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All We Need is Love: The Love Print Project

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 07:54:43 -0600

All We Need is Love: The Love Print Project:

“What the world needs now,

is Love, sweet Love,

it’s the only thing that there’s just too little of…”

I want to start this post by telling you how this Love Print Project started, way back in August of 2005 (yes, you read that correctly). In 2005, I lived in Switzerland with my Swiss boyfriend in a French speaking village: population 800. No one in my little village spoke English, and having only lived there a few months, I didn’t speak French either. I was lonely for spontaneous conversations with strangers, or the kind of humor that made sense to me. Homesick for Mexican Food, ice cubes and hugs.

Not having a job, I passed my days mostly alone, struggling to get up the courage to run errands alone, without my boyfriend’s help. Technically I could not work at that point, because I was using a tourist visa to visit. However, I want to tell you the truth, because it’s important. I was also not working because I was petrified of returning to an office. I wanted, by any means possible, to do something that made me happy. And hopefully, something with my creative streak.

You see, before meeting said boyfriend, back in America, I had recently shunned the conventional path, drop-kicked rationality and quit my job in corporate America…with no real plan for what was next. I began making decisions based on what I felt like doing, or not doing (like not running anymore, at all, after having been clinically addicted to exercise for three years). One heart-based decision lead to another and eventually I stumbled across this Swiss man (in a coffee shop in San Fran) and followed him back to his home town where we furnished our small apartment in Ikea furniture and went about leading an ordinary European life (and yes, it did include a ridiculous amount of cheese).

Then one month, when the Swiss “summer” weather wasn’t quite what I’d expected, I got out my art supplies, purchased a large piece of sturdy white backboard, and began to doodle small heart doodle after small heart doodle in every color combination and variation I could imagine while it poured rain onto the vineyards outside my window. For an entire month it rained, and for an entire month, I drew. It filled me with happiness to doodle hearts, it always has.

I want to repeat that, and I’ll get to why later:

“It filled me with happiness to doodle hearts. It always has. “

When the piece was finished it was over 3 feet tall and I proudly displayed it to my boyfriend’s family and friends. I would tell them, in broken French, that I didn’t want to get a job. I wanted to sell art – my art, of exactly this nature. I would watch them smile and nod, but their skepticism was not well veiled. My mother-in-law’s fury that I did not work (despite the fact that it was a decision that my boyfriend and I were in agreement about. I’m not saying that it was the right decision – in some ways I was following my heart, but in other ways my boyfriend was paying for me to cave to fear and to while away my days in a depression …but THAT is another post) was direct, and cold. This happened, over and over, with different bits of my art. Eventually we framed this large piece, hung it on a wall, and I tucked away my ideas while I went about being the manager of all things domestic, learning French and tutoring English.

Life went on. Art was done, shared, shelved. Projects were started, abandoned. Identities were tried on. Marriage. Moves were made, one back across the ocean. Baby was had. Divorce was wrought and in general, life happened the way it does – with every twist and turn possible until I found myself beginning the year of 2013. 2013?! It can’t be true. And all the while, and I mean every single year, come Valentine’s season, I would recall my desire to take this image of hearts that I had created, and to make it available to people.

You know, almost everyone has a fear of time, and one of the most unfortunate side effects of this fear is that many a good project are abandoned because we convince ourselves (which ain’t hard to do) that it’s too late. We assure ourselves that the project won’t ever take off, if it hasn’t yet, and we give up. As if we had some factual proof of when “too late” occurs to begin with. Do you know why we do this? The ego is sneaky and knows that this is just one of its many ways to protect itself from failures, which is to protect itself from any potential pain. And so “too late” becomes the way to say “I don’t have to try.”

Well, I’ve done that at times, but for some reason, I shelved this project but never quite said “it’s too late.” Meanwhile, a lot has happened in the last seven years. Most notably, I’ve developed an intense belief that the world needs every act of love it can get.

I also now very much believe that there is a birthing time for all projects, and it may actually be years before your very good idea is ripe and ready to be begun. These past seven years have held a lot of tragedy and pain in my own personal life, which has served to make me incredibly, incredibly, aware of the need for Love. All kinds of love. Between all kinds of people.

This January, I found myself once again remembering my desire to sell prints of this artwork. Except now I am ready, and the project is ripe. Now I know that all of those Februarys that I gave myself grief, that I had yet again let the “heart holiday” slip by without launching this project, were senseless acts of self-torture.

First of all, I now feel comfortable with the infamous subjet of “color calibration” and with printing my images. And I also feel comfortable presenting my art for sale. But the most important element, the one that shifted this idea from neutral into drive, is that it is no longer about me loving to doodle (I do, but that doesn’t really matter to anyone else…). Now, after years of personal growth, I can see this project for what it really is: A call for love, a reminder of what matters, that people could happily hang on their walls. With that said: I present to you, Love Prints:

Love Prints are a reminder to practice what matters, LOVE, year-round. The world needs your heart.

Love Prints are also a message of love to someone dear to you: a mother, a sister, a dear friend.

Love Prints are available in 5X7 and 8X10 (contact me for larger sizes).

Love Prints are printed on Premium Epson Matte Paper and personally color managed to ensure the best color quality.

Available Sizes

{ 5 x 7 }

instagram: A Beautiful Walkable Map for Berlin’s 775th...

