The Look of Love

As both an artist and a musician, it’s not surprising that music often comes to mind while I’m playing in the studio. Lately a lot of that music seems to be coming from the 1960’s. That was my era, of course, and while I was never a huge fan of popular music, I heard it all around me. Yes, there are songs I remember, songs I enjoyed, songs I liked listening to. One of those was The Look of Love. My favorite was the jazz rendition by Burt Bacharach.

This was the song playing in my head this morning as I created “the look of love” for my art journal. 

Nothing fancy. Nothing too special. Just me having fun with bits and pieces of an old calendar page, a few heart stickers I found in the craft box, and a bit of washi tape and watercolor.

The Look of Love

I could “analyze” this little work of art and come up with lots of psycho-babble about lines and colors. Ooh, look! There’s a little shiny heart! That must mean true love can be bright, shiny, and beautiful, right? And what about that green heart? Does that suggest a touch of jealousy? Could it be that those different lines going this way and that mean that love doesn’t make sense sometimes?

Folks, feel free to interpret it any way you want, but know that none of those deep, symbolic meanings were part of this art. The “shiny cut-out heart” is a inside of an Adkins Peanut Butter Cup wrapper that was on my desk. I love those peanut butter cups, so I used the wrapper. The green heart? I wasn’t paying any attention to colors… just grabbing stickers and putting them here and there. As for the lines going everywhere, again, no rhyme or reason. I’d cut a lot of little strips from the calendar page and tried to fit them on the page.

The only thing with “true meaning” here was the date of our anniversary. I cut the numbers from the calendar and glued them on, but then I accidentally covered one of the numbers up. Oh, well. The thought was there.

I guess I will say that, to me, love looks playful and colorful, that sometimes maybe it is a little crazy, and that’s how it should be. If there’s any message to be found in this journal page, it’s that love is fun. My husband and I cherish the quote about weirdness:

I should cut this out and add it to my journal. I think it will fit nicely on the facing page. Yes, I like that idea.

BTW, what I don’t love right now is the new Word Press Block Editor. I’m struggling to put posts together. Even using the “classic block” is challenging. I hope I get used to this soon. Bear with me, please, and if something looks odd, just know that I’m doing the best I can!