A few weeks ago I painted a small acrylic abstract on canvas board titled ‘Lost In Spain’. It became a part of the We Are All Artists free art project and the art work now belongs to a lovely lady named Stacie, who did some excellent detective work to figure out where the painting was made. Here’s a photograph of the art work being finished on our return from Spain, before it was handed over.
Lost In Spain : Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas board
The following week I hid a piece of art in my local town after being photographed by the local newspaper who kindly ran a feature on the free art project (the piece in the photo was not the piece I hid that day).
Me Hiding Art Among The Flowers
By coincidence, Stacie’s son found the piece of art I hid among the flowers! Having already received a piece of art as part of the project, Stacie and her son decided to pass this one on, which is a lovely community minded thing to do. Stacie’s son travelled to the USA later that day and he took the art with him. It now resides somewhere near Simsbury Connecticut, and that has to be the longest distance this free art project has travelled so far.
I’m well and truly back from the USA. The jet lag has passed, the laundry is done and I’m rapidly back to speaking English English not American English (pants, chips, taxis – you get the picture). And a few things remain powerfully uppermost in my mind about the trip.
The Flag
The Stars and Stripes is everywhere. To me it represents a powerful symbol for integrating the difference without losing it. I like seeing the national flag about the place, and I hope the UK continues it’s renewed interest in flags beyond the Jubilee celebrations and particularly the Olympics and Paralympics. I’m stuck on the whole republic/monarchy thing. I’m not a fan of the royal family per se, and nor do I want President Blair/Brown/Cameron/Clegg or whoever for that matter. But the flag can and should be about the people, and I think it was great to see it flying everywhere here through our sporting summer. Long may that continue – fly your flag.
The Welcome
Being on the road is great fun, and at the same time being away from your family sucks. Being made to feel so very welcome by so many people (and the pic above could have been soooooo much bigger), was fantastic. It felt so natural and it meant so much.
The Enthusiasm
People warned me about this. Those Americans – they’re so bloody enthusiastic! Actually it was said in a good way but I was left flying over to the US wondering how this enthusiasm thing would play out. What I experienced was probably closer to willingness, being more open to possibilities. As with everything you find a balance that hopefully suits you and I am an optimist by nature, but I’ve come back from America thinking even more determinedly about the yes than the no.
Video Diary
Because we like to take thing in in different ways I’m closing this post with a visual summary of my experience. I hope you’ll take a look, it clocks in at around 30 seconds so it’s not your usual post trip slideshow bonanza. And it has a rocking soundtrack.
Hot off the Press
I’m very excited to find out that in April 2013 I’m off to Louisiana to take part in their annual state HR conference. More on this soon.
