Spread the Love
A hand-painted owl sculpture for North London Hospice’s Big Fun Art Adventure trail. Wild in Art open call, 2024.
OVERVIEW
‘Spread the Love’ is a large owl sculpture painted for North London Hospice’s Big Fun Art Adventure art trail in Haringey. One of more than thirty owls placed across the area for around eight weeks in 2024, each decorated by a different artist and sponsored by a local business to raise funds for the hospice. I was selected for the trail through Wild in Art’s open call.
THE BRIEF
Wild in Art give each artist the same blank owl and complete creative freedom. The challenge is the form itself: a three-dimensional sculpture, that has to work from every angle, hold up outdoors for the full run of the trail, and stop people in a busy street, while quietly carrying the warmth of what the trail is raising money for.
THE CONCEPT
I covered the owl in a continuous field of figures holding, reaching for and caring for one another. Small gestures of generosity wrapping the whole form, so there's no single front or back, just a surface you keep turning to read. The palette is warm and saturated to pull people in from across the street, and to match the spirit of a piece made for a hospice.
THE OUTCOME
The finished owl spent the full trail run in Haringey alongside the other sculptures, seen by thousands of people walking the route, and was later auctioned to help raise money for North London Hospice. A public piece that did real work, both as an object to find on a map and as a small argument for looking after each other.
