I Love Spring

Every May, my blog slows down a little because Spring sproings me outside! This year, warm weather came early, and then left ... even the cherry blossoms in High Park are confused. Here they are, almost in full bloom, one month ahead of time. Happy Spring!

Love is Possible

Why yes, I do believe it is! This stencil was photographed by Flickr's 4illa, in Brooklyn, New York. Seeing "love is possible" done up in stickers and stencils in many styles -- the earliest seem to be from Berlin. Also, check out this "love is possible" photoset from Tel Aviv.

Simple.

The heart of all spiritual teaching is simple.
Be love. Be peace. Be harmony. Be compassion. Be joy.

-Author unknown

I'm sure that the meaning of life would fit on a T-shirt. It might say something like this:

There is no greater than love with no object.
For then you yourself, have become love, itself.

-Rumi

Or maybe that's too complicated. We have been taught to make things complicated:

Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretense. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.

-Adyashanti 

I love you. I love. Maybe the T-shirt only needs to say:

 (in any font or colour you like : )

Neon I Love You

Sometimes I Love You is subtly whispered; other times, it's screaming in neon. Neon I Love You signs have been sold on eBay as long as I've been looking for ILY items, but in the past few years, they've entered the art world. The following three photos are part of 12 Months of Neon Love, a project that rendered twelve bits of pop lyric in large, red, neon letters. The messages were displayed on a rooftop in view of a commuter train and were, fittingly, sold by auction afterwards.

The project was a collaboration between British artists Victoria Lucas and Richard William Wheater, and began on Valentines day 2011. They write:

As the fleeting expressions of love change month by month, so too does the relationship that conceived them. On the eighth month of the project the personal journey between the collaborating artists dynamically shifted, their own failing relationship becoming as much a part of the artwork as the neon that blazes on the roof top. Lyrics such as Joy Division’s Love, Love will Tear Us Apart Again echoed the real events occurring closer to home. Thus 12 Months of Neon Love is as much about the pain that all lovers endure as it is the euphoric rapture the feeling of love can bestow.

“I think the fact that we have experienced the full spectrum of feelings associated with love during the projects short life span is so important, and for me has become the main concept driving the work. The work was conceived out of our love, which now only exists in our memories. The transitory nature of the project and its temporal existence echoes this; a year long artwork representing a year long love affair.” – Lucas

Neon has been big in the art world for a couple of years. The formula seems to be something like: take a banal and/or highly personal phrase, do it up in a form that we mostly associate with seedy businesses, and then note that neon is light, meaning that your words are now pulsating with electricity. Not saying this is a bad thing. Tracey Emin has embraced it:

Image swiped from art-Corpus

More neon love art here, here, and well, just search through the hundreds of signs at Google Images for more. Ever since I saw my first I Love You neon sign on eBay, I've wanted one for the collection of found I Love You objects. I think a found sign is as interesting as a created one, but I didn't feel like shelling out the cash. 

I do have one of these, though. From eBay.

wtf I Love You

Throwboy decorates brightly coloured pillows with chatroom acronyms, Internet icons, and even Facebook "Like" buttons. I bought one of their small "ily" chat pillows for my I Love You collection (which, with thousands of pieces, will make a bizarre art show one day) . Months later, I received a package at my door, like this:

Graphic swiped from Throwboy

The package looked too large for the little pillow.

Inside, was this:

Wtf, Throwboy? My seven-year-old son wanted the three letters explained, turning the wtf moment into a teachable moment (but just barely). Then, at the bottom of the package, what did we find?

There was the "ily" pillow, plus a note apologizing for its delayed arrival: "Enjoy this pillow on the house!" We will, Throwboy. Let the adolescent jokes and badly-done Photoshopping begin.

"Wtf" could be a response to I Love You. Or, if you're surprised to find yourself saying I Love You, you might be thinking "wtf" at the same time. But maybe the most commonly spoken combination -- especially on the Internet -- is, "I love you, but wtf????" Heck, "ily but wtf?" might name one our our favourite feelings about the Internet, expressed with acronyms that became popular through social networking technologies. It's the theme of many pop songs, films, and stories, which need the conflict of "wtf" and the "ily" happy ending. The "wtf" factor triggers our adrenaline and keeps us engaged; then, "ily" makes it all better so we'll watch or listen or read the same formula again.

I guess that's why I try to stay in love, in energies that are more subtly rewarding, instead wanting to ride the love/conflict cycle.  Life throws me enough wtf moments so I don't feel like seeking it out through "entertainment" or in most of our "art."

But if I were starting a punk band, "ily but wtf" would be pretty kickass.

Who Did You Love?

The First Love Project collects videos in which people reminisce about first relationships, first crushes on celebrities, first unrequited loves, or even first infatuations over cars. It's "a place for people gay or straight and from all backgrounds to share and watch stories about their lives and loves."

Above is a cute video by the amazing Jenny Foulds, Head Of Happy Things at HappyGraffiti.com. Who (or what) was your first love? I have never thought about it, but mine was hockey. Yes, hockey : ) Then, there's the following advice, from Love Science:

Dr. Nancy Kalish, expert on reunited relationships and author of a research-based book, Lost and Found Lovers: Facts and fantasies of rekindled romances, has interviewed hundreds of lovers who re-established contact with a former flame. Although a few re-connections crash and burn, almost 80% of rekindled first loves—if single at the time of the re-kindling!— passionately burn for a lifetime of happiness. 

I don't think that Jenny wants to look for her first love, but my reunion with hockey four years ago was an astounding success. Dr. Kalish predicts good outcomes for rekindled first relationships if they fit a certain profile (kind of turns Facebook into an accident waiting to happen, doesn't it?). Check out Duana C. Welch's summary of the criteria at Dear Duana.