Kevin Jay Stanton - Favorite Love Story

I realized that while I do watch a lot of romantic movies, I tend to think of the romance as somewhat secondary. The forerunners for this project were initially two of my favorite movies - The Fifth Element and Ever After. But neither of them really resonate for me romantically. Frankly I just like Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich and Drew Barrymore kicking ass. All of my ideas revolved around heroic poses of them.

So I went back and decided on A Very Long Engagement, which can truly be called a romantic movie. In highschool I would sigh about how deep Mathilde's love for Manech was and how strong their bond was, and think about that mournful tuba. Also, Marianne Cotillard is a serious badass in this, and I'm all about that. Oh and for anyone who hasn't seen the film - "MMM" stands for "Manech aime Mathilde" and is carved into the bell of a church where the lovebirds grew up.

At the moment I'm trying a bunch of new techniques to flesh out ideas and this seemed like a good opportunity to do so!

Jenna Kass - Favorite Love Story

My absolute favorite love story, Beren and Lúthien, comes from The Silmarillion. (spoiler: I'm a huge Tolkien nerd.)

To be as brief as possible: He was a mortal man, and to be worthy of the daughter of an Elven king, he vowed to get a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth (Sauron's old boss). Lúthien follows him, and they journey together, surviving by each others' strength. They do actually get the Silmaril, but Morgoth's wolf bites Beren's hand off still holding it.

The wolf is slain, and the Silmaril recovered, but Beren dies - and as a mortal, it is a final death. Except that Lúthien tells him to wait in the Halls of the Dead, and goes to the lord of that realm, and is so eloquent in her grief that she is allowed to bring Beren back to the land of the living, as long as she gives up her own immortality.

Sarah Gay - Favorite Love Story

Marla Singer + Tyler Durden

(Fight Club)

Amanda Atkins - Favorite Love Story

I have always adored E. E. Cummings and the elephant valentines he drew with crayon and oils yearly for his wife, Marion Morehouse. The New York Public Library can teach you more about these beautiful gifts of love.

I love the idea of a specific animal acting as a sort of symbol for the love shared by two people - something that can be called upon again and again as time goes on.

Stacey Lee - Favorite Love Story

"Conversation, like certain portions of the anatomy, always runs more smoothly when lubricated."

I'm not really a fan of romance, and I tend to avoid love stories like the plague.  Except for Quills. Maybe it's because it's main character is brilliantly filthy.  Maybe it's because he speaks to the sinner and the saint in all of us.  Maybe it's because Joaquin Phoenix is a total babe.

Jason Cheeseman-Meyer - Favorite Love Story

I'm old enough now that Romeo and Juliet feels like a story about impetuous youth self-destructing through their adolescent view of reality rather than a love story.  But Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash -- that's a love story.  Two people, married to other people when they met, famous, self-destructive, painfully addicted, but they pull it together, and endure for a lifetime, living together, working together, rarely leaving each others' side.  It's not a pretty story, but it's a powerful one.

Lee Moyer - Favorite Love Story

Craig Maher - Favorite Love Story

Oh Molly, you'll always be my favorite.

Tim Durning- Favorite Love Story

Gromwell (noun): (Plants) any of various hairy plants of the boraginaceous genus Lithospermum, esp L. officinale, having small greenish-white, yellow, or blue flowers, and smooth nutlike fruits.

I had some trouble thinking of love stories that really affected me, but while scrolling through movie ratings I hit The Baxter and started smiling. A "baxter" is the nice guy the leading lady leaves for the leading man and this movie by the comedians behind Stella and Wet Hot American Summer is genre-aware, ridiculous, and very sweet.

Alice Stanne - Favorite Love Story

I guess 'favorite' and 'love story' might not be the best words to describe to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. It's more like most unforgettable heartbreak of my young life. The books definitely do not qualify as love stories but for some reason the way they ended really stuck with me. I was also probably very jealous that people's souls were animals who hung around their person, talking with them and being their closest friends.

Anna Christenson - Favorite Love Story

The first love story that came to mind when thinking of this week's challenge brief was the myth of Narcissus and Echo.  I decided to go with it, because it is a sad and beautiful story, but also one I think can be totally relatable at times. I think most people go through periods of self-obsession that are detrimental to either their mental or physical well-being, let along those around them (depression, addiction, hubris, etc), or have felt ignored and unloved. 

I'd really like to go back and do this piece traditionally. I am not sure it got the time it deserved!

Jeanine Henderson—Favorite Love Story

My valentine to Johnny Cash & June Carter—because doesn't everyone want a love story like theirs? 

