Sydney Blum sculpture via Instagram @sydneyblum.art and Sonja KraweskyFrom Canada comes the story of a lost work of art, the bargain-bin bounty of a lifetime, and a connection that bloomed into a friendship across 1,200 miles.
Nova Scotian applied artist Sydney Blum was packaging two of her signature plates of color-phase tiles for shipment to a Montreal gallery, excited at the chance to exhibit her craft and vision.
Both took 300 hours of work, and both got lost in the mail.
Canada Post workers and managers alike failed Blum in their attempts to locate the package, leaving Blum heartbroken.
Weeks later, an Ontario school teacher was perusing the trays of consignment items at Krazy Binz Liquidation store in Hamilton when from out of the bland mixture of mass-produced plastic, a strange texture covered in color caught her eye.
Sonja Krawesky loved the look of it, and quickly located a second plate nearby. She had a hunch these did not belong there, and took them home with the intention of sleuthing out their origin.
Meanwhile, Blum was contacting local politicians to try and get someone to answer for the lack of success in finding her package. She told CBC News that by “putting all this energy” out into the world, she hoped something would be returned to her.
The reverse side of one of Blum’s sculptures – credit: Sydney BlumOne morning, an email arrived in her inbox: a teacher, something something bargain bin—something something lost artwork—Ontario.
“It [was] the strangest email … I lost my breath when I read it,” Blum said, believing it at first to be a scam.
Krawesky had tracked Blum down through the Montreal gallery, and found her Instagram page where she saw the very plates she found in Krazy Bins advertised as being lost in the mail.
Going back the other way, Blum, worried she was being scammed, identified there was a Krawesky working at a Hamilton school district, called their office, and received confirmation that Sonya Krawesky was who she claimed.
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Blum was blown away, and Krawesky knew she had to return the plates to their rightful owner, but wouldn’t be caught dead sending them through the mail again. Instead, Blum contacted a truck driver she knew, who put the two women in touch with an Ontario trucker Piotr Banasik, who volunteered to bring the artwork to Nova Scotia 1,200 miles away.
“Somebody else would have just brushed them off and thought, ‘I’m not interested in that,'” Blum said of Krawesky. “[But] she’s a voracious sleuth… It’s remarkable.”
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The encounter blossomed into a remote friendship after the two women connected over several shared opinions and interests.
“The connection that we have is, I think, pretty special … one of those kindred spirit type things,” Krawesky said. “Maybe I’ll be inspired to get back and to do more of my own creative things.”
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