Photos

What Is Love? by PARANOIA--7 on deviantart, photography, 2011


Love by arlek-in on deviantart, digital, 2006


Love by Adollable on deviantart, pencil, 2007


Joseph Wierenga 2007

Links

Love.givemehope.com

http://www.thehotline.org/

http://www.lovepoemsandquotes.com/

http://www.abeautifulrevolution.com/blog/images/will_hold_your_hand.jpg

http://handwrittenheart.com/

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/domestic-violence/WO00044

http://www.lovepoetry.com/

http://www.1-love-quotes.com/

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,977763,00.html

http://amolife.com/reviews/top-20-most-famous-love-stories-in-history-and-literature.html

Exceptions

Winter Rain by Claudiasutton

I never liked the rain until I walked through it with you.
And in the middle of the gray day, when the clouds looked like they would never part, you held my hand as we walked through the rain. You dragged me through every puddle, forcing my legs to skip as we hit the water, and suddenly, it didn’t seem so bad. It didn’t seem so bad as the water shot up, water coming in both directions, small rainbows dancing by our feet as the clouds parted slowly. The water fell from the sky and onto our faces; a wide grin played on your lips as you leaned forward, and I realized right there that the rain was something to cherish forever.

I never liked dancing until I danced with you.
And in the middle of all the spinning and tripping over my feet I felt the inkling of love for the way you caught me before I hit the floor. How your arms wrapped around me, a promise to never let me hit the bottom. The way when you picked me up you made it seem like my fall was intended, and swept me off my feet again. In the middle of all the flushed cheeks, and stuttered words, you made me love to move my feet, as long as yours were there to guide me.

I never liked being sick until I was sick with you.
And in the middle of the all the pain and fear, I felt your arms wrap around me, and your hands gently coax me to sleep. I felt your body meld to mine, clutching me close no matter how many times I told you not to come close for fear of making you ill. I heard your sweet words enter my ears as I twisted in my blankets, trying to find a position to fall asleep in the wretched hours of the morning, and they made me think that maybe everything would be alright, as long as I had such a loving person by my side to help me through it all.

I never liked falling in love until I fell in love with you.
And in the middle of all the twists and turns of falling for you, I was always afraid of the end, the final drop that left me where I started. Yet, once I finished falling, and actually found all of the love I had for you, I knew that you were different; that my love with you would never take that final plunge that seemed to haunt me wherever I went. And I finally realized that I would endlessly fall in love with someone, as long as that someone was you.

I never liked living until I lived with you.
And in the middle of falling for you I realized that I loved more than just loving you, I loved living with you; every moment that we were together was a moment to remember. That just waking up and knowing that I would be able to be with you during my day was enough to make me love being alive. I finally came to know that all along I had been cursing myself for not knowing what I was living for, and maybe never would, until you walked into my life and I knew that it was you all along, and that living would be the greatest journey, as long as I got to journey with you.

Community Interaction

I have decided to hand out several spiral bound notebooks to my friends and family. I instructed them to fill them with anything that represents their love and passions. I will photograph them with their notebook and have them sign the image to prove that have completed this interaction.

20 More References

1.)Domestic Violence by *assasin4 on deviantart https://browse.deviantart.com/literature/?q=domestic%20violence#/d2qtvub
2.)Is it Love? by ~brokenxbeauty on deviantart
https://browse.deviantart.com/literature/?qh=§ion=&q=Love#/dgg61q
3.)Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
4.)Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
5.)I Do by Andrea Gibson
6.)I Carry Your Heart With Me by E.E. Cummings
7.)Annie Laurie by William Douglas
8.)A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe
9.)Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
10.)Greasepaint by Jillian Andre
11.)Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
12.)Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence
13.)Far From the Maddening Crowd by Thomas Hardy
14.)The Young Lovers by Michael Benedikt
15.)Just Listen - Sarah Dessen
16.)The Time Travler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
17.)Mama Day by Gloria Naylor
18.)The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
19.)Posession by A. S. Byatt
20.)The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Excerpts

1) "One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun
Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun."
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 1.2

2)"I
am generations of
Daughters
Sisters
Mothers
Our bodies battlefields, war zones
beneath the weapons of your brothers hands
Do you know they found land mines in broken womens souls?
Black holes in the parts of their hearts
that used to sing symphonies of creation
bright as the light on infinities halo
She says
I remember the way Love
used to glow like glitter on my skin
before he made his way in
now every touch feels like a son
that could crucify Madusa
Kali, Oshun, Mary"
Andrea Gibson - "Blue Blanket"

