Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Lisbon Street Art

lisbon street art hayley gibney-palmer
























Lisbon was a last minute alteration to my itinerary, added while in Madrid.  Ridiculously hot, bored (I know, I know... bored!  What a spoiled brat I am), on a bit of a flat after falling head over heels in love with Barcelona, and lonely, I booked myself onto an ultra cheap flight and met up with my lovely girlfriend Claudia for a couple of nights, and a little taste of Portugal.

I didn't get to see too much of the place, but I did spend a day wandering around Bairro Alto, the strangely deserted area of trendy sneaker shops, alternative cafes, design shops and boutiques, wallpapered with graffiti of all varieties, only coming to life after the sun goes down.  
The stencils, although they aren't that detailed and aren't particularly sharp, were completely adorable - most were about 10cm high.  The rabbit trailing a watch popped up all over the area. 

The only sad bit is that there is so much random, artless scribble around, that some of the really cool larger pieces are badly obscured.  But fun to stalk nonetheless!

Monday, July 7, 2008

City of Inspiration (still stuck on Barcelona)


What makes a place inspiring?  As a person on the outside of that creative circle within the population, the people that need inspiration to stay sane and pay the rent, it's a concept that I'm not 100% sure of.

A question to my friends whose careers, dreams, or all-consuming hobbies require inspiration - what makes a place inspiring?  Please, enlighten me!

I want to know because even though it's a concept I just don't get, I do feel the effects.  I have spent my whole time in Barcelona cursing myself for leaving my notebook at the hostel, cursing my pen for running out of ink, and cursing the city of Barcelona for seemingly not selling pens.  Anywhere.

Now that I have pen, notebook, and free time (9 hour train to Madrid), I can finally pen my ideas!

Aaaand that's the end of the blog!  Sorry, the journal gets the ideas, the blog gets the rant requesting definitions of loose concepts.

But really, I would like to know why a place inspires you.  Tell me.

Barcelona Street Art