‘If five million people’ is just one of the burgeoning websites and social media pages encouraging us to recycle. But REUSE is more environmentally friendly than RECYCLING which requires energy. When I was Chairman of the Thames Valley Art and Antiques Dealers Association (TVADA) (1998- 2001), I suggested we create the logo ‘Antiques are Green’. TVADA did not take up that suggestion but they did run with my idea for a road sign. The trade’s choice was elegant but the Department of Transport didn’t like it. They preferred an uninspiring candelabra.
My first draft of my Anglo Indian novel I titled ‘Recycling with Ritchie’. It then evolved into ‘The Well-Travelled Chest of Drawers’. The chest – that I own- went to India and back.
But the final draft is Sculpting the Elephant. It has more depth and Ritchie became Harry. I maintain that Harry could be an attractive youthful role model for a revitalised antiques trade.
Harry King is an artist. It is tough earning a living as an artist, actor or writer ! He has a shop called Deco-rators which specialises in C20th design but also sells his paintings. Yes he paints and draws !!! Like me he likes original conceptual art but sketching is a compulsion for him.
Darling Magazine kindly covered the London launch of Brushstrokes in Time . (Qu Leilei the artist who inspired it lives in Wimbledon) Their Kingston magazine has just published my feature titled Antiques are Green . If you read it you’ll see why it is of interest in Kingston on Thames. https://kingston.darlingmagazine.co.uk/#stories