Silent Auction: Help Kim Help Her Friend
If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on one of Kim Leutwyler’s iconic portraits, there’s never been a better opportunity.
Kim’s stunning portrait Trischa, with an RRP of $3000, is currently available here in the form of a silent auction. Trischa, the subject of the portrait and Kim’s good friend, is unfortunately battling breast cancer for the third time, so Kim is donating all proceeds from the piece towards a GoFundMe campaign dedicated to help pay for integrative treatments not covered by medical insurance.
“Trischa is a fierce friend who has been in my life for 15 years since we were paired randomly as flatmates in New Zealand,” says Kim. “She is now settled with her partner and 2 beautiful children. Trischa has a kind soul and a determined, creative spirit. She’s helped me through some of my darkest times, and has always encouraged me to follow my heart and pursue my dreams.”
“For the creation of a portrait I always meet for an initial sitting with my subjects, but because Trischa and I are separated by an ocean we decided to have her partner snap some photos for me instead. Luckily I know her face extremely well from the time we spent living together… I have a habit of memorising my friends faces and imagining how I’d paint them. In this portrait Trischa chose to wear a brightly coloured wig. When I asked her for direction on colours, composition etcetera, she replied ‘Whatever comes to you will be exactly how it was meant to be.’”
Trischa talks about the previous success that they have experienced with these treatments on the GoFundMe campaign established by her sister-in-law: “My oncologist had warned me that the chemo would have an accumulative effect, meaning that I would have less and less energy the more chemotherapy I’d get. But after 26 rounds of chemo, I was still up the next morning running my rounds, camping, playing, dancing and laughing with the kids.”
Kim’s piece Trischa available via auction here.
Trischa and Kim have also worked together on a children’s book about a family of fish, which Trischa wrote and Kim illustrated, to help explain her illness to her children.
“Art offers a safe space for the viewer to start a dialogue around any subject,” explains Kim, “whether it be an internal dialogue or a conversation with others where none may have existed previously.”
Click here to bid on the piece via the ‘Enquire Now’ button; our team will update the highest bid in the description below. You can also click here to donate to Trischa’s GoFundMe campaign directly.
Bluethumb is not taking a commission on this particular piece, so all funds from the sale will go directly to Trischa’s expenses.
To participate in the silent auction simply click ‘Enquire Now’ to send your highest bid to the Bluethumb Curatorial team by 15 July 2018.