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:24:28 -0600

instagram.com/p/QAyPv_G3Az/#u_n_c_nothingyet

instagram.com/p/QqU27LwGaf/#junshen_

instagram.com/p/QP_Y-wSCZ2/#franckyfreeze

instagram.com/p/OysclJjR9Q/#dialrevenge

instagram.com/p/Q7tVnXGnFH/#akampa

instagram.com/p/P5V8SRGV2t/#renatasouto

instagram:

A Beautiful Walkable Map for Berlin’s 775th Anniversary

Though the exhibit is no longer on display, many visitors shared their photographs on Instagram. See more photos of the walkable map on the Schlossplatz location page!

In 2012, Berlin celebrated its 775th anniversary. Among the many festivities, several large open-air exhibitions were constructed, including a beautiful walkable map of Berlin, called City of Diversity, placed in front of the largest church in the city.

The walkable map was built as a celebration of Berlin’s many years of immigration history and diversity. It was constructed by a group of artists using a 1:775 scale and 274 stencils, featuring giant colored pins with fascinating explorable facts and stories about migration to Berlin on them. Each colored pin explored a different current or historic topic of diversity in the city, ranging from religion and politics to music and culture.

bookshelfporn: Biblioteca Pública de México (Mexico Public...

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:23:33 -0600

bookshelfporn:

Biblioteca Pública de México (Mexico Public Library)

Mexico DF

Architects: Taller de Arquitectura X

(via rcruzniemiec)

Public Library in Mexico.

Trudy, Kitty, and Nick share the sofa. With each other, not with...

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:39:21 -0600

Trudy, Kitty, and Nick share the sofa. With each other, not with us. (at Hanley Home for the Moderately Sane)

Real Simple Magazine (@RealSimple) tweeted at 7:15 AM on Fri, Jan 25, 2013: Today’s thought:...

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:28:28 -0600

Real Simple Magazine (@RealSimple) tweeted at 7:15 AM on Fri, Jan 25, 2013: Today’s thought: “Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking together in the same direction.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

(https://twitter.com/RealSimple/status/294795666348199936) Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download

Something got into the whites. (at Hanley Home for the...

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:33:55 -0600

Something got into the whites. (at Hanley Home for the Moderately Sane)

at Bandera Road Community Church

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 10:56:54 -0600

at Bandera Road Community Church

yapped: arseniccupcakes: Senior fashionistas life...

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:22:13 -0600

yapped:

arseniccupcakes:

Senior fashionistas

life goal

Same

WTF?

Hunger Games

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:19:31 -0600

Hunger Games

Daisy Yellow paradigm shift

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:11:53 -0600

Daisy Yellow paradigm shift:

Love this post from Tammy Garcia

52 Weeks of Noting {collage and creative record} 1/52

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 08:36:52 -0600

52 Weeks of Noting {collage and creative record} 1/52:

"“…I also noticed a trap that many parents find themselves in—getting manipulated by..."

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 00:48:58 -0600

“

“…I also noticed a trap that many parents find themselves in—getting manipulated by their adult children. This 25- year- old man is not only playing with his mom. He’s shaming her. And Mom is falling for it hook, line, and sinker. She may think that because of some mistake in her past she’s been the cause of all the trouble in her son’s life. Thus she rescues him continually, justifies it with scripture, and is hurting herself and her son in the process.

To moms who have feelings of regret like this woman (and I’ve talked to hundreds) I want you to know that no matter what mistakes you have made in your life by your actions or lack of actions, your child is capable of growing through them. If a child is using your past failures as a manipulative tool to meet his own needs, take action! One of the best messages for your son to hear is that this manipulation is no longer going to be effective with you.”

Read the whole article… it’s really a comfort to moms like me with a manipulative kid and a heart full of regrets.

”

- Helping a Boomerang Child

Photo

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 01:06:38 -0600

Midnight Christmas Eve

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 14:16:44 -0600

Midnight Christmas Eve

Huddling for warmth. Mommy’s on her own.

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 10:10:30 -0600

Huddling for warmth. Mommy’s on her own.

Anniversary roses… 10 red and 1 to grow on....

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 09:36:31 -0600

Anniversary roses… 10 red and 1 to grow on. #christmaswedding #lovemyhubby

Trudy says Merry Christmas http://db.tt/4CN19Bju

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 13:23:44 -0600

Trudy says Merry Christmas http://db.tt/4CN19Bju

leitwortstil: vintagegal: Munster Go Home! (1966) England or...

Sat, 12 May 2012 00:31:24 -0500

leitwortstil:

vintagegal:

Munster Go Home! (1966)

England or Bust = how I feel lately.

one of my favorite comfort movies

leitwortstil: fuckyeahhistorycrushes: Alexandra David-Néel is...

Sat, 12 May 2012 00:30:13 -0500

leitwortstil:

fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

Alexandra David-Néel is maybe the coolest lady explorer ever. As well as exploring the East extensively at a time when ladies were not encouraged to travel on their own, she was a spiritualist, Buddhist and writer. Born in 1868 in Paris, by the time she was 18 she’d travelled extensively around Europe and was a member of the Theosophical Society. She wrote her first book when she was 30, and when she was in her forties she travelled to India to study Buddhism, met a prince, and possibly had an affair with him. During her extensive travels in Asia, she lived in a cave, adopted a monk (yes, adopted) and travelled to Tibet at a time when it was closed to foreigners. In Tibet she met and hung out with the 13th Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, which no European lady had ever done before. She kept travelling with her adopted monk companion until she was 78. She kept writing about her travels and spirituality until she died AT THE AGE OF 101. Also, she opted for a double-barrelled surname when she married, instead of ditching her name in favour of her husband’s. An amazing woman.

Fantastic woman!

True lady pioneer. I can’t believe she was born 100 years before me and was alive when I was born.

Photo

Sat, 12 May 2012 00:25:33 -0500