“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 }

 

{ 8 x 10 }

If you glean any nuggets from this story, pocket this:  

Do what makes you insanely happy. Like doodling for me. It may not sell, but do it for YOU. It matters. 

When your happiness-inducing hobby feeds the world something it needs, you’ve got something that sells. Go for it. 

There is no such thing as “too late.” Say it out-loud, right now.  Everything in its right time, in a peaceful way. 

P.S.  15% of all proceeds will be donated to Bikers Against Child Abuse. I’ve been donating to BACA for a few months now and I want to continue giving them everything that I can, because they restore my faith in humanity. Check out their mission, and the people who are bringing love and protection to traumatized children around the country. Oh, and grab a box of Kleenex.