I couldn’t even believe my eyes. Here I am 7 years later walking the streets of #barshawlona (my home). My heart beats feverishly out of my chest of with loads of joy. Déjà vu like whoa. It’s even more special because I have the reign to showcase my city to my lover for his first time. All the feels of feels being felt.

Honestly, it has taken me a little bit of time to even begin to digest everything that I have just encountered and experienced. First with my fellowship and then post fellowship adventures in the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. I’ve hardly scratched the surface and don’t quite know what to share first and/or what medium to share on.

I’ve found that face to face conversations have barely even covered my true experience. The questions have been basic and straight forward … I let the other person lead the conversation and get their questions squared away before launching into my own topics of choice.

Today I want to share with you the art life on the streets [in Barcelona]. The thing that makes everyday the best day ever and one day better than the next is the urban lifestyle of being on the streets and wandering through different neighborhoods. Each neighborhood has a unique sense of architecture, persona demonstrated through retail shops/ bodegas and overall vibe. Leading yourself left and right and through and straight straight … taking you on a new sense of adventure every turn. You experience the noise of a variety of languages vibrating in your eardrums. And seeing how to capture the moment with even a half sense of what it feels to be physically present.

While studying abroad in 2011, I enrolled in a Photojournalism class. After learning 101 abilities with our hand held point and shoot cameras we were to hit the streets of Barcelona. Our teacher Photo Fred enlightening us that the true life of Barcelona is on the streets, witnessing the people and interactions. Assignment 1 : create a Photo essay. Sounds simple enough, pick a time and a day to go out and collectively take a series of related photos (5 to 7) that will tell a story.

☆ being the over achieving Michigan student I was … I wrote a 4 page essay and had the photos to share as well.

Low and behold, the “photo essay” was truly just meant to be photos and no words. (Insert- monkey with face over eyes emoji). With seeing the photos the viewer was able to understand a story or the photographers point of perspective. LOL. Needless to say I did get an A on assignment 1 & lesson learned for assignment 2 … no worded essay necessary.

Taking the photo journalism very seriously I spent the semester working on my photo skills. It worked to my advantage as I could use the photos for my Journalism 2.0 class as well. The class was all about best practices for blogging and creating quality content.

Long story long … because I can’t help myself but to share all of the details and back story. Scroll back up and take a look at the first photo, and now scroll back down and see this photo from 7 years ago March 2011 taken by my Verizon Wireless Blackberry.

Do you notice any similarities ?

One day when walking home from school alone I came across this comical ” piece of art ” by the garbage can. It cracked me up. While it meant something for a short while, the image escaped my mind for years to come.

Before my euro trip I purchased a new camera to improve the quality of my photography skills. As it has been a hot minute since my days of photo Fred class. A cool thing we learned when booking our AirBnb for Barc was that they now offer “experiences”. We signed up for a session for Photography & Street Art of El Raval, a neighborhood that has been gentrified since I was last in barc.

Flash forward the artist that resonated with me 7 years ago is a featured artist at Base Elements gallery. Base Elements gallery was the final stop on our “photography and street art tour of el raval”. The artist’s name is Francisco De Pajaro! My man. I’m sure you find this as cool as I do. He is an emerging older artist who is taking the streets as his bitch. Unfortunately he was in Valencia when we were in town and did not get the opportunity to meet him. We happily purchased a piece of his to add to our art collection.

I’ve been having many full circle moments recently. I believe that if you live your truth you will be more mindful of how many full circle moments appear to your consciousness.

Do you. Refresh your skills. Re learn to excel.

Keep on…

Livin The Life,

Barshawlona