Janell Draper | Barcelona Night | Acrylic | 2003

In Barcelona there is daytime, but there is also the day after the sun goes down.  Two years ago, I spent a weekend in Barcelona and thought I had wandered into a strange corner of heaven.  The daytime is quiet and slow and siesta very long; like me without my coffee, when I just can’t manage to get moving.  As darkness falls, energy begins to fill the air and the day at night begins.  The city wakes up and people fill the streets; not just trendy club-goers, but grandparents out for a stroll and families with children in tow.  Shops that were locked and empty during the day come to life, bringing a warm glow to the cobbled streets through tiny shop windows reflecting on the sandy, stone walls.  The whole thing felt rather otherworldly, and suppose it was, because it was nothing like my world in Minnesota. I recall returning to my hostel in the early morning hours, worn out from the excitement of the night and being astonished to hear through my fourth story window the buzz of a hundred people below, still filling the streets long after this night owl had turned in.