As the US economy spirals through free fall into chaos, and our stock portfolios waste away. (WaMu we hardly knew ye) allow me to sidebar you with an artistic tangent. Antoni Gaudí is one of those architects who you just know was scoffed at when he was initially designing. His architectural style is such a radical departure from most anything else, that his early ridicule is expected. (Much like my own pastel experiment on Cannon Dr.)

All throughout Barcelona you can find the architecture of Gaudi, but two places seem to stand above the rest. The Passeig de Gracia has a few buildings among the old mansions that are impressive and distinctly Gaudi. The curves and organic forms really stand apart from even the most showy of the other buildings (and no, the word gaudy is not a derivative of Gaudi, just happenstance folks).

Sagrada Familia is Gaudi’s unfinished masterpiece. It is the original mashup. The various styles and materials used throughout seem like they would never make sense all in one piece, but some how they do. In what is mostly a stark marble colored structure you find unexpected elements of color and texture. For instance, the tops of the spires are capped with organic color representing nature.

Inside you see Gaudi, who was a devout Catholic, has a deep reverence for nature as he models not only the columns after trees, but the leaves of palms interlocking above to create support. In addition, you will begin to notice details like the stacking of support column blocks in a manner similar to the way leaves grow on certain plants.

What really set this place apart for me though was the work of Josep Maria Subirachs. His work alone deserves its own post, but it was an amazing rendition of the Passion and quite a departure from Gaudi’s original plan. There has been a lot of debate about whether this building should be completed and open to the interpretations of other artists, but Gaudi himself wanted it that way and it is a good thing in my humble opinion. Seeing this style did make me wonder if Bruce Timm, an artist from Batman:The Animated Series didn’t incorporate this into his work…