Impeccable taste.... poor morals

I was unsure about posting this story, but it's still on my mind so I feel it needs to be shared.

One of my paintings has been stolen! That was going to be the title, but the more I thought about the situation, I realised that mine was the only piece that had been taken. If someone needed it that much, then I've let it go - although at the time I was more than furious!

The context?

If you aren't a newsletter reader, you will be unaware that I've just spent a week away as Artist in Residence at the Create Gallery within Bedruthan Hotel at Mawgan Porth.

This is the sister hotel to The Scarlet, where after an incredible treatment in their spa in 2018, my move in to Intuitive Energy Art really exploded! It was as if I found a linchpin, and all the cogs started to turn.

I've had some pieces of work at both hotels over the last few years, although there were many months during Lock Down where the hotels were closed. My pieces have been in the spa at The Scarlet, and then the smaller ones moved around into Bedruthan.

I was honoured to be asked to spend a week with them, and I as haven't had a holiday since before Lockdown, a week on the Cornish Coast with someone else cooking my dinner was just perfect.

I didn't really know where each of my pieces were being shown, so when I arrived the day before my residency started, I had a little wander around to find them.

Just a hook

The Bedruthan is a little rabbit warren of corridors so it took a while to find my way around. On my way back from the Spa area I turned a corner to see my smaller pieces being shown. Well, there was a set of small ones, and just one of a pair from the early Atlantis Collection. One painting, and one empty hook.

Part of me was excited that they had sold it and had forgotten to tell me, but the other half had a very uneasy feeling that if it had been sold, they would have removed the hook, and rearranged the one that was left.

It transpired that it had been taken. My initial reaction was sadness. Sadness that someone had taken my piece of Energy Art. Stolen a piece of my work. My upbeat energy for the week ahead plummeted and I was really upset. Then I was angry, but that wasn't going to help matters at all.

Turn it around

But you know me.... there's always a different way of looking at things. It's drawn attention to the long narrow corridor with bad fengshui - there's a door at the bottom that you can only enter with a key code, but it would be easy to pop a piece in a beach bag and trot on out with it hidden. It's really a walk-along -space, not a, stop-and-look-at-art space. The hotel are insured, so I will receive full payment.

That's 'all good', BUT it made me think about a piece of energetic work being swiped. Maybe the person who took it really needed the energies that it held. They will look at it each day knowing they stole it. They may be ok with that, and I could wish for the Karma fairy to come along, but it won't bring the piece back. It's gone.

I had a spa treatment booked

Just after I found out that she had been stolen, the spa manager asked if I could move my treatment - a 90 minute bespoke massage - from 5pm to 12.30 as my therapist had called in sick and they had another one coming in to cover. I should have gone with my gut and cancelled, but I knew that they had been shuffling staff around to make sure clients weren't disappointed, and I know what it's like running a team of therapists!

I turned up very discombobulated. The poor therapist, just doing her job asked me how I was feeling and what I wanted to get out of the treatment. Well, I just cried! Very embarrassing! I guess that was an off-load, and from then on I could think a little more clearly, although most of my thinking was done during the guided meditation that the therapist thought would be a good idea!

The one that was left behind

What about 'Atlantis Rising' that was left on the wall? My immediate reaction was to wrap her up and bring her back safely, but as the week wore on, I changed my mind. This was really early work and although there were crystals - Herkimer Diamonds, Tanzanite and peridot - it doesn't really fit with the pieces I am creating at the moment. They were created before I began using 23k gold leaf. She needed to be transformed with the alchemy of pure gold leaf while staying right there by the sea.

As my mood changed, I was able to smudge her and reset the energy. I added gold leaf, and completed her with fire, by adding a wax seal on the back.

She is being re-hung, but not in the skinny corridor. If you are visiting the hotel, let me know if you spot her. Atlantis may not be rising as an actual city, but the energies of the world are certainly changing! It's interesting that she is the one that is left..... ready for a perfect new home.