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Pottery artist leaves gorgeous, handmade bowls in random places for people to stumble upon

Imagine coming across one of these gorgeous gifts.

Sailing Adrift Studios/Instagram

Kim Press drops free art in random places for unsuspecting wanderers to find.

Imagine you're hiking out in the red rocks of Moab, Utah, or taking a stroll down the beach in Key West, Florida, when you come across a gorgeous piece of glazed pottery. No one is around, just a beautiful, hand-carved bowl sitting with an envelope next to it that reads:

FREE ART

This bowl was left here for someone to find and keep. If it doesn't speak to you, leave it for someone else to find, or take it and give it to a friend. I only ask that it be enjoyed, and if you like, you can let me know where it ends up. (Contact details inside.)

Love, Kim

Kim Press is an artist from Texas who shares her pieces under the name Sailing Adrift Studios. When she travels, she takes a piece with her to leave for a random, unsuspecting person to find. Lucky wanderers in 36 states and two countries have come across Press' pottery "free art drops" and gotten to take home an unexpected artistic treasure from their own travels.

And these aren't any old bowls. Check out how absolutely stunning these pieces are:

Press recently shared a video highlighting some of the pieces she's dropped, and every single one of them would be an incredible gift.

"To say that I am proud of these numbers is an understatement," she wrote. "In my wildest dreams, I could never imagine how much taking a pottery class and playing in mud would change my life…. And it just goes to show that if you travel far enough, eventually you will find yourself."

People who find Press' pottery let her know where the pieces ended up, and half the fun of it is seeing how far they travel. She put a page on her website where she shares the pieces' "found" stories, such as the bowl she left in Santa Monica, California, making its home in Spain, a bowl she left in Tucson finding its way to China and a piece found in Pennsylvania ending up in Mexico. Sometimes she leaves them in hiking spots in the wilderness. Sometimes she drops them in the middle of a city. Some pieces have stayed in the states she dropped them and others have traveled across the country or the world.

People who have found them have shared how much joy their discovery brought them:

"Just wanted to drop you a note to say that I picked up your 'Free Art' in the park in Fairhope during my last day of my Snowbird stay (January and February) in Orange Beach. While I was in Orange Beach, a dear friend fell and broke her hip and I wanted to get her something to take back. When I say your beautiful bowl, I knew it would touch her heart. Thank you so much for your generosity. She absolutely loved it."


"Dear Kim , Today I found a wonderful surprise, we were at Ft. Zach for my grandson's 5th birthday party and found this on our table, my first thought was ..why is this here? Then I read the card and was speechless... How incredibly lucky I am to have such a precious gift. You are an amazing , talented person. Thank you so much , this will be something I will pass on to my grandchildren. I wish you nothing but the best!"

"Found this incredible gem today. It makes me happy how people are so passionate about their gifts and talents that they would want to share it with the world. Thank you."

Some people have even started looking for the pieces when Press does an art drop announcement, alerting friends and family if the drop is near where they live. A woman who found a bowl in Boise, Idaho, wrote:

"My friend follows you and today she shared your profile with our friend group. We all followed your page and on my way home from work she called me and sent me on an adventure. I squealed when I found it. Thank you so much!! Keep on keeping on."

And a group in Lago Vista, Texas, shared:

“Our out of state guests were about to do a polar plunge in our pool when they saw your post and decided to go art drop hunting instead... so exciting!!!”

Everyone who found pieces shared how much gratitude they felt upon finding them.

Check out the Sailing Adrift Studios website to see where Press has left her free art so far, and follow her on Facebook and Instagram to see where the next art drop happens.

Thank you, Kim Press, for bringing joy not only to the people who happen upon your artwork, but also to those of us living vicariously through them. (I really need one of those bowls!)


This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Joy

Teen honors local UPS driver with a tiny public diorama and his reaction is so wholesome

Brandon is beloved in the community.

Images courtesy of Andrea Hanson/Instagram

Brandon the UPS driver checks out the art installation made in his honor.

Service workers help our communities run more smoothly, but their contributions can often go unrecognized. In some instances, however, people in service jobs become household names and beloved fixtures in their community.

A UPS driver named Brandon is apparently one of those people in Red Wing, Minnesota.

Red Wing resident Andrea Hanson shared how her 14-year-old daughter Mari created a delightful art installation called "Petite Postal Place Featuring: Brandon." Set in a tiny box, the square diorama includes shelves of mini boxes and packages with incredible detail, right down to the Amazon Prime packaging and barcodes, with Brandon the UPS driver standing among them.

Hanson shared a video on Instagram of Brandon's reaction to seeing the art installed next to the postal box in his honor, and it's so wholesome. "Shut up!" he kept saying. "I love it…that is the coolest thing ever."

