100 Valentines Project

If you're reading this you've probably received one of the hundred valentines I made this year. Now let me tell you why I did this.

People say Valentine's Day is a Hallmark Holiday, created to increase profit for the Hallmark Card Company, but I don't care and it's irrelevant to me even if that IS the case.

Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday because:
1. Pink and red is my favorite color combination - so happy and full of energy
2. I love glitter and valentine kitsch
3. It's about LOVE, and I don't think it has to be about romantic love, but love in general - for friends and family as well as lovers

What better way to show someone you love them than by making them something. The most valuable thing to make is time. I would say food is runner up. But for far away valentines, tokens of creativity suffice.

Now - let's consider materials - paper, glitter, glue, paint, stickers, pencils, scissors, tape - easy breezy and cheap! We are surrounded by paper in our culture. We are bombarded with catalogs, magazines, flyers, menus, business cards, wrapping paper, newspapers.........here is a wealth of material just waiting to be reused! And let me tell you, 100% of all 100 valentines are reused material.

On many cold cold nights in Brooklyn in my studio I was tearing, cutting, pasting thousands of paper bits together - translating the anonymity of consumer culture into unique, personal messages.