D is for Drawing, Dali, and Dunkin Donuts

D is for Barcelona.
Because this trip involved a lot of drawing, some inspiration from Dali, and the re-discovery of Dunkin Donuts.

Duh.

In my junior year of high school I travelled with my art class to spend a week absorbing the zany, local architecture, visiting museums and enjoying the easy laid back culture of Barcelona.  At the end of the trip the sketch books we'd carried all week were collected and graded- we were never found without pencil in hand documenting the artwork that is literally all around you and our responses to it.

My sketch book is one of my favorite "souvenirs" from that trip. Even more so than the meager photographs I took.

It transports me back to...

1. squatting on the roof of Gaudi's Casa Batlló drawing mosaic chimney's
2.  searching my imagination to understand the point of view behind this Joan Miro painting. 
3. lying on the floor of Salvador Dali's theatre and museum in Figueres trying not to lose my mind in his labyrinth of melting clocks and staircases that lead to nowhere
4. and failing to capture the magnitude of the Bascilica of the Sagrada Familia with a piece of charcoal.

 Unfortunately I have no idea where my sketchbook is. It's lost. I think I had it in college, maybe in a dorm room, and then on a shelf in my first apartment. I think I took it to my studio senior  year and then packed it up when I graduated. It's in box somewhere or stored in a closet. I hope it made it to D.C with me and it's just waiting to be found when I pack everything up and move on again. Or maybe I threw it away and it's gone forever. The reality of a transitory life. 

So I had this whole post planned out where I would show some of my sketches next to the photograph and it was going to be so cool. Change of plans. Fortunately when my mom last visited she brought me this treat:

Envelopes full of memories. See, most of my pictures from high school were taken before I had a digital camera, and definitely before I had a camera on my phone. These photos were taken back when you had to drop your pictures off at the shop and wait for them to be developed. Back when you had to have a college email address to join Facebook.  Back when I was toting a sketch book and enjoying paella and tapas on the beach in Spain....sigh. 

Anyway, I'm sure you're wondering where the Dunkin Donuts part comes in. 

They don't have a DD in England and donuts aren't really a thing there anyway. So when you're far from home, and even farther from where "you come from," finding a Dunkin Donuts in Barcelona is quite the camera-worthy moment. 

This is a memory I'm glad I did not lose along with my sketchbook.