3) "I was worn out, broken: He had taken almost everything. But he'd been all I'd had, all this time. And when the police led him away, I pulled out of the hands of all these loved one, sobbing, screaming, everything hurting, to try and make him stay."
— Sarah Dessen - Dreamland

4) "You
are the music of two grasshoppers
making love in a school yard
where four-year-olds ask me,
what are the grasshoppers doing?
and I tell them they're dancing to the music of
You
are the gaps in my ribcage
where the sunrise winds through to my heart and
You
are the part of the sunset that is so pink
the grasshoppers think maybe we should stop and watch
You
are the moon when it bloomed for the first time
and a child inspired unwound the lid of a jar
that set ten-thousand grasshoppers free and
You
drive me f**king crazy.

I mean insanely.
You make me wanna take a fork to my eyeballs,
rip the hair from my armpits
and shove it down my throat
'cause I would rather choke
than argue another minute with you
but you are so
pretty.

And smart.
You know so many words.
You're every poem I would write
if ink could ever hold the light
that glows from your toes when you're climbing up trees.
Girl, I swear ya got sap running thick in your veins
and I never love you more
than when you're mouring the death of raindrops
falling forsaken on pavement.
God, I love how you hate pavement.

But you make me wanna smash my skull on pavement.
It's true.
When we argue you make me wanna rip off my nose,
bone and all like my uncle Billy used to pretend to do.
He'd say, "Girl, I'm gonna rip off yer nose!"
Then he'd tug at my face
and hold up half his thumb
and half the time he'd fool me and I'd start crying.
But I'm older now and I'm not lying
you make me wanna rip off my nose.

Except when you don't.
Sometimes you make me wish I had an extra nose
only to smell your hair,
because I love how your hair smells like... hair.
I always hated the smell of shampoo,
Besides
I love you.
It's true.

The way you pretend to chew gum when you're nervous.
The way you stick out your tongue
when you look in the mirror
'cause you think your face is shaped better that way.
And I love the way you pray
and I love the way you chew
and use chopsticks like you're from Japan.
God, you're a woman of culture.
I wanna eat you like a... not a vulture

a swan.

I wanna eat you like swans eat flowers.
Baby, if swans ever ate flowers
I would eat you like that for hours.

Except when you're sour
and acting like a self-righteous grumpy old grump
like ya do sometimes,
'cause those times
you make me wanna run to the edge of the f**king world
and hurl myself into a black f**king hole
and never come back ever.

And then there are the times I wanna
be with you forever and follow you forever
wherever you go
if only for the freckle in the middle of your belly
that's just like mine,
or the time you corrected me for saying man
instead of human kind.
I can't believe I did that.

Do you know how much I love your boobs?
Almost as much as I love how
you hate that I call breasts boobs
and say you're tired of dating a 12-year-old boy,
but god, your boobs bring me joy.
Though I could live forever between the lines of your teeth
and eat nothing but memory and purge myself clean.

You are a dream.
We are a nightmare sometimes.

But if you wake up terrified
I'll be there to hold you,
fold you in the pockets of my faith
and say, "We'll be ok." "
"Love Poem" - Andrea Gibson (I posted this whole poem because I felt it displayed its themes better as a whole than any part of it could)

5) "It was generally evident whenever they met, that he did admire her and to her it was equally evident that Jane was yielding to the preference which she had begun to entertain for him from the first, and was in a way to be very much in love; but she considered with pleasure that it was not likely to be discovered by the world in general, since Jane united, with great strength of feeling, a composure of temper and a uniform cheerfulness of manner which would guard her from the suspicions of the impertinent. She mentioned this to her friend Miss Lucas."
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

4/15 3-2-1

3)
It's Going to be Okay - Chidi Okoye


Leonid Afremov


Klimt - The Kiss

2)
There are many distinct "ribbons" throughout this image. The flow from his arm around her head, wraps up and around his head and down his other arm. This ribbon then goes up her arm and wraps down her frame, connecting the two of them together. The buildings in the background also hold their own ribbons, flowing parallel and creating a contrasting background to the swooping ribbons in the foreground.


I really like the way this image is set up. The way it is painted all of the ribbons are very, very clear. The two faces are very minimalistic, but still hold enough realism to show what they are. The ribbons of the front of their faces twist together, again bringing this couple together through not only their kiss, but also their juxtaposition.

