31. Bubbles Of Love In Falmouth

31. Bubbles Of Love In Falmouth

Oil, Acrylic & love on canvas - £1000

45cm x 60cm

EVERY PENNY OF THE ORIGINAL ART GOES DIRECTLY TO -

YOUR ART CONNECT CIC - Arts For Mental Health

I fell in love in Falmouth.

Standing Against Loneliness was the title of this tour. Ironically, in trying to bring people together, I had put myself in one of the loneliest situations of my life.

For eight months, I travelled from community to community, staying just long enough to make connections before packing everything back into the van and starting again somewhere new. There were often days when I was completely by myself, without any meaningful human connection. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make because I believed in what I was doing — creating spaces where other people could come together and feel less alone.

For much of my life, I’ve felt like a square peg in a round hole. I’m lucky to be surrounded by people who love me and to have many wonderful friends, but I’ve still experienced that strange kind of loneliness that can exist even in a crowded room.

I’ve also carried a feeling that perhaps there was something wrong with me. Something that made it difficult for me to receive love, or perhaps even believe that I deserved it.

Falmouth challenged that belief.

A woman came into my life there, and with her came her wonderful little daughter. Without going into a story that belongs to more than just me, that experience opened a part of my heart I hadn’t really understood before.

For years, I’d never been completely sure whether becoming a father was something I wanted. Perhaps part of me simply couldn’t imagine myself in that role.

Now I can.

Falmouth taught me something I hadn’t expected to learn while travelling the country trying to help other people feel less alone: I was ready to let love into my own life too.

I don’t know when that next chapter will arrive, or what it will look like.

But now I know I’m ready for it, whenever it’s ready for me.

The event itself very nearly didn’t happen. I’d originally planned to hold it elsewhere, but the council told us we weren’t allowed to go ahead at that location. With just a day to go, I spent hours desperately searching for somewhere else, increasingly stressed that Falmouth might have to be abandoned altogether.

Then one of the directors of Your Art Connect suggested I speak to Castle Beach Café. They agreed almost instantly.

The beach was still council land, so we decided to keep this one somewhat under the radar. But apparently secrets don’t stay secret for very long. Word spread, people arrived, the sun came out, and what had looked like it might not happen at all became a truly remarkable turnout on Castle Beach.

And amongst the people who came along was that woman, with her little one. I was bubbling with love the entire day.

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