Tag: letting go

Letting Go

A reminder of why I do what I do

I made this sketch on the morning of Saturday 9th February 2019. The wind was blowing outside and I was listening to this engrossing TEDxTalk. The soundtrack of weather and the talk combined into this version of When The Wind Blows – painted onto a piece of lavender coloured mount board. I really enjoyed making the art and I hid it in the history section of Wallington Library later that day.

It’s now Sunday morning – and the wind has died down, but my enjoyment of the art work has not. One of the best things about the free art project, is the ongoing learning I experience about how to let go. I could have easily kept or sold this piece, I love it, but I didn’t make it for me, I made it to hide. I placed it in the local library, never to be seen by me again.

Learning to let go is one of the main reasons I started this project back in 2016. I’m still learning, and at times, it still hurts. And that’s OK. Equally I am hugely appreciative of the local community, the people who engage with the project, play the game, find the art. Without them….who knows, maybe I wouldn’t be letting go any more?

A friend has just sent me a link to this rather lovely poem titled ‘In Blackwater Woods‘, by Mary Oliver. It seems to resonate well with this art and the blog post too. Thanks Nigel.

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.

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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.

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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?