Happy Valentine's Day / Robert Indiana

Nothing celebrates the spirit of the day like this iconic image by artist Robert Indiana. (His actual name was Robert Clark, born in New Castle, Indiana in 1928). However, the original image, with green and blue spaces backing red lettering, wasn't intended for Valentine's Day at all, it was used for a Christmas card for the Museum of Modern Art in 1964. His design has since been reproduced and parodied in a variety of formats around the world, including a first-class US postage stamp in 1973. Its best known incarnation, as a sculpture, or a sculptural poem as he called them, was first made in 1970. Writer Megan Wilde offeres more detail about its origins in an article for Mental Floss magazine, "The word love was connected to [the artist's] childhood experiences attending a Christian Science church, where the only decoration was the wall inscription God is Love. The colors were an homage to his father, who worked at a Phillips 66 gas station during the Depression" She quotes him as describing the original colors as "the red and green of that sign against the blue Hoosier sky." To learn more about Robert Indiana click: http://robertindiana.com/

“Some people like to paint trees. I like to paint love.
I find it more meaningful than painting trees.”
​                                                                         – Robert Indiana