Hi. My name is Serena. I’m twenty. And I just spent 4 months in Barcelona.
I took a course at the Universitat de Autonoma Barcelona (UAB) called Urban Interventions, Graffiti & Public Sculpture. Our final project was to make a powerpoint presentation on an artist we admire or to create our own artwork to share with the class. Throughout the semester we learned about dozens of artists, both local to Barcelona and from around Europe who have inspired the world with their verve and creativity.
Just to name a few…
Roadsworth, Banksy, Jan Vormann
and JR
Artists like these remind me how important it is to challenge yourself creatively and exercise your right to freedom of expression. They all have very different styles and beat to their own drums but when I think about what all of these artists have in common. Two characteristics stick out to me.
They stand for something. & They are fearless.
Fearless about expressing their opinions and even sometimes breaking the law to make a statement or add a little color to the world.
Their excitement to create, and share what they create for the public is what inspired me to make my own artwork because I have so many ideas and things I want to express… but I don't always execute them. In light of this, I really wanted to push myself during my final days in Barcelona to create something that would commemorate my time abroad and kind of mark where I am in life right now and my thoughts during this time.
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How "Twenty in Barcelona" Began
Each of my teachers at UAB were a m a z i n g. They didn’t just want us students to learn straight from a textbook or come into class and be robots. They wanted us to actually learn about life, engage both in and out of the classroom, question things, have fun, and be happy people.
Here is my notebook from this semester that I got on the very first day
at orientation.
Throughout the semester in addition to my regular notes from lecture I wrote down anything and everything that resonated with me that my teachers had said.
Flipping back through those pages as my experience was coming to an end, I realized that their words had shaped both me as a person and how I spent my time here. And they are what sparked the design for my project.
The crossword-puzzle arrangement is filled with these quotes from my professors and some of my personal favorite quotes I try to live by which I will talk about in future posts!
The silhouette is from a photo of my mom when she was seventeen, the background behind her is a photo I took of the famous Gaudi flower tiles on the Barcelona sidewalks, and the teal, pink, and yellow stencils are from diagrams I learned about in my intercultural communications course
(which I will also elaborate on in another post) :).
The center piece has two figures in it. One on the left, and one on the right. The one on the left is saying "Has cambiado," meaning "you've changed." and the one on the right reads, "Eso espero," meaning "I'd hope so."
Change can be scary. It's the unknown. It's sometimes uncomfortable. It's uncertain as to where it will take you.
But it can also be a really, really good thing.
It is change that has brought me to the best times of my life.
I went to high school.
Met some of my best friends in the world, learned so much, laughed so much, got the opportunity to travel, absolutely loved it.
Then I graduated.
Had to choose what college to go to.
Moved out of state, 8 hours away from home.
Met some more of the best friends I could ever ask for, loved my classes, joined a service sorority, laughed some more, learned some more, absolutely loved it.
Abroad semester comes.
I move to Spain.
I traveled every other weekend, learned more than I ever have in classes, met some more incredible people, laughed so much it hurt.... absolutely. loved. it.
It is through change that I
have grown.
Have had new experiences.
Have met new people.
Have seen new places.
Have gained new perspectives.
Even though it is hard to leave behind an experience I loved so much,
I am excited for the adventure that change will bring me to next.
So I think that we should seek and embrace change, not fear it.
Embrace the ebbs, flows and evolutions that allow us to grow.
Imagine your life if nothing had ever changed.
All of the uncertainty, all of the unknown, all of the scary changes you have endured have made you who you are today and brought you to the life you currently have. If that is a life you aren't happy with right now, I hope you can find comfort in knowing that with determination and courage, the next chapter of your life could bring a whole new world of wonderful experiences.
The Execution
I made this piece on April 10th, 2019 from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Even after all I had learned in class about how it’s part of the graffiti game to go over others' work to continue the cycle of creation, I felt horrible covering artwork that they had probably worked so hard on. I walked up and down my favorite graffiti spots countless times trying to decide on a place to start. After I finally brought myself to spray the first stencil on a wall in this skate park I love, I couldn’t stop looking back and forth over my shoulder every 10 seconds because I thought that the person who did the work was going to come running up behind me and be mad at me.
As the morning went on, the park began to fill with people hanging out with their friends and rushing past me on their skateboards. I had all of my materials scattered on the ground around me, cans of spray paint, stickers, stencils, markers, not to mention my phone, camera, and backpack, so at first I was a little afraid one of them would zoom by me and steal something. But then, one young kid came up to me and said "yo, can I catch a tag?" I said yeah sure, and handed him one of my spray paint cans. Next to my artwork he quickly scribbled his tag (name), thanked me, and complimented what I had done so far.
A few other people came up to me to make little comments as well which was really cool.
A couple of hours in, I was really getting into the groove when the police drove up behind me. Thinking I was going to be arrested or told to leave the area, I nervously explained in Spanish that was a student and I was really sorry if I wasn't allowed to be there. They were really nice and and just asked me, "are you okay??". I guess it seemed odd to see a lone girl painting in a skate park full of guys.
After I had finished and walked across the skate park to leave, I turned back around to take one last look at my wall, and all of the people who had spent the morning skating around me, had gathered around what I had done. I know that in a few short days or weeks, “Twenty in Barcelona” will probably be covered up by another artist's work. But that doesn't matter. This was such a cool and rewarding experience and I am so happy I went out there to have my little Banksy moment.
I went back to the same spot a few days later and saw this.
A small change, but to see that someone had interacted with what I had originally put up was awesome.
“The highest purpose of art is to inspire.
What else can you do?
What else can you do for anyone but inspire them?”
-Bob Dylan
Things don't always go as planned and as smoothly as we may want them to, but I am thankful for the mishaps and distractions because it allowed the piece to be what it ended up to be, and made my experience out there creating it so much more meaningful to me.
Thank you to my teachers at UAB, the skaters in the park that day, and each and every person and place that made my abroad experience so special.
Because after all... i’ll never be Twenty in Barcelona again.
& to whoever made it this far, thank you for reading :)
more to come…
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