Australia only features in one of the paintings on exhibition, but the ghost of it is everywhere. So it made perfect sense that yesterday a man should wander into the gallery, see Panic (shown below) and want to take it home with him.
Brett Bolton, who I know through Twitter and met in person for the first time that morning, was chatting to him when he called me over and introduced me to him, explaining that he wanted Panic but needed it unframed as it would be too heavy to take back on the plane.
It turned out that the buyer was a) Australian b) named Bruce and c) the production manager for Burn The Floor, which played to rave reviews in Johannesburg last year and is back for another run in August. He’s leaving South Africa in a couple of weeks’ time; before then I’ll take Panic back to the framers to have the glass and frame removed.
I never imagined I’d sell this piece to an Australian who saw it by chance, but I quite like the idea of my work winging its way back in the opposite direction from the one I took back in April 2009. Another of the people who has seen my work is a psychologist whose architect sister is interested in selling it in Sydney, and I can think of few more appropriate places for it to find a home.