Days 130–188: What is a picture worth in Valencia?
Painting my way to fluency
Let me tell you about my current work in progress. I’m working on her (very slowly) in a class at Arte43, one of a handful of small, independent art supply stores here in Valencia.
I’ve created her over the course of 4 sessions so far, spread out over the last several months. I discovered the shop and the class while accompanying a friend on a holiday shopping trip. On that day back in December I’d been in Spain for about 4 months and was just finishing up my first round of formal Spanish classes.
I was so excited to discover people making art in the back of the shop that I pushed past my fear and bashfulness to attempt to ask about the classes en español. The shop-keeps were patient enough with me to answer my questions both in Spanish (slowly) and in English, and that they didn’t just drop into English entirely sealed the deal. They were willing to welcome me into class with my rudimentary command of their language and, best of all, understood that I wanted to work on both my art and language skills while there.
At my first class I mostly kept my mouth shut, used a lot of gestures, and fumbled my way through a process that wasn’t the same as what I was used to — it was so awesome! That was on December 28.
At my second class I talked enough to explain that I’d missed the entire month of January due to Covid and had tiny conversation with classmates. I also got comfortable with brush-mixing (though I missed my trusty palette knife). That was on February 1.
At my third class I was able to understand more of the conversations happening around me (though I didn’t participate — I was pressed for time!) and navigated paying for class todos en español. I finished most of the block in. That was on February 10.
At my fourth class I held my own with a conversation with a classmate while waiting for the store to open, made my way through a conversation with my teacher about what had kept me from class the prior few weeks, and followed her feedback about how to make changes to my piece. That was on February 24.
I’m doing quite a lot beyond going to my art class to work on learning the language: working with apps, taking classes, working with a tutor, going to intercambios, using it in all dealings with people out in the world (cafeterias, stores, etc…) and using Spanish as often as I can muster it at home. A huge hurdle right now is mustering up the confidence to use what I’ve learned, and doing things like going to an art class where everyone is speaking Spanish is both showing me what I’ve learned and pushing me to do more.
While my painting has just about as far to go as my language skills, both are moving in the right direction, poco a poco. By the time I’m done with her, she’ll definitely be worth a thousand (Spanish) words (or more).
