In the studio

The other day I was sewing this book and I knew exactly where to push the needle in and out without having to look. It brought home how much I've learned in class this year. Nada to precise muscle memory.

Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez, president of the North Bennet Street School, writes that “When you become involved in the creative work of making useful, beautiful objects and gain a personal understanding of what is meant by the intelligence of the hands, it transforms who you are and how you think.”

It's hard to explain how doing rote tasks, like tearing down paper or sewing signatures (which is how I spend a lot of my time) is changing me. I guess that making useful, beautiful things just feels ... healthy. That's the best way I can describe it.

The other thing is that going to the bookbinding studio really makes me happy. I hate it when class is over, and sometimes when I'm doing other things I wish I was in class.

BOOK NERD. But that's old news ...

This little textblock got the royal treatment. I marbled the end papers and laminated the book cloth ... it is a rough red silk. The photos don't really capture how rich the color is.

hello raval

Spent last Saturday getting to know the Raval a bit. I visited a lot of neighborhoods in Barcelona when I was looking for an apartment (and finally settled here), but I didn't look in the Raval. It has a ... reputation. 

But then I discovered that the only bank in the city that would cash my paychecks was in the heart of the Raval. "Great," I thought, "exactly where I want to be with a wad of cash."  

But guess what? It wasn't sketchy. I found skateboarders, street art, a naan bakery, open air markets, and modern art museums. This is actually the part of Barcelona that feels the most like an American downtown to me. It's not charming, but it has soul.

Plus I ran into linotype machine hanging out in the courtyard of a former monastery here ... the dusty printing equipment follows me, I can't help it.

Also I saw Flo at a market. We go to bookbinding school together. She is also the owner of a business that sells rad handmade notebooks, covered with vintage cloth. Each book has an inscription inside that tells where the cloth came from.

Last weekend she was at the CCCB. Right now they have an exhibit about the Paral•lel. The avenue was Barcelona's entertainment and red light district before the Spanish Civil War, from about 1900-1930. For the exhibit, the galleries were dotted with theater posters that were full of really sweet wood type. Look at this 'A,' pulled from one of the posters:

And 'Marina,' IS THAT TWO COLOR WOOD TYPE??? It was hard to tell how the original was printed because they used an enlarged reproduction for the exhibit.

Photo dump

Last weekend Barcelona celebrated St. Eulalia day. I looked her up on wikipedia but wikipedia failed me ... I still only have a vague idea of what the giants, the eagles, and the free museums have to do with her. But I liked all of it, here are some pictures.

The street parade I saw finished in this church ... I have no words. I think what makes is so breathtaking is that the aesthetic is unified. Most gothic churches and cathedrals were not constructed in one fell swoop, but Sta. Maria at least looks that way. The pillars are unusually slim and light looking.

The Drasannes (shipyard) opened again this weekend after remodeling. I ended up getting a tour from their paper conservator. I learned that maritime museums are also like printing museums in that they have a variety of paper and 3D objects in wood and metal to conserve. The old Drasannes, which had been remodeled throughout the middle ages and renaissance, hadn't been remodeled since the 18th century, had a leaky roof and keeping the paper in good shape was impossible. Now they have a climate controlled storage room. Plus, they discovered that underneath the museum there is a roman cemetery. No biggie. 

I also went to the Pueblo Español over the weekend where I met Maria from Manera Negra. Do I find the print shops or do they find me?

One of Maria's artist books. Photo from her website. 

Open air architecture museum!

This is Montjuic ... the stone is a warm color, and especially near sunset it sort of glows. Hopefully this picture says it better:

And I don't think I've written about what a verdant paradise Barcelona is on this blog yet. EVERYTHING GROWS HERE. Even in February. It makes me want a garden and a whole bunch of houseplants. This is the greenhouse at the UB. And some more photos of the gardens inside the university courtyards.

I discovered the CaixaForum this weekend, too. It is in a factory built in the Catalan Modernist style, and part of it is full of cuneiform tablets right now. Which are really beautiful and (of course) old. I spent about two hours looking at the Sumerian stuff and about two minutes looking at the contemporary art show downstairs.

The colón at night. I've heard rumors that there's an elevator in there ...

And one time last week I went to Tarragona. With my church I helped with a project to repaint a home for people with mental disabilities. I don't have any photos of that part. But THIS IS WHAT THE MEDITERRANEAN LOOKS LIKE.

And what a Roman amphitheater looks like:

And this is what really happy India by the sea looks like:

sketchy activities

Despite all the good intentions (and instruction!) of former art professors, I've never latched onto observational drawing or painting and ended up being a printer.

Still, there's nothing like plopping yourself down in front of an important monument with a sketchbook and vague memories of how to work two point perspective. Sometimes nothing is as satisfying as a sketch.

Right now for my sketchbooks I am using this simple structure that Roz dreamed up for a visual journal collective meeting. (At MCBA. Go. Just go there.)

I love this flexible little structure because it's flat and lightweight and has a place to stick a pen it the middle, and it will fit in a small bag. The paper is bugra, which I picked because I love to draw on it. It's a nice 130g weight, laid, and comes in soft browns that make it feel like you're sketching on a toned background.

Some things in these sketches: Santa Maria del Mar, Luiz, and the Roman wall.

So you want to teach English in Spain?

Here's my unsolicited advice:

-Actually learn Spanish. Learning another language yourself will give you some personal experience to go on. You'll have a better grasp of what your students need. Also, you'll understand why students make the mistakes they do and be able to give them better feedback.

-The only thing ESL certifications do are sit pretty on your resume. Get thyself to something useful, like a linguistics class. I'd recommend taking a hispanic linguistics course, a phonetics class, or an English language course (like the kind they make editing students take) in college.

-Learn how to spell words in English. Standing in front of a class trying to remember if the 'i' comes before the 'e' in 'receive' is one of those things that spellcheck doesn't fix.

-Share your culture ... via stories, family photos, etc. We've done a great job of exporting our pop culture to the rest of the world... but students are not usually familiar with everyday American life. My students are always riveted whenever I talk about our house (they are amazed that it has a yard!), my family, what my parents do, etc.

-Teach like we teach in the US. Students will flip when you let them do things like write on the board, perform skits, draw pictures, listen to music, etc. In Spain, most subjects are taught through lectures. Here, that whole 'multiple learning styles' thing is only for preschoolers.

I came to Spain to go to bookbinding school, not teach English. But I'm glad that I've made the time for it. Teaching English for a few hours a week has actually improved my Spanish and gets me to ponder language in a way that bookbinding school does not. Now I feel like I see my own language from a different perspective.