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-