I am a person driven by the constant need to create. My friends call me a creative avalanche. My head is an inexhaustible source of inspiration. I love to create different kinds of artistic things, just for the sake of creating. I’m trying on and learning different techniques all the time. I had several successful exhibitions of art paintings, but I never exhibit any of my crafts collections.
Since I had a lot of things ready along with my art I decided to make some more and to exhibit them for sale at the Valentine’s market in the Amsterdam Westergasfabriek Cultural Center. The show went beautifully well. My stand had a lot of visitors.
The weather was nice and sunny that was a very rare occurrence for February in Amsterdam. My neighbors were great, I met some incredible people from all over the world. We drank some mulled wine together, listened good music and had a lot of interesting conversations. In general I enjoyed every minute there. But, besides all of that I still remain a free writer and blogger that is constantly chasing the good and interesting stories for my blog.
Sometimes interesting events just occur in front of me and sometimes I am creating them by myself. Here in this post I will share with you one very interesting and touching true story from the Valentine’s market, that I created myself somehow.
Well, as most of you know very few artists were paid incredibly high for their art work and most of the artists profit very little from their practice, if they are able to sell anything at all. Most of the independent artists and writers have the best artwork and writing skills but people don’t give them the recognition they deserve. The artwork of many local, and unrecognized artists is a lot better than the art of bigger celebrities that are shoved in our faces daily.
When one buys from local artists, they’re not just helping the artists themselves to make a living on something they love doing, they’re also supporting the arts as a whole by going and buying local. It can benefit your wallet in the long run as well, because local artists often don’t charge a lot for their work compared to known and famous artists.
But despise of all of that I got the feeling that most of the people just want the local artists to be and to remain poor. This is very sad and pity. Thinking about all of that I got an idea for a great social experiment that I can do it myself at the craft show. Mostly because these Sunday markets have a lot of visitors. Regarding my experiment I decided to make a box with a hole on the lid. I put a big heart on the box and I wrote: Please donate for the rent of the artist, thank you, on Dutch language.
I just wanted to see how many people were willing to support the poor local artist who is struggling to pay the rent. By the way I’m not struggling to pay my rent, I just did it for the sake of the social experiment for my blog. My idea was to create an article based on how many people approached the box during the day. I planned to keep the e-mails of the people and to return their money back along with a present on
Valentine’s Day, Thursday, 14 February. A lot of people read the message on the box. Some of them even laughed out loud. But from 11:00 to 18:00 that the market was going on only one old lady approached the box and threw some change in it.
I was so touched by her gesture it almost brought me tears. She didn’t look rich, she was simply dressed. She seemed like a simple middle class old lady. But she was the real lady in all her glory. She just approached the box, she threw some change in and then she gently smiled to me, turned her back and left quickly.
I couldn’t open the box at the time in front of all this people to give her the money back. If I did, it will ruin the experiment. So I run behind her to thank her and I asked her for her e-mail so I can stay in touch with her. She said she doesn’t have an e-mail, but she gave me her name and her phone number. I will get in touch with her in upcoming days, to return the money and to give her a nice present, anything she likes from my art collection. She really deserves it. If she agrees, I’d love to do an interview with her and to ask her a few questions about what moved her to donate in a such of humble way.
This story melted my heart completely. At the end of the experiment my conclusion is that there is still hope in humanity. There are still nice and caring people in our society, shining like a diamonds in the rust. This lady was a pure diamond of the society. Her name is Silvia. Through this post I would like to thank her by sharing this story, hopping that I will discover more angels like Mrs. Silvia around in the future.
My message through this post for the readers and my blog followers is simple, just try to find this sparkle of love in your heart and support the people in need. All of those who were asking for help and those that you believe they need your love and support. Especially this month when love and St. Valentine is celebrated all over the globe.
Supporting the local artists combines discovering new things and connecting with other people, which makes the experience twice as much fun and exciting as it would be when discovering new things alone. The next time you hear about a close friend or someone in your town is having an exhibition or show or selling their art, support them as much as you possibly can. Instead of asking them to give you their art for free. Artists also need the money to live, to pay their rent and to buy their art supplies.
You don’t have to completely burn a hole in your wallet while doing so. Just show them that you support them and buy at least something small. Share their event so they got more visitors, share your impressions from the show with your friends on social media, etc.
Give a chance to the art and local artists, so they can continue to create. Art influences society by changing opinions, instilling values and translating experiences across space and time. Painting, sculpture, music, literature and the other types of arts are often considered to be the repository of a society’s collective memory.
The art that we are surrounded by, whether it’s a painting, hand made crafts, music or any type of art, can have a huge impact on our mood and emotions.
And after all, everyone could shine like Mrs. Silvia. Sharing love and sparkle wherever you go is a personal choice by each one of us. If you happen to like this post, please share it on social media, so my message can go further, thanks in advance. I wish you happy and creative Valentine!
Embrace yourself, embrace the world 
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