickers to everyone who wanted one I looked down at my fingernail to make sure the carousel was still there. When I looked up I was now standing in a field of tall grass – and there was a dirt trail leading off into the mountains. Suddenly a man with bright orange hair came up to me. I knew him, a long long time ago. He asked me which way to the mountains and I pointed to the trail but warned him that the way was not like it looked. There were things that he should know about the trail before he walked it. I told him that I could help him but first I needed to buy some groceries to bring with us. I turned to walk over to a vegetable stand where there were big bushels of chard, collards and spinach. As I was paying for the vegetables I turned my head to see that the orange haired man was already walking up the path. I called out for him to wait. He just turned around, waved at me and then kept walking. “How sad” I thought. Another man whose dreams will end up in a bottle.
Suddenly the carousel started to itch underneath my fingernail and I looked at it. Even though it was so tiny I could tell that there was a piece missing. I started to look all over the ground for it and in my pockets….everywhere. I could not find it. Then I remembered about the light in my bellybutton. I thought that if I could make the carousel big again then I could ask the little woman with wings where the missing piece was. I needed to find a safe place to do this where no one would see. I found a room (don’t know where I was at this point) and made the carousel big and spoke with the tiny winged woman. She said that if I brushed my hair I would find it. How funny that was I thought. I never brush my hair. I wonder what else I might find…………

Someone told me yesterday that for the past three years Spain has received very little rain and that Barcelona had begun negotiations with towns to the north about ciphering more water into the city district. I haven’t made any efforts to validate the weight of this comment (from my young German, soon-to-be-ex, room-mate) and I don’t think it’s on many people’s minds at the moment – because it’s raining! We’ve had several rainy days since I’ve been here and they’ve all been rather pleasant – in the ways that rain is pleasant, of course! However today (day 2) is downright cold and wet. All of the café’s and metro-trains are crowded with escapees from the sharp wind and consistent drizzle. In fact I myself am sitting in a café right now. I had to get off of the metro because it was SO packed full of people it was creeping me out. And anyway, I’m meeting up with Debbie and Mario to practice Spanish in an hour so this works out well – I can get some much-needed writing done.

The past week was the final stage of my first ‘term’ (not that it is really a term like were used to thinking about school terms, it’s more like a ‘theme’) at school. It was three days of student presentations – the ‘showing’ of work(s) thus far….relating to our first topic of the year, Identity. I was pleasantly surprised by everyone. I thought that I already knew what some people were up to because all of the studio spaces are open and you can see people’s work – but when they presented their finished art it was as if I had never seen it before. There is something really potent about the WAY something is presented – it changes the piece of work COMPLETELY. I think I’ve been lazy (and shy) in this area in the past – in fact I think that I generally invalidate my work and feel it’s unworthy of presentation or of inviting viewers. I dunno, something like that. Anyway, the presentations were wonderful. Not only was it inspiring to see that variety of mediums everyone chose but also the discussions that surrounded their intentions and their process- I somehow feel closer to everyone…I feel less ‘alone’ in the world of creativity and experimentation and art. Hhmmm, maybe I can be more to the point here: I’ve inhibited myself from doing a lot of things (creatively) because I was afraid to experiment, afraid to admit that I had no idea what the hell I was doing, that I just had a vision and I wanted to make it real, that I would make a bunch of mistakes in the process of discovery and that that would need to be okay – but it wasn’t. I’ve caged myself with unrealistic restrictions and felt utterly alone – duh! Now after being around other people who are diving into the creative/artistic process I ‘get’ that experimentation, trial and error, exploration, research and a ‘just-go-for-it’ attitude are paramount in producing works of art that resemble your vision, or at least your intention! I feel like the walls of my cage are melting – I expect I’ll be seeing things through a fresh lens.
This week we’ve begun our new theme, minimalism. Though it’s ‘roots’ lie in rather elitist rebellion in efforts to expand the boundaries of abstract expressionism – I will not be tapping into that mind-frame for my work. Instead I am looking at the project as ‘minimizing’….and I will be toning down my otherwise elaborate and embellished habits of ‘decorating’ everything I do.

