Rose Pavlova coming in from Number Nine
As I sit down to write this we are still uncertain of what the future holds. My ex-husband has lost his best friend, a teacher aged only 52 years. Among the sadness, we find joy in the simple pleasures such as blue skies, birdsong and cleaning our homes.
I feel like I'm surrounded by kindness like never before. My friends, neighbours and family placed bids or donated in our online art auction and are now proud owners of art pieces. Yesterday a neighbour even delivered a rose pavlova to my door. It tasted like something you would eat in my dream bakery in Paris. It happens to be called The Rose Bakery, there is one in Pigalle and one in St Germain des Pres, oh and one in Mayfair. It's a love affair between London and Paris. I don't need to go there anymore because I now know Serena at number nine. I'm allergic to banana neighbours (if you're listening) so don't even try it.
The kindness goes beyond E8. Artists, photographers and curators all over the world are coming together to donate, give, share and make a difference. I thought I'd share a few of my favourite highlights from the last few weeks;
Noel Fielding's Art Club for kids is great fun on Twitter.
Curator @katebrayan_art is going live on Instagram recommending emerging artists and art books. I can't watch too often as I buy every single thing she recommends! I have five art books delivered tomorrow alone.
The Artists Support Pledge is a great place to grab a bargain. Artists sell pieces for £200 and then commit to buying a piece from another artist for £200. I'm not looking at that anymore either. I have three of those now, so you look.
Bansky made a flying visit to Southampton Hospital and hung this piece on the wall, eventually, it will be sold and the funds will go to the NHS. He did leave a note "Thanks for all you're doing. I hope this brightens the place up a bit, even if it's only black and white."
Hauser and Wirth are just about to release a collection to raise more funds. That leads me nicely onto “The Covid Collection.” This is a long term collection we have created in memory of lost loved ones. Every piece purchased £10 goes to our two much-needed causes Meals for the NHS and Global Giving for Covid-19.
The icing on the "rose pavlova" in my lock-down creative haven was the beautiful front cover of Vogue Magazine with Dame Judy Dench on at eighty five years young. Did you watch the heartfelt film? DJD chatted with different generations about her life. It was a moving piece, with Kate Moss and Stormzy making an appearance.
There was just one piece of advice from our beautiful national treasure that I didn't agree with. ”Don't fall in love too often.” Surely, if we all love more, care more and create more we can take a piece of now into our new world. At Blank White Space we are going to celebrate a kindness day once a week, as a memento of what has been learnt. I'll tell you more about it another day.