Watch:

Brandon clearly appreciated the gesture—"She made that just for me, though?"—and was blown away by Mari's attention to detail—"The Chewy box!"

Other people also loved the art as well as Brandon's reaction to it:

"Bless all delivery drivers!!!! You have no idea how much that made his day!"

"It’s the 'shut up' and the '4H' and 'fair' giving me those MN vibes. Love this so much."

"“Wait til my buddies see this” awwwwwww.❤️"

"Love his reaction. Saying he’s gonna share with his friends at work. 🥹"

"That is so cool!!! She is very VERY talented! 👏👏 And that is the cutest reaction ever. 🥹🥹"

"Love this. ❤️ His genuine appreciation and love he felt. Nice job!"

Mari's art is part of the Art in the Alley community initiative "designed to turn overlooked spaces in downtown Red Wing into vibrant, engaging places, through the power of community art." The people of Red Wing are encouraged to add something artistic to spaces like the alley where Mari put her art piece and to go check out what others have done.

Mari shared a description of "Petite Postal Place Featuring: Brandon" on the city's downtown website along with her history with art:

photo of mini diorama"Petite Postal Place Featuring: Brandon" by Mari HansonPhoto courtesy of Andrea Hanson

A miniature postal room with shelves filled with packages. Brandon the UPS man is standing proudly in front of the boxes, ready to deliver parcels with his radiant personality. Bio: Once I had the capability to hold a marker, I have been creating artwork. One thing that has been on my Christmas list every year is art supplies. Our dining table was always filled with clay, markers, paint, and paper. When my Dad moved to a new office in the house, I got his old one (which is now turned into my art room). It is filled with every art supply imaginable and is all in its own organized spot. Now I spend hours there every day, creating whatever I think up.

Hanson shared with Upworthy's audience on Instagram that her daughter was thrilled that her art has been making the viral rounds and that Brandon has been tickled by it as well:

"I just want to say that my daughter is so overwhelmed and grateful you’re seeing her hard work. She’s not on social media yet…only 14. But I’ve shown her you cheering her on to never quit making art. 🫶🏻 You are making a difference in her life. And Brandon feels like a rockstar. (Which he is!) Such well deserved love for our local UPS guy. He deserves a raise!!! ❤️"

It's heartening to see community being celebrated in so many ways here, from Brandon's obviously stellar service to Mari's appreciation through art to the community encouraging artistic expression to the people of the internet sharing the love. There may be a whole lot of ick in the world, but shared joys like this are potent reminders that humanity can be a force for good.

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Joy

Viewing real art in a museum engages your brain 10x more than looking at reprints, study finds

A great case for putting down the laptop and experiencing art IRL.

Photo credit: Canva

this is your sign to go to an art museum.

We might live in a world where art is easily viewable (simply google “Van Gogh” and you’ll come across a bajillion iterations of Starry Night on posters, purses, coffee mugs, you name it) but anyone who’s ever actually witnessed an original work of art knows on a gut level that it just hits differently.

And now we have some science to prove that it does, in fact, affect us on a neurological level.

Researchers collaborated with the Mauritshuis Museum, which just so happens to be the home of Johannes Vermeer’s heavily reproduced Girl with a Pearl Earring, to study what the difference is between looking at a real painting vs. looking at a reproduction.

Using eye-tracking technology and MRI scans, the researchers recorded the brain activity of 20 volunteers, aged between 21 and 65, who were tasked with looking at the actual artworks and reproductions via posters in the museum's shop or images flashed onto special goggles.

The results were, and the study puts it, “astonishing.”

Findings showed that real paintings elicit an emotional response in the brain that is 10 times stronger than that of their reproduction. Which is “an enormous difference,” Martine Gosselink, director of the Mauritshuis, told The Guardian. “You become [mentally] richer when you see things, whether you are conscious of it or not, because you make connections in your brain.”

There were a few other fun discoveries specifically centered around the Girl with a Pearl Earring painting, which stood out among the five paintings used.

Johannes Vermeer, artGirl with a Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeerupload.wikimedia.org

For one, people looked at this painting for the longest, their attention being held in a “Sustained Attentional Loop”

This was partially by Vermeer’s design, as he “cleverly used this mechanism “ with his placement of the pearl earring.

“Normally you automatically look at someone's eyes and mouth. They give you the most information about emotions. When you look at the Girl with the Pearl Earring, something extra happens: you first look at her eyes and mouth and then immediately at her pearl. Then you look back at her eyes and mouth, and then immediately look at the pearl again. And you do that not once, not twice, but several times…You can’t take your eyes off her,” the study says.

Girl with a Pearl Earring also, apparently, stimulated more brain activity in the precuneus, the area of the brain associated with consciousness, self-reflection and personal life experiences, more than any other painting.

