♥︎ Hi lovers ♥︎
I have always loved Valentine’s Day, but the last few years I have grown more and more fond of the day. Two years ago I was cat sitting on Valentine’s Day. I was looking after Kika (the sweet, striped tabby cat) and a secluded, little home in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I made myself coffee and opened the front door to sit and drink it in the sun, and there on the front door mat was a heart. A real bird heart. It looked like it was just in the living bird no more than an hour ago. Kika had graciously delivered this Valentine to me. Although I was not a fan of her killing an innocent and probably really beautiful bird, I loved the irony of receiving a real heart on Valentine’s Day.
I love this day dedicated to love! Never, ever exclusive to romantic love, I love recognizing all of the love surrounding me. In all its different forms … even from cats. Self love! Friendship love! Family love! Earth love! I feel it in my bones that love is allll around us in big and small ways. It’s a frequency we can tap into. It's a way of seeing and acting in the world.
My fondness for Valentine’s Day most likely stems from the fun I had creating a Valentine’s Day “mail box” in grade school. I loved the whole process of personalizing my box, writing all of my classmates names on the store bought valentines, walking around the classroom and delivering them into each cardboard, construction paper wrapped box.
The last few years, I have done my own version of this, sans DIY mailbox, and still find so much joy in the process. This year, I took it up a notch and I mentally rebranded “valentine making” as “creating a drawing series”. An art goal I have for 2025 is to create more ~ finished ~ analog drawing work. I am a very avid sketchbooker. I have made many finished digital drawings. But I have very little finalized pen to paper drawing work.
I’m happy to say I did it! I made a drawing series! I created 23 little drawings! And more importantly: I had fun doing it!!!! I loved feeling all wrapped up in the pace of this project. I was on a timeline so I couldn’t let myself mull over incremental choices. I had to just keep making the work and moving forward. There’s a certain type of high this gives me. Seeing the papers stack as I moved from sketches to inking to adding color. Seeing the Beings become friends. My absolute favorite part was hanging them on this wire by clothes pins and siting back and looking at them as a collection.
This whole project was intended to show love and in return it fueled me with a love for making! An even deeper appreciation for my studio! A love for the buzz of being in the flow! I felt like I was rolling down a big, grassy hill on a summer day. Following the law of nature, against my will but completely giddy and present all the way down.
A joy for the process is sometimes harder to tap into than one may think. Through persistence and showing up — I found it — or it found me. Either way, it was an absolute delight.
These are my Beings of Love:
Lots and lots of love,
♥︎ Dan
grateful for your token of love <3