Week Four I Believe!

And so another week comes to a close, and it was just as full, and even more amazing than the previous.  We began our week with a tour of the Baroque age.  I found Borromini to be fascinating not only as a designer who layers meaning and complex geometry to create spaces, but as a personality who sort of epitomizes the brooding artist that is under appreciated in his age.  Getting to know the stories and people behind the places brings them to life almost more than anything else could.

This week we also spent time sketching at Piazza Sant' Ignazio.  This little Baroque beauty basically got the best of me I would say.  It's complex curves and ellipses were very tricky, so I mostly ended up practicing a lot of ellipses.  Despite not producing a "finished" sketch, I think I got a lot of practice sketching geometry, so that was good in the end.

To conclude my week, I boarded a plane at Rome Ciampino Airport and headed to a city I have craved to experience for so long... Barcelona, Spain!  And it did not disappoint.  We (Jen, Scarlett, Corinne, and Meghan W.) planned a very packed agenda that included La Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera (both Gaudi projects), as well as the Modern Art Museum (by Richard Meir), The Picasso Museum, the Barcelona Pavillion (by Mies Van der Rohe), and the Olympic Park.  It was amazing to see the work of some of my heroes including Gaudi and Mies, and I was fulfilling a life long obsession by stepping in to the Sagrada Familia, which was truly a tour de force, and a testament to Gaudi's faith and devotion, as well as to the spirit of a people committed to these same values over the course of it's 130 years of construction.