Art reproduction is certainly not new, but with the rise of AI art and NTF’s and other trendy tech words, it can be easy to feel like tangible, handcrafted, human made creations will soon be the relic of a bygone era. Which has caused some anguish, to say the least, because again, we all have this hunch that the physical experience of art is what truly impacts us on a cellular level. Thanks to this study, we can really take that hunch seriously.

“We all feel the difference – but is it measurable, is it real?” says Gosselink. “Now, today we can really say that it is true.”

This is your sign to not just scroll through art on Instagram. Find a museum or exhibit and let yourself be affected your brain will thank you.

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Pop Culture

Andrew Garfield crying while reading an essay on 'Modern Love' has everyone tearing up

This is what makes art so valuable.

Photo credit: Xfranksun

Andrew Garfield has become a fan favorite on and off-screen.

Andrew Garfield is beloved for his performances in films such as "The Social Network," "Tick, Tick, Boom" and his portion of Marvel's "Spider-Man" franchise. But he's also endeared himself to the public with his willingness to openly show emotion in real life.

In 2021, Garfield shared a moving moment with Stephen Colbert when he tenderly talked about the loss of his mom and "all of the unexpressed love" that gets expressed through grief. He also said his mother was a "warrior" for art and that she "knew the power of art and knew the power of leaving the world in a slightly more beautiful state" than she found it.

Now he's touched us again reading a story on the New York Times' "Modern Love" podcast. You can hear the emotion rising in Garfield's voice as the narrator describes some of the things that have changed about his life. Then Garfield reads a line that begins, "My parents don't drive at night anymore," and the dam breaks.

Watch:

@nytimes

"I'm sad at the transience of certain relationships in my life. I'm sad at losing my mother." The actor Andrew Garfield talked about love, loss and grief on "Modern Love." The result was a conversation unlike any other in the history of the show. Tap the link in bio to listen. #AndrewGarfield #loss #grief

Preceding this clip, Garfield and "Modern Love" host Anna Martin had been discussing Garfield's new film, "We Live in Time," which led to a discussion on big existential thoughts about life. Then he began to read the essay, "Learning to Measure Time in Love and Loss," by Chris Huntington, which led to the emotional moment.

Garfield spoke to the power of art to make us feel

When Martin asked Garfield what was hitting him so much in that part of the story, and at first he said he didn't know, that it was "mysterious."

"This is why art is so important," he said. "Because it can get us to places we can't get to any other way."

Then he went on. "It's the preciousness. It's the preciousness, as we've been talking about. And it's the longing for more. It's like we all live, we all pass with so much more to know, with so much more longing."

After this clip, he added, "I'm sad. I'm sad. I'm sad at losing anyone. I'm sad at losing anything. I'm sad at the transience of certain relationships in my life. I'm sad at losing my mother, of course, and I'm sad at the idea of losing my father…but the sadness is longing. It's true longing. And there's no shame in it."

But even as he was expressing all of these feelings, he shared that he could feel within himself a pull to put the "modern conditioning taboo on this very, very pure feeling," and that made him sad, too. "There's a part of me that's like, okay, come on now, dude, pull yourself together…but I think that is the killer. That impulse—that is not mine, that is inherited, that is conditioned from our culture—to not feel, to calcify the heart, to not reveal the heart, to not trust another person with our hearts is what gets us into trouble."

People adore Andrew Garfield for his emotional accessibility

People loved Garfield's openness and vulnerability:

"He understands life and being human better than most."

"He speaks so articulately, and seems to be in touch with his emotions. Quite beautiful."

"The empathy, the compassion for humanity. It's beautiful and heartbreaking."

"This man feels so deeply. It's amazing to see."

"His vulnerability and authenticity is so moving. He deserves the best in life."

"The way he says preciousness is so profound you can't help but relate so deep in your soul. What a beautiful clip."

"'This is why art is so important, it can get us to places we can't get to any other way.'"

i.giphy.com

That quote about art hit people especially hard. We live in a weird space where we value art deeply in our own lives, yet arts programs are often undervalued and underfunded. Even people who don't think of themselves as "artsy" enjoy art, even if they don't recognize the music they listen to, shows they watch, stories they enjoy or items they have decorating their houses as art.

But sometime art hits the way Huntington's essay hit Andrew Garfield. As he told Martin, "I feel this man's writing, and it feels like, for all of us, it feels like he's tapping into something so universal—a longing to be here."

Art reminds us of our humanity and connects us with others by tapping into feelings and experiences we share. And people who express those feelings and experiences like Andrew Garfield remind us how powerful that really is.

The full episode is worth listening to. Find "Modern Love" wherever you find your podcasts.

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