When I first embarked on The Ten Thousand Flowers Project, I was running a little hypomanic and had the grand idea that all I needed to do was post flowers on social media, link to this site, and mail out the flowers. On some level, I had it in my head that things would go viral and I wouldn’t have to work very hard at it. Hypomania gives one boundless confidence.

When that failed to happen, I turned to handing them out at places like art festivals, the High Museum, and the streets of Venice, Italy. It took a lot out of me to approach people, but I figured this would build up my ability to shrug off rejection and persist. At the time, I also had a dream of becoming a full-time artist with my Word Art pieces, and I knew I needed to be prepared for that.

When the reactions were positive, it was a joyous moment. People thanked me profusely and I got the impression that I’d made their day. But not everybody responded positively. Even the most polite “no, thanks” cut me to the core. But the flowers still piled up and I needed to find homes for them, so I persisted, though each rejection (not all of them were polite) made me more and more reluctant to put myself out there to hand out the flowers.

And one day I asked myself why I was doing this to myself. Why was it still so uncomfortable? Then it hit me — I was so uncomfortable because I was making other people uncomfortable. Far too many free things people hand out are some kind of lead magnet for a cult, or something that, surprise, you have to pay for. And not everybody is going to like my style of crayon kid art. By approaching them and offering them art they didn’t ask for, I was making things more awkward than they ever needed to be.

So, I’m not going to do it anymore. No more one-on-one approaches. I’ll either get an art show table or wear a T-shirt that says “FREE ART! Ask me how.” But mostly I’ll keep posting the latest ones on social media and leading people back to the page for it. Perhaps the backlash against generative AI can be a boost for my tiny handmade art.

I’ll keep drawing flowers anyway. I’m not even going to worry about making more than I’m giving away. I’ll keep going until ten thousand, and then I can plow all of my freed-up time and energy into finding people who want them.

Though if you want to ask me for one at free@10kflowers.com, I certainly won’t object. I can assure you I’m not running out any time soon.