I'm still twisting my head over the Spanish language. It feels like I take several steps forward and then spend 2 weeks running backwards. It's all a big jumble except for random vocabulary words like: CANDLE, TRY, SLOW, FUN, SWEAT, RELAX and WIFI. I spent five hours in a cafe last night with Debbie (from school) and Mario, a Columbian transplant. We played word games and talked and just generally enjoyed the slow-evolution of reaching understandings. It interesting to learn that Spanish has so many dialects - and I don't mean accents. The language is quite different from country to country and in Spain, region to region. For instance in Columbia they don't really pronounce their S's. So the very common saying: es lo mismo (it's the same) is said: E lo mimo - by my friend Mario. Keep in mind he also speaks very quickly and rolls all of the words together so it really sounds more like "elo mio" which I hear as "It's mine". It certainly makes conversations rather hilarious....in addition to frustrating :)

Word up to all of you shopping addicts and travel lovers - ALL of Barcelona goes on sale in January. Every store literally puts everything they have on the shelf and marks it down by up to 75%. It's all the rage - evryone's taking about it. So save up and come visit me in January!!

con besos-

The Mountains

The blinds on the windows in Barcelona are a bit like garage doors. They roll up and down – pulled by a rope on the interior side of the house. They can be let down to “close/cover” the window yet still allow air to flow through small holes. Or you can close it further – folding closed even the slits of small holes. At night I close mine almost completely, even the small holes for they also let in the street light that I would rather have shut out. I leave the top ten rows of holes open for air and morning light – and I can tell when it is 7:30AM because the orange glow of the street light disappears and the soft blue of dawn seeps in through the slits of the blinds. Yesterday morning started just this way, my newly awake eyes watching the light change – and knowing then that it was time to get up. I would be going to the forest!
I had recently heard of a nature preserve area behind the mountain range that nestles the city into it’s crescent moon shape – complete with hiking trails, rivers and small villages. My friends, Mara, Eric and Michael, would be joining me for a days’ trek into the wilderness – as would a small Daschund named Sally.
The underground metro from my house to Placa Catalunya takes about 20 minutes and from there you can catch the FGC trains (much like the metro really) to the further reaches of the city. 10-15 minutes on the train brings you to Baixador de Vallvidrera – the gateway to Parc de Collserola. We procured a small walking map from the information center which sits just up the hill from an old farm house – now made into a museum to show the life and work of a Catalonian poet who laid the foundation for contemporary Catalan literature. If only I could remember his name………
We were soon off – on the purple trail heading towards we-don’t-care-where-we’re-just-so-happy-to-be-here. Our first vista was a view of the interior crevasses between several mountain folds. Within this beautiful tree-filled area are a couple of very-Spanish looking villas….straight out of a story-book. For the first time since my arrival here I felt like I was really in the heart of Spain (and I’m not!)…..everything suddenly felt very SPANISH…..it’s breath-taking. Our four hour walk took us up and down hillsides, through oak thickets, over beautiful vistas and through small villages of earth-colored homes. We passed mountain bikers, vivacious elderly walkers, children in bare feet and happy smiles, friendly dogs and butterflies. Eventually we found our way to Tibidabo, a cathedral and (get this) “Theme Park” (because we all want to pray and play!!) that sits on the highest hill of the Collserola Mountains. Although Tibidabo boasts a very odd atmosphere it also provides one of the most incredible views of Barcelona…..all the way to the ocean and beyond…..to the edge of the world! Eric had been carrying a green melon in his bag and chose this perfect moment to announce that fact – and share it’s delicious meat with us.
Tibidabo is easily accessible by road – which means that we were now closer to civilization than we were ready for so we decided to try to find a way down the hill that was off the road. Low and behold a small foot trail revealed itself – it was a maintenance path for the electric lines – and the perfect trail for four adventurous souls who wanted a slow reintroduction back to the city. About an hour later, and some minor trail blazing on our parts, we entered the back end of Horta…..the northern most barrio of Barcelona. The first turn down the small street led us to a park – where there grew a persimmon tree. Eric saw this fruit and quickly turned into a monkey. Within a second he was up in the branches and tossing ripe orange fruit into our hands below. It was like a dream. Michael soon joined Eric in the branches and Mara and I had this moment of awareness: “we just hiked through the most beautiful woods in Spain, trekked through the tundra with total trust, landed in the coolest city and now have two men tossing fresh organic fruit into our hands, straight from the tree.” Needless to say - it was a beautiful day.

