Paeonia Rockii, Linwood Gardens, 2007

The Spirit of My Friend, Paeonia Rockii, Linwood Gardens, 2007

The Art and Creatives Auction organized by Ruth Ribeaucourt offers an extraordinary selection of artworks and creative packages to provide urgently needed funding for the Australian Red Cross. She has received beautiful donations from two hundred sixty individuals from twenty-seven countries, and they include original art, antiques, jewelry, workshop and private instruction packages in photography and styling, consulting services, accommodations, walking tours and still more. It’s truly exceptional to see so many unusual and wonderful items gathered together in an auction, and it’s wonderful to discover the work of so many talented beings.

Lot. 14 holds the two images above, offered together, as archival pigment ink prints. They are of the same tree peony, paeonia rockii, photographed with an 8x10 view camera on black and white film. The Spirit of My Friend is a multiple exposure on the same sheet of film. For the prints: Image size is 12 x 10 inches, on 15 x 13 inch paper, signed recto, titled verso. Reserve: $200 AUS. The buyer pays for shipping: $12 within the U.S., $15 to Canada and Mexico, $20 to the rest of the world.

Here is how it will work:

Auction takes place on Ruth’s Instagram account beginning on Friday, 10 January, 9h30 GMT, and ends on Sunday, 12 January at 18h30 GMT. You may preview the items on her page now. To bid on an item, you’ll need to leave a comment on the Instagram post with your price in AUS $. In so doing, you are committing to pay that price for the item. Shipping terms will be clearly stated for each listing. 
If yours is the winning bid, you will send a payment directly to the Australian Red Cross— the link will be in Ruth’s Instagram profile. You will receive a receipt, a copy of which you’ll e-mail to Ruth. This donation is tax deductible. If your item has shipping fees not covered by the donor, you’ll need to pay them directly to the artist via Transferwise preferably, or PayPal. If you should be the winner of my work, Venmo will also work. Good luck to all who are able to bid.

The need to foster community as fellow inhabitants and as global citizens is only becoming greater as we experience the changes on our shared planet. This auction is an opportunity to support an organization that has always offered relief in dark times, and receive reminders in each offering of the beauty we are capable of making. I hope it will inspire tenderness and gratitude for one another. This isn’t a call to buy things that you don’t need, though, and I have listed below links to some of the organizations that have come to my attention since learning of this crisis, as a way to give directly. The loss of habitat is profound. Even when when a home is saved, the natural world that represented home may be gone. For humans, it is a loss which includes livelihood and even way of life, and the land, the animals, and the individuals whose lives have been forever altered, will need support long after the fires have been extinguished.

Fire Relief for First Nations Communities 
Organized by Neil Morris, is one I have chosen to support
Australian Red Cross
NSW Rural Fire Service supports emergency efforts of those on the front lines
Seed Mob The Indigenous Youth Climate Network
Wires Wildlife Rescue & Wildlife Victoria
Animal Rescue Craft Guild— in Files, patterns for making animal pouches

T H A N K Y O U

The Spirit of My Friend is being offered for the first time as a pigment ink print with this auction, and at a special size. It will be listed in my online shop at the beginning of February, at the size of the others— 11 inches high, though it, and most of the others, can be printed larger. At this time as well, the prices for the pigment ink prints will rise.

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Update: The auction closed with Jacqui Roche placing the winning bid. Jacqui is a London based potter and makes among other pieces, beautiful flowers in porcelain.
Part of what made this auction so extraordinary was being introduced to the work of so many talented beings. Coming together to support the relief efforts for those affected by Australia’s bush fires was very heartening, and for me is evidence of the importance of art and the artist in healing the world. Those posts remain up on Ruth Ribeaucourt’s Instagram profile, so even though the auction is over, those individuals continue creating and offering their gifts in unique ways and I encourage you to explore and discover.