Short Story Photo

Jump - AinLim on deviantart

Critique 2 (Photography) Love Shouldn't Hurt

I'm going to be doing the "darker" side of romance with this critique. I will be using a photograph that is meant to portray a domestic violence victim.

Photograph by Andy Armstrong

Abuse is not something that is extremely rare within our society. Though we like to think that it does not happen, it does, and it is not something new. Abuse is a terrifying actuality within many women's lives. Domestic violence is something that is tackled within art countless times, but many artists cannot grasp the pain of these women correctly and tastefully, Andy Armstrong does both of these things. In Andy Armstrong's photo "Love Shouldn't Hurt" he utilizes gritty color and harrowing characterization to portray the devastating pain all victims of domestic violence feel while tackling their lives on their own.

The gritty colors of the photograph only enhance the striking emotion flowing through it. The image itself is uncomfortable to look at, but way the colors makes the scene just that much more unbearable, it is truly amazing. There is a chartreuse like filter across the scene, painting it in an almost nauseating fashion, in a sense trying to push that unsettling envelope just that much further. The color also holds a gritty tone, almost a texture within the filter as if it is trying to manifest what her emotions look like in color and feel. This gut wrenching color is magnificent and horrifying; proving that such raw emotion can be captured within a single frame is something that is truly fascinating.

The characterization of the model is something that is extremely unique about the photograph. The model clearly shows such a terrifying emotion, something that she (probably) has never felt, but is still able to embody the fear and helplessness of all the women subjected to domestic abuse. She portrays a simple woman stuck within an nightmarish relationship, something that only haunts our dreams, but lurks dauntingly within this woman's everyday reality. It is hard to imagine living such a devastating life, and knowing that woman do actually live it is hard to take. The model within this image is so breathtakingly painful to view, and I find that all the more fantastic,

Photography is a hard art to master, but Andy Armstrong seems to be making his way there within "Love Shouldn't Hurt". The biting emotion displayed within it is nauseating and surreal. The way he is able to portray such a heartbreaking life in such an artistic and careful way is superb.

Sculpture and Painting

NYC LOVE Sculpture by Robert Indiana



Trust in Love - Beth Budesheim

Critique 1; "The Lovers" Rene Magritte

Love has always been, and always will be, a powerful and strong emotion. It is a force on this earth, something we all crave. Though some believe that beauty is a key element within this emotion, it is known that beauty is only skin deep, and as they often say, love is blind. "The Lover's", Rene Magritte skillfully utilizes contrastingly dulled colors and stark, striking symbolism to bring forth the concept of love as a blind and pulling force within us all.
The dulled colors throughout the painting provide a deeper look into the concept portrayed. The colors of the painting are dulled down and pulled back, drawing the focus away from them. This further brings out the idea that love is blind and beauty is not necessary to feel such a strong emotion. Even though the colors of the painting are dull they still bring out beauty within it. Bright colors are not necessary to have a fantastic paiting, much like beauty is not necessary to having a loving relationship.
The symbolism within the painting also further shows that love is blind. Each of the lovers is hooded; they have a thick bag covering each of their faces. And though they are cloaked from each other, they still have the passion to kiss one another, they still have that electrifying connection between them, though their faces are shrouded. This love is blind, they cannot see one another, but they know what they feel, and beauty has nothing to do with any of it. They are able to look past what is before them and see the one they love for who they are, exactly that, their love. All love should be this strong and powerful, all love should be blind and fulfilling.
Rene Magritte's painting portrays the concept of blind love through its symbolism and coloring, bringing forth such a powerful emotion in all of us and proving that beauty does not matter, it is only skin deep. Love triumphs over all and needs to be seen that way.

Declaration

My concept is "Through Rose Colored Glasses: The Influences of Love and Passion". I chose this concept because "looking through rose colored glasses" is a phrase that I have used throughout my entire life. It's an old fashioned saying that means you are looking at a bad situation in a good light because you have strong feelings for someone involved, or just hold a loving and optimistic personaility. I figured that such a phrase would be perfect to title my conceptfolio based upon such a sweeping emotion. Throughout my concept I will delve into the confusing emotions of love and passion and how they make people go off into directions that they never saw themselves traveling to. I will cover every type of love from elementary puppy love to the sweeping romance of soul mates, from the crushing blow of heartbreak and the feeling of a blow from a love. Love and passion make people do crazy things, and that is when real art happens.