I joined a group of friends who enjoyed hiking in the rocky parts of the desert in Saudi Arabia one Friday in 2013. I am not particularly fond of jumping over rocks, but that day I tried to look happy. I took a few photos of the deserted desert and its rocky hills.
A few weeks later I decided to do an impressionistic painting of the "sad" desert I saw and my idea was to give it some "jelly tots" or "candy spots". Over the course of one weekend I managed to create this large work in acrylic. Once it was complete, I decided to call it "Candy Mountain". The painting made me forget the arduous hike I undertook a few weeks earlier. The mountain with its "treats" was exhibited in 2014, in Jeddah, when I had my first exhibition entitled: Journey with Jeddah I . Little did I know that this painting would provide sweet moments in 2017, in Suzhou, China.
I went on a scuba diving trip in 2013 and I made a Chinese friend, Zhao, on the boat that day. Later that evening, Zhao joined a group of us in our compound and he came to look at my art works during the course of the evening. He had secretly "fallen" for "Candy Mountain" but he did not know how to break the "terrible" news to me as you will hear.
A few days later he called me and told me that he wanted to visit me and buy a few art pieces for his apartment in Shanghai, because he was going to get married. He arrived and I showed him everything I had but he did not seem interested; "Candy Mountain" was quietly gracing the wall behind him. I don't know how he broke the news to me, but eventually I understood that he could not forget what was behind him on the wall. I think he feared that I would not want to part with it. I sighed a little sigh on the inside, not because he wanted it, but I was imagining his transportation problem, because it was a little larger than the average "large" parcel; wrapping it for him was my problem, but that I could solve. The courier was for his pocket I made him understand. He was determined to own "Candy Mountain".
To cut to the chase: the painting is now hanging in Shanghai. We kept in touch, I accepted a teaching position in China in 2016 and in 2017 an exhibition was on the cards for me. He was back in Saudi Arabia and when he heard that I was going to have a show in Suzhou, he did something very "sweet". He sent his friend by fast train from Shanghai (a 25-minute ride) to represent him at the opening of our show.
Sometimes climbing a hill leads to a "Candy Mountain" that keeps on rewarding us with good "treatment". May we treasure those people who add sweetness and kindness to our lives. (Can forgive those health fanatic friends who pushed me up those rocky hills? I should!)
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