Finding the way to the Picasso Museum was a bit like wandering a labyrinth – at every turn new hope and at every dead-end two alternatives. The museum in Barcelona features many of the works that demonstrate Picasso’s rich training and obsessive attention to detail. The collection is a demonstration of vision matured by understanding. The collection is an invitation to anyone to develop skills with practice.

Now I would show you some of the 4300 items archived in the museum, alas you have been spared by the “no camera” rule. On the way the powerful graphics of the master painter and the master architect merge to create doorways leading to visual feasts.

The shaking news of the earthquake in Mexico City, the compounding death toll and the notes about family and from family make this doorway more than a memorial. This doorway launched many street drives that wove their way through Barcelona seeking money to help.

In the middle of a shaking world the people of Catalan are struggling for an independent identity within a large country. The immediate campaigns are encouraging the residents to vote, “Si” and the polls call it a draw. Youth are driven by ideals and dreams and they parade with vigour for Catalan and Mexico.

Along the sidewalk someone has whimisically crowned each street column with rainbow colours. The statement is both aesthetic and normative. This is a city where there is freedom.