Love Is Art

For Valentine’s Day, 2014, I got a Love Is Art kit for David and me. Pause to check it out so you know what I’m talking about. Always the adventurers, this looked like so much fun for us! While I thought for sure we’d do it right away…

…we finally did it this past November, on our 9th anniversary. In 2020. Why did it take nearly 7 years to do?

Here are the technical reasons:

1. Starting two weeks after the kit arrived, I had the first of three foot and ankle reconstruction surgeries. Body painting in casts was out, but I was clear of those by Summer. Yet it sat.
2. I got pregnant in early 2015, so that became the new reason. I have high risk pregnancies so body painting didn’t seem smart. So it sat.
3. Nov., 2015, new baby. Nursing, momming, exhausted – besides, where and when could we accomplish it now?? This project needed alone time and space that we didn’t have. So it sat.
4. Aug., 2018, the beginning of my hips and pelvis saga. There’s no way I could get down and roll around in paint, I could barely get myself in and out of bed and needed a toilet seat riser, etc. So it definitely sat.

This awesome kit, neatly packed, stayed tucked in a corner in my closet, patiently waiting to be brought out when the time was right. I wondered over the years if the paint would have dried up. David, the ever patient husband, would ask about it from time to time, but my technical reasons always prevailed. Sure, there were pockets where we might have done it, but there’s more to this than the physical ability and technical reasons for why it sat.

Sine Waves

Just because the body is ready for something doesn’t mean the mind is. It can take a lot longer for the mind to catch up to the body. My body has gone through a lot since 2014, and as gracefully as I’ve rolled with it all, it has had a deeper impact mentally than is visible. So, as my body goes through yet another thing, my mind has to do all the heavy lifting of being strong, staid, and the solid anchor. As my body experiences sine waves, up and down, my mind is the x-axis around which my body cycles, ever steady. Until the body can calm down, believably, my mind has work to do.

All of this makes it difficult to let loose, have fun, and love freely. It is difficult to be in a constant state of self-protection and somehow mix in freeform love. With David, but also with everyone – kids, friends, anyone.

I have the most patient lover. He gives me space and time to be in this season, to work through it on my own, yet gently nudge at the same time. He gets me and knows that I need to come to my new spaces on my own. This goes all the way back to the concept of unfurling. While the largest part of that happens right away, the subtler parts take a long time.

This is why writing every day in this blog is so good for me, especially in search of closing it all out with Big Tab Three. Writing is art, so connecting with art every day helps me believe in the calming of the sine waves and begin to loosen the mental grip. Physical art is freeing, and my way to disrupt the waves.

Love Is Art

Art takes patience, dedication, practice, creativity, open mind, and an open heart…so does love. Love is art.

– Jeremy Brown, Love Is Art creator

Love is also art. And science, but mostly art. Creating physical art helps pull me back to expressing love more openly.

11/11/2020

Finally creating the space and time to do this project together had to be epic, an awesome surprise, and it needed to come from me. Our anniversary was the perfect time! I found a cool, artsy hotel in Denver, set up a weekend, ordered some ridiculous props, and away we went.

Having a physical representation of an exceptionally fun evening out together, and ultimately 7 years, now ready to hang and see every day, is LOVE and ART. We waited 6 months for its arrival (the finished piece arrived just yesterday) and it was worth it. Fitting itself into my sine waves at exactly the right node of calm, this is a perfect wave disruptor that I hope will help recalibrate the wave cycles, setting me on a new path of embracing open expression of love and art as one.

David, I love the art we made together, especially the secret elements within the piece. Like this one…

Every part of it from creation to final piece is exactly right, including the time it took from 2014 until now. Interestingly, it is a bookend of my crazy years of surgeries, baby, more surgeries – our love and our art together holding that space. May our days be filled with more relaxed love – thank you for being gently patient with me!

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