They found themselves double lettering.

20.5 x 27 cm
Found black and white photograph, felt, ribbon (from A.D. in DK), red thread, paper bag from the bakery, origami paper and magazine clippings

This work was inspired by some old fashioned postcards (with thread and material on the surface) my grandmother used to send my sister and I from Hungary:




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Happy Valentine's Day


I feel quite conflicted about Valentine's Day. On the one hand I completely recognize that it is a bogus capitalistic marketing scheme created by the service industry and the luxury sector to make some big money on the idea of "love". The question does remain: why do we need one day a year to "show our love to someone"? It is not really celebrated here in Germany... so does that mean they are missing out on the possibility of an extreme money making opportunity (For example think of how much money you could charge for roses today if you had a flower stand)? Or that couples simply don't need to be reminded that they should love their better half Today and only Today?! BUT that said, I do have to say I quite like this day and it could be because it always had to do with collage making when I was a kid.

I remember one time - a solid week before Valentine's Day - that my mom organized an after-school Valentine's Day making extravaganza. My friend's Lisa and Robbie came over (we were all about 8 years old), and my mom made each of us a heart shaped master pattern to use as the base of our Valentine's Day cards. She had gotten small shells, colored paper, felt tip markers (from Germany) and lots of glue and glitter. She encouraged us to make whatever we thought would be nice. We each made 30 cards - one for each of the other students in the class. I remember not liking everyone in my class but still making one for everyone (it was my mom's idea). The triumph of course came from putting those cards in each person's Valentine's Day 'receptacle' in the class room. Of course the question at the end of the day always was "How many cards did you get?"


(Thanks to L. for the title inspiration.)