¡Hola!

Hey!

Unfortunately, I was out traveling for a good part of this week and will be out most of next week as well. However, I did get some reading done and have some dates set for completing the mural.

The second chapter of Joyful began by telling an astonishing story, the story of Tirana, Albania. At the close of the 20th century, Tirana was considered a dangerous and ‘ugly’ city. Rampant poverty and crime made it one of Europe’s least visited cities. However, when a new mayor was elected, artist Edi Rama, Tirana became quickly revitalized; poverty and crime rates fell and tourism once again became commonplace. How? Rama did not invest millions into welfare programs or cut corporate taxes – in fact, he did nothing at all in the economic sense. Instead, Rama mobilized hundreds of artists to repaint and redecorate the city. Within months, the city turned from a largely gray landscape into one of the most colorful cities in the world. And just as that transformation happened, crime seemed to magically recede. Could this have been just one huge coincidence? Or does color really have that much of an influence on our actions?

The rest of the chapter talked about the power of color; Lee observed the across a multitude of cultures, the feeling of joy is inextricably attached to bright, saturated color. The beautiful colors during the Indian festival of Holi, bright reds and yellows during Chinese New Year, brilliant feathered costumes in the Brazilian Carnival… so on and so forth.

I also met with my principal to finalize dates; I’ll be doing the mural afterschool over the first week of May! Sorry juniors, I’ll have to take the senior lounge back 😉

I headed off to Cabo San Lucas this week on a family vacation. It’s so warm…something I’m going to miss a ton next year on the East Coast. Practiced my Spanish (all I remember is hola and gracias!) and ate a ton of seafood.

See you all next week 🙂