I met Toni in a vegan burger restaurant. Some time ago, the restaurant manager saw me carry canvasses and other art supplies across the streets in our neighbourhood. He approached me and asked whether I wanted to hang the smallest in his restaurant (by now, you know that place already!). Of course! He told me how lively and nice daily life in that restaurant was. People coming and going, chatting, an open and friendly atmosphere. As I was mounting the smallest to the wall, friends and business partners dropped by. One of them: Toni.

He got curious about the small paintings. So, I asked him whether he wanted to tell me what he believed in. His answer came straight:

“I believe in tyche. I believe in always being at the right time at the right place.” Like… now? I asked for an example.

“Hum, in the context of my job, just today – all of a sudden I found myself at an event, and I was like, what’s going on? I get Glühwein and everything? [It was December]. And now I am here – it’s such a colourful day! It’s tyche leading me here!” He laughed warmly.

The restaurant owner commented “…that’s not true, you just want to get to my fridge, boy!”, but Toni just laughed and said he had had enough for this day. “Anyway, a colourful day!” I looked at his outfit. Colourful, too! Red, purple, dark green, metallic lilac nails. “Yeah, lilac, that’s just my thing”, Toni said.

Toni’s smallest is covered in a shimmering lilac. It shows a white feather – the feather as a lucky sign of being in the right place at the right time. Found feathers on the ground can be read as a symbol marking a certain place and time, a fleeting moment. The next wind might carry the feather away, but you found it, right here, right now. The zig zag pattern ornamenting the rim of the smallest is inspired by a pattern on Toni’s jacket, the colourful jacket he wore the day we met. Zig zag again symbolises ways gone and going, ornamenting fleeting moments in time and space (place). May this smallest cross your way in the right time in the right place!