"The quality of life in Spain was a breath of fresh air, especially compared to the Bay Area where everyone seems in a panic to only work work work. The atmosphere was so relaxed, with bustling food markets brimming with fresh everything, squares with cafes and little parks for the kids to play in while their parents chatted and drank wine. Europeans value their free time. My expectations for the trip were elementary, in the sense that I expected it to be warm and sunny every day and that I would just wander around, eat and scribble in parks. My trip did not disappoint!

For some reason I expected Valencia to be nestled right up to the mountains, much like Barcelona, but it wasn’t. The landscape was very flat and much bigger than I expected. I was surprised by all the abandoned buildings and vacant lots, in the last two cities I have lived in land is so expensive every square foot is occupied and fenced off. There is no open space. Valencia on the opposite seemed very open.

I’ve drawn one person taking another person on a trip, carrying them around, supporting their weight for a time. Much like this Jaunt experience. The colors in the print refer to the colors that I found most prominent in Spain. The blue of the Mediterranean and sky and the terracotta red of the rich soil."

Travel diary

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Day 1 : Valencia … my watch tells me I wandered over 20 km today … I haven’t been to Europe in almost 5 years and had forgotten how beautifully Europeans engage with their cities … the parks … the squares…the bars spilling out onto the streets … kids playing football down the alley … sounds reverberating off the rows of buildings late at night … laughter and the clink of bottles … I love you already Valencia

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Day 2 : met up with a Canadian friend last night and wandered the maze of the old city drinking beer and looking at all the murals and architectural wonders … somehow managed to get up early today and go for a short freezing swim in the Mediterranean … my mind is boggled by the layers upon layers of history and color and the motion of all the people in the streets … this afternoon I am going to take a break from the sun and try to conjure up a drawing of my time in Valencia so far …

Monday, January 22, 2018

Day 3 … Valencia forced me to slow down today … it was a city holiday and everyone was just having coffee in the squares and walking their dogs … I wandered lost … hoping I might bump into a grocery store but only the corner stores were open so I had a diet of oranges , bananas and potato chips … lots of lazy drawing in the park

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Day 4 : today I left the city and walked out into the countryside… to a strange No-man’s land of rice fields , Roma encampments, pomegranate trees and wild cats …. The sun is strong and my shoes have holes in them … I have walked 110 km in 4 days … in the evening my friend showed up from Berlin and we went on some dive bar exploration … bar brawls and all

Thursday, January 25, 2018

The final day of jaunting through Valencia… I rented a bike to take on as much as I could … from beaches, farms on the edge of town, crumbling old port squats, the central market … I even went to see the supposed holy grail …. I am going to miss the density and crush of everything … the mixture of the urban planning which has farm plots, factories, houses, churches all squished together on random blocks … the age and detail and decay of the architecture… my eyes are going to be bored back home ! Thanks the jaunt …