My Dad used to talk about how much Johnny loved June, and how he died of a broken heart shortly after he lost her. I don't believe in "storybook" or "perfect" love, which is why I guess I always loved their story—the truest, strongest kind of love weathers all the storms and can't be broken, even by death.

I tried some new things with this piece,  looking to the iconic Hatch Show posters for inspiration.

Lee Moyer - Favorite Love Story

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Leedskalnin

Tim Paul - Favorite Love Story

I tend to not have favorites. But I do have currents. Which is to say, "this is the [blank] I am most currently digging."

So the love story I am currently most digging is actually the Ice King's background story, which has only been explored a few times. When you first meet the Ice King in Adventure Time, he's a hilarious weirdo that is always kidnapping Princess to try and force them to marry and love him.

As you learn his history, he was driven mad by the magic in the Crown (which give him his powers), turning him into the Ice King. He may have saved the world in the past as well. He might have stopped the Lich King as well. 

As he lost his mind, he also lost the love of his life, Betty. No one is sure what became of Betty.

Now, almost a thousand years later. Ice King is a lonely, kooky magic-user, with domination over the power of ice and snow, living with penguins in his Mountain Fortress in the Kingdom of Ice. 

But every now and then, he's haunted by fragments of his past, in particular, Betty.

I love it, because the Ice King is far more than he seems. 

Michelle Dickens- Favorite Love Story

Among my favorite love stories is F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." Although the romantic aspect of the novel is a small component within a larger context of decadence and corruption in the roaring twenties, I find Gatsby's unwavering devotion to Daisy very touching. In keeping with the symbolism in the novel, I utilized a color palette of green and golds to illustrate the characters' affluence. It was also fun to experiment with an art deco approach to recreate the look of the period.

Angela Rizza - Favorite Love Story

Meet me in Montauk.

Elisabeth Alba - Favorite Love Story

I have always loved tales of Robin Hood and Maid Marian!

Richie Pope-Favorite Love Story

The story of Joel and Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind will forever be my favorite love story. If who you are is based on your memories and experiences and you erase someone out of your memory, aren't you just erasing yourself? Relationships always end, but we enter them anyway. We enjoy the ride, knowing this.

The final exchange between Joel and Clementine puts it perfectly:

Joel: I can't see anything that I don't like about you.
Clementine: But you will! But you will. You know, you will think of things. And I'll get bored with you and feel trapped because that's what happens with me.
Joel: Okay.
Clementine: ...Okay.

Lee Moyer - Favorite Love Story

The splendid BrainPickings offers a fine essay on this topic:

As we make historic progress on the dignity and equality of human love, it’s hard to forget the enormous indignities to which the lovers of yore have been subjected across the 4,000-year history of persecuting desire. Among modernity’s most tragic victims of our shameful past is Oscar Wilde, who was imprisoned multiple times for his “crime” of homosexuality, run into bankruptcy and exile, and fell to an untimely death. But Wilde’s most “sinful” quality — his enormous capacity for passionate, profound love — was also one of the most poetic gifts of his life.

More here: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/07/15/oscar-wilde-love-letters-bosie/

Scott Murry - #nofilter

When you watch a romantic scene of a movie, you'll catch moments of people kissing upside down, swapping spit within moments of duress, and certainly locking lips during a sunset or two. That's how the ideal spats of passion come about.

There's nothing quite as awkward or unromantic as dancing with your loved one in the shower to the Misfits' "One Last Caress" playing over an iPhone. But hey, real moments of love can take place anytime and anywhere—that's how you know it's the real deal.

Aaron Miller - Chocolate Rose #nofilter

Chocolate Rose | Aaron Miller | 2014 | 8x10" | oil on panel

When I was a kid my stepfather would run out to the drugstore and get his last minute gifts. Usually arranged around a beer run. At some point the end-cap box of perfume and fake pearls was just not cutting it for Mom. I'm pretty sure the fight started over something else but I recall a box being thrown and fake pearls flying everywhere. I've since associated stuff like that with comfortable levels of appreciation that relationships can attain that border on thoughtless. Automated birthday emails might some something that illustrate that as well. And in this case I choose the plastic wrapped chocolate rose. This just isn't something I'd have ever considered giving to a new girlfriend. After I painted it I did give it to my wife, just as unceremoniously as the token suggests.

Chris O'Neill - #nofilter

There's #nofilter when it comes to LOVE. We don't get to choose who we love, or why.

