Valentines Day

The holiday, Valentines Day, risks being a commercial cliché where (so-called) lovers–old and new–re-affirm their love and affection. Through an exchange of notes, gifts, flowers, chocolates, and what have you. While painting this, of course, I imagined a deluge of flowers and chocolates and their wrappings. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that this holiday has made the colors pink and red…..utterly tasteless.

Nonetheless, I took on the challenge of converting my impression of this holiday into something more meaningful and tasteful. Using pinks tinged with grey, passages of white. And a column of masculine blue as a counterpoint to the whole sweet visual construction.

The geometric composition, again, is more complex, using a vertical space with a subtle arrow. Breaking my usual horizontal stripes, a sort of symbolism of how the “arrow pierces the heart”. An overlay leitmotif to my usual exploration of color.

–STELIOS author of The Oculus