The What Goes Around Blog

Long Distance Letting Go

I’ve been in Melbourne, Australia for a few days, mixing business with pleasure. In addition to my consulting work and catching up with a few friends, I made and placed a few art drops.

I started with a couple of small pieces of kindness, which are a pencil and water colour note on the reverse of a postcard with a Winged Heart print on the other side. I noticed racks and racks of bicycles in the city and I used a couple of these as temporary easels to place the art.

I also painted a piece of Winter Ice plus an untitled piece – a kind of floral/plant like abstract.

I left the Winter Ice on Bourke Street and when I returned to the scene of the crime about 90 minutes later, it had gone. I Instagrammed the second piece, which I placed on the other side of the city at the Shrine of Remembrance, and on this occasion – the finder contacted me to let me know they had the art. I really appreciated that.

I made one last piece, which I forgot to place so I’ve brought it back to London to leave locally later in the week.

I often find it difficult to place the art and walk away from it, letting go is hard. I felt this very strongly when the project first started (self doubt – who is going to want one of these…?), and I really noticed this feeling returning strongly while I was away. I guess that at home, people now know about the free art drops. They seek them out, often letting me know when they’ve been discovered, whereas on unfamiliar territory – they are once again unfamiliar. Will anybody want them?

Winter Ice

I am continuing to adapt the elemental art idea. I recently blogged about Autumn Fire, and this new collection, titled Winter Ice – is a variation on that theme. I painted these images overlaying various shades of acrylic paint, finished with silver leaf.

Winter Ice : I and II are sold. Winter Ice : III was left as a piece of free art in Reykjavik.

Departure

I heard some very sad news this week. Tim Kitchin, a friend and colleague is no longer with us. I first met Tim back in 2008 when I still inhabited corporate life, and we both had strong interests in sustainability from a business perspective. We stayed in touch and I was the beneficiary of his smart, critical thinking, and his humour, on many occasions. I was very excited when he joined the Ethos partnership of which I too am a part, back in March 2016. This gave us the opportunity to work closer together. That’s over now, and I miss him.

This week’s free art drop is a work made to acknowledge how I am currently feeling about this loss. A couple of people who know Tim and who have also seen the art, say the colours remind them of his warmth. That works for me.

Part of my purpose in the free art project has always been about learning to let go. This particular art drop will be the hardest one I’ve had to let go of so far.