Friends,
Valentine’s Day is one of those celebrations that seem to polarize people. Either you start planning for it a week ahead (I consider that a lot of planning, OK?) or you try hard to ignore it and then when the day comes you end up binge-eating the pound of chocolate you bought yourself (Radical Self-Love is a movement, haven’t you heard?).
So I propose we do what I always do before any situation that might be tricky, puzzling, embarrassing, distressing: Laugh.
Take a look at this series of hand-painted illustrations about Craigslist Missed Connections by Sophie Blackall. It will light you up before you brave that blind date and loosen your jaw, now locked in stress-mode because his/her favorite restaurant, which serves gluten-free desserts, is booked solid already!
Blackall was, as am I, fascinated by personal ads and the people responsible for them. Her paintings are quirky, funny, tender, and sometimes erotically suggestive portraits of the messengers. From the heart-breaking pleas for a stranger -sometimes any stranger (“I’m not very picky :/”)- to fill someone’s solitude to the downright luscious criteria (insert your favorite erotic fantasy here, if you dare) — all for your heart’s delight.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Visit Sophie’s Etsy to see or buy prints from the series. You can read your adventures in illustration at her blog here.