Catalunya

Okay, my love affair with Barcelona has come to the point when the bitter-sweet truth must be discussed. I’ve never been one to beat around the bush – so for the sake of raw honesty, this city stinks! I’m not being figurative here, it literally stinks – as in foul odor, smells bad, “pee-ewe”, stench, reek, pong, tang……..ultimately a hold-your-nose kind of waft to the air. I say “thank god the beach is close” or we’d (ahem) be up shits creek.
I imagine that Venice (Italy) smells very similar (es lo mismo) – and actually I asked my “Barcelonian” flat-mate, Alicia, if she knew that to be true – and she does. It is. It’s like their sewage system runs just below the surface of the streets – and the streets have vents!
Whatever the issue, it’s rather unpleasant, especially on these hot and humid days. Did I mention that it’s humid? I finally bought one of those hand-fans that look oh-so-feminine to use while in the metro (underground es hace MUCHO calor y humidio!) and wouldn’t you know it…..I bought one that suggests political conflict! It’s red and orange and says “Espana” in beautiful letters across the fan blades and there’s a picture of a bull. Well, for those of you who don’t know about Catalunya’s history allow me to share (in brief) that the Catalonian people have GREAT resistance to Spain and fiercely believe in their right to exist as a free state/country. They have their own language, culture etc. and DO NOT LIKE BULLFIGHTING! So as you can see…..my new fan causes me to loose some points with the locals! Tomorrow is September 11th – Catalunya’s day of mourning for the battle they lost almost 300 years ago – a reminder of what they’re fighting for. Everything is closed, except for the historical museums and all over the city the gold and red flag hangs from balconies. There are usually (so I’m told) demonstrations and activists in Placa Espana (one of the central plazas) – I’m planning on heading out of town! I toyed with the idea of going to Valencia for four days (no school on Thurs or Friday) but it proved to be more expensive than was comfortable so instead I convinced my local language exchange friend (Alex) to drive me to Figueres where there is a Dali museum – open on the holiday!

I found the flea market today – el mercat de encants velles (that’s Catalan) Gotta love a flea market! I need to pick up art supplies for school and have found the local stores either very expensive or weak in product and hadn’t purchased anything yet. Then today at the mercat I found a big canvas for 6 euros, fabric for 2 euros a meter, a leather pelt for 5 euros, and spools of thread for an average of 75 centavos a spool. Then later I was walking through my little barrio (neighborhood) and found a store with fabric paints. The ‘it’s almost impossible to find’ was found – by chance! My happy delirium sent me across the street to this beautiful looking restaurant where I ordered a pizza with york (sweet ham) and pinas (pineapple). Sadly my happy delirium was quickly turned to vapor – as the restaurant filled with smoking patrons and my pizza tasted like moldy mineral water with bursts of salty sugar. Don’t you worry though - I know how to cheer myself right up! Yes, yes……the sexy Argentinean man who sells gelato. I went for a little visit – and a little dulce de leche ☺ All better!

Aye mi madre!

My sincerest apologies.....I've been neglecting you. It's been WAY too long since I've posted here - been so immersed in life overseas.

I'll paste something a wrote last week (or so) after this note - since I don't have much else to add at the moment. It's not that things aren't happening - or that I don't have stories to tell......it's just that time thing......and I've been inspired at school (can you hear the angels singing?) so my focus has been elsewhere. I should be getting some pics (from my friend who has a digital camera) from a trip I took up North to Figueres to see the Dali museum - a TOTAL trip! and I'll post them once I have them - and internet access.

