A work of art can sometimes have a long gestation period. From the urika moment of conception to its final birth and display to the world can be as long as it takes an elephant to take shape in the womb. Mostly however the period is much shorter – as the deadline for completion dictates.

Three weeks ago I was thinking about a significant calendar date next year. Easter 2015 will see the 25^th anniversary of my kidney transplant. Back in 1990, after a long period of declining health and nearly five years on dialysis, I was offered a transplant. I travelled to Guy’s Hospital in London where surgeon Geoff Koffman did the deed.

I do not know to this day the name of the donor, but I have been in annual, though anonymous, contact with her family by letter. I do know the circumstances of her death, but I do know that a flowering tree was planted in her memory.

To express my immense gratitude to the donor and her family I thought I would like to mark the anniversary next year. The idea formed in my mind for a work of art dedicated to her and other donors.

My first thought was a temporary work for Southwark Cathedral, which is near to Guy’s and a place I walked to several times while I was a mobile in-patient waiting for the transplant to work. It took 4 weeks to kick start into action – which it did eventually on Easter Day!

Conversations with a contact at the cathedral led to conversations with Guy’s and last week I went to London to meet the hospital chaplain, Mia, and, to my delight and surprise, Geoff Koffman to discuss the possibilities of a permanent work for the hospital.

They were very supportive and keen. We walked around the hospital looking for possible sites. There was a place in the grounds, a small circle of grass, that looked very suitable for an out door sculpture. Inside, the hospital atrium (or rather 3 atria) offered large wall spaces as well as some places for a free-standing 3-D work.

Since then I have been thinking about possibilities. The wall space in an atrium is, on balance, the best position. Mindful of any art in a public place needing to be childproof, it seems sensible to place it in an eye-catching position out of reach of mischievous hands.

My mind is revolving around the theme of a tree – especially a tree that blossoms in the spring. A cherry perhaps allowing me to use the white, pink and red of the blossom to suggest the way a transplanted kidney changes colour and comes to life on the operating table as the blood supply is connected.

I am back at Guy’s this Friday for another meeting and to make measurements and take photographs. Then I will need to draw up detailed designs.

The work, as conceived, is now gestating. I have six months to bring it into the world – assuming of course that all the necessary permissions are granted by the hospital.