Studio Kit

I'm sorry to report that one of my favourite pieces has been stolen.

It was on its way back to me; had gotten as far as the shipper's Mississauga, Ontario plant - a mere 40 minutes from home, where it went *POOF!* The shipper has essentially said "these things happen" and nothing else, so I now have to make claim from my insurer.

So, this how it happened.

I sent it to the original people in June of 2013, for showing beginning in October. (Note: No, I don’t know WHY it had to be there so early, but that was their request.) We were told that the pieces would be shipped back to us the second week of February, 2014.

When I didn’t receive it during February, I wasn’t too worried – I know that sometimes it takes a bit of time for them to get around to it. In the meantime, I got confirmation that "Silver Eared Mesia" was wanted for another show that was to begin in June, 2014, and the curator of that show wanted the pieces by May 1^st. So when I hadn’t received it by the first week of March, I wrote to the first party inquiring about it, and asking whether it could be shipped back to me by no later than April 1st.

Which was when I was told it was shipped back to me the first week of December!!!

It’s been a very long, drawn out process to get this sad result, although I pretty much assumed as soon as I heard that it had been shipped months before (and at Christmas (!) ) that I was never going to see it again.

So, these are my learnings.

1. I *always* ship my work by post marked “Fabric” or “Textile”, never as “art”. In future, I will request that it be return-shipped the same way. (I have learned that it cannot be shipped by FedEx in this manner, though – it has to be marked “art”. On the other hand, I feel much safer with FedEx than I do with the postal service, even before this happened!)

2. In future, I will ask curators/convenors to NOTIFY me when they have sent something back to me. I don’t know that this would have had a better result had I known earlier that it went missing, but it couldn’t have helped that it was three months AFTER it was shipped that I finally found out it was missing.

3. If things do go missing, use social media to notify people as soon as possible. I posted about the loss on Facebook when I got the final result of the investigation yesterday, and that post was shared over a 100 times, and has gotten nearly a thousand views! I could certainly have used that kind of exposure when it first went missing!

4. Post a “stolen art” ad on Craiglist and Kijji in the city where it went missing. Perhaps you’ll get some result that way. It can’t hurt to try it for the negligible cost.

I’m upset by this loss as it was one of my favourites in the series. I'm also upset because I have not been able to re-create that branch (so far) and I was looking forward to getting it back so I could study it.

But mostly, it’s upsetting to me that the person who now possesses the piece is a thief: a person with no sensitivity or fellow feeling with me as an artist.

Someone who can do this has no connection with me as a maker, nor for what I’m trying to convey with the work, nor with my overall artistic statement. They simply saw something they wanted (or perhaps wanted to give as a Christmas gift without having to bother paying for it), and decided to take it.

It makes me unutterably sad to know that my little bird is in the possession of such a person.

I’m sorry to end this post on such a low note, but unfortunately, that’s all I have to say about this.

I hope this never happens to any of you.