As is common with me I'm making a lot of British friends - can't help it - we just always end up getting on famously. So there's this small gaggle of women (me being the only American) artists who always seem to find some interesting place to settle in for the day (last week it was a market stall - 2 women from my school rented a booth for the day to sell their work) and laugh - a lot! It's a good 'ol time.
I'm also remembering to spend time with my Spanish friends - who are a wonderful help to me with the language. Alex and Pepa - (who haven't met eachother yet....but I'm scheming a get-to-gether!) are both brilliant humans and delightful companions. I was really ill with a nasty flu for 10 days and didn't get out to do anything - just practiced Spanish from my "Spanish for Dummies" book. It's pretty good actually - but conversation with others is invaluable.

More to come soon, I promise.

con abrazos y besos-
Robyn

La dee dah

Hello all!

Can you believe it’s been two weeks?

I have to tell you that siesta’s are the best invention, ever! The life-style here is so intelligent – which is probably why the people seem so relaxed, so content, so….. together. I know, I know….they can’t be reduced to such a general observation – I am just loving the “la-dee da” stroll that seems to permeate the streets. Summer’s almost over though, maybe I’ll see a change in the energy.

I moved into my new flat. Yes, I had to say goodbye to Gloria and her wonderful hospitality (and I must add this embarrassing little note….her name isn’t Gloria. It’s Maria Dolores! Please don’t ask how I got Gloria from that, or why she never corrected me when I said “Gloria, es me Angel!” I have no answer!). She insisted on having my mobile phone number though so she could invite me to her Paella dinners. It’s nice to think that perhaps she enjoyed me as much as I enjoyed her. My other friends in the building: Ramon – the doorman and (another) Maria (and her two delightful daughters Arriana and Lucia) also insisted that we stay in touch and find occasions to meet up again. Little Arriana intelligently planned a cooking day (peanut-butter bears!) for me and invited me to her 5th birthday party. She cried when I was leaving ☹ I was a bit sorrowful to leave the beautiful, tree-filled foothills of Sarria, Sant Gervasi too – especially since I was headed to L’Hospitalet.

L’Hospitalet de Llobregat is, shall we say, rough around the edges but not without charm. It’s a barrio (neighborhood) just on the outskirts of Barcelona proper. It’s a working-class area backed by an industrial-fiesta of production warehouses. The ‘town’ itself has the magic that areas with little ‘extra’ money often have – a creative flair, tons of Asian restaurants, active people (women carrying 8 HEAVY plastic bags full of groceries and laundry) and raucously-wild teenagers. I’ve also seen a prostitute or two……I think. It’s hard to say. My gay-dar and my whore-dar are apparently not working very well in Europe. My school is a 10-15 minute ride on the metro in an area known as Sants – which is in Barcelona. Also a working-class neck of the woods but with a little more of interest than here in L’Hospitalet. (I start classes on Wednesday)

My flat is an oasis in the middle of no-where-land. It’s on the first floor (a hop up from ground level) of a modest 4-story building. The entire floor is big Spanish tile and the décor matches. (pottery, odd-shaped bottles, old native tools, wooden barrels, bull skulls. It’s very Spanish-Mediterranean – and I like it.) It’s very roomy…plenty of ‘living’ space….which is rare for this price range – rare in fact for most ‘student’ flats in Barcelona. My room is the smallest of the three but it is the ONLY room that has French doors that open up to the HUGE private terrace! Being as how this is summer and I’m in Spain…I’m very happy about this fact. Come winter, I may change my tune….but that’s later.

I’ve yet to find a food market near my new home. The only thing I found was a market called Dia – which sells things that resemble food but are actually just processed chemical experiments wrapped in colorful packages. They have a bread called “bimbo”. Need I say more? I think that the Sants area will have more to offer me. Then I can get one of those old-lady wheely carts (just for you mom!) to truck my groceries home in ☺

Onward and forward with project Barcelona!