Joan Varitek - #NoFilter

The idea came from a concept of who we are really in bed with at any moment, with whom we share our real intimacies. Even after a successful date both parties might go back to browsing OKCupid, even idly. Or, in a more optimistic sense, the dishing of juicy details among friends has a shorter refractory period. As long as our Internet presence becomes an extension of our mindpsace, how well can we get to know a new person fully, even after being in bed?

Daniel Nyari - #NoFilter

A fun way to look at love is to think of it as an imbalancing factor. Its very nature is violent in relation to existence. Love automatically divides the world into more deserving or less deserving. We "fall" in love and become obsessed with the other.  As a result we risk over-idealizing this other and project our inner desires until we begin resenting them for what they aren't. When the veil is lifted, what reflects back at us resemble nothing of the people we first fell for but only the ugliness of our own avarice. 

Taryn Cozzy - #nofilter

My new beau is handsome, funny, sweet, and respectful. I really like spending time with him in any way possible - right down to the vigorous back rubs.

Ricardo Lopez Ortiz- #NoFilter

In order to truly connect with the ones we love, we must put our guards down and let them in. Showing ourselves for who we truly are.

Lee Moyer - #nofilter Valentine

It's been said that Love Bites.
But that may be even more true for Lust.

Kristina Carroll - #nofilter Valentine

Metamorphosis
Charcoal/Digital 18 x 24

So everyone always says "Just be yourself, you should be loved just as you are!" And while that is true, what they don't mention is the simple act of loving and being loved changes you. Being in any meaningful relationship changes your perception. It introduces new ideas, causes you to like things you never thought you would, dislike things you thought you liked... both about your partner and yourself. Certainly these transformations can be devastating, they are often painful... but If you chose wisely, hopefully they will be good in the end.

Erika Steiskal -- #nofilter

"I love you; please put the math away."

When you love someone, you want to be part of that person's world, but some worlds have more compatible foundations than others.  I married a scientist.  That comes with lots of perks: constant learning, tons of books, and (mostly) awesome conversation; however, some of those conversations can be surprisingly math heavy.  I like to listen and I try to learn.  Occasionally, I even come out on the other side with a basic understanding of whatever we discussed.  But if I'm honest, some days I just can't take the math.

Marc Scheff - #nofilter

This week I have a commission and it is love-themed. My client wanted a portrait of his girlfriend, who loves plants, nature, trees, and mushrooms (the non-illegal kind).

My interpretation of #nofilter is literally showing you the process of my acrylic work, without the filter of a sexy presentation or cleaned-up digitally-altered drawing.

This is stage 3 or 4, an ink drawing to guide my painting. The board surface is wood, which I sealed with a thin layer of matte medium to prevent ink bleeding. After this I will apply washes of color, and eventually details, and some more ink and gouache. And yes, I'll paint out that double right arm.

Jorge Mascarenhas - #nofilter Valentine

Love can take a dump on us. JM

Narciso Espiritu - #nofilter Valentine

There's just things you miss sometimes. Especially when you've made a choice to not explore.

Steen - #nofilter Valentine

There's nothing like the anxiety I feel in between bouts of communication.  But when I do get that reply or that call with that person, I'm able to feel grounded.

Lee Moyer - The #nofilter Valentine - Thursday

Please remember sharing IS caring, won't you?

Sarah Gay-O'Neill - #nofilter Valentine

Quirky awkward Valentines are my favorite.

Much like love, sometimes you dive in with #nofilter.

Carly Janine Mazur - #nofilter Valentine

9" x 12" oil and acrylic on board

Breakups are a an unfortunate aspect of love. It can hurt, a lot, but eventually with time the pieces are put back together... perhaps with the help of someone new!

Amanda Atkins - NoFilter Valentine

In elementary school, I loved celebrating Valentine's Day. Everyone making their own mailbox and giving out tiny colorful envelopes with hearts and stickers inside is something that still thrills me today.

The way we first see love as children is my idea of unfiltered love. Valentine's Day is one of the first little celebrations of our understanding of love, and celebrating it at school paves the way for the belief that love is for everyone - our friends, our families, our community - and not just a significant other.

I am lucky enough to work in an elementary school and partake in this fun ritual. It's one of my favorite days of the school year. This picture of a happy city classroom was done in pen and watercolor.

Jason Cheeseman-Meyer -- NoFilter Valentine

A lot of the sound and fury of love is all about capturing a person.  For a moment, for an evening, for a lifetime.  But it's not the volume of the sound or the frenzy of the fury that determines success.

Tim Durning- #nofilter Valentine

I didn't put any filter on my ideas for this piece, so when I thought "valentine," I thought ooey-gooey-lovey-hearts-and-kisses and tried to go a little silly and sweet.

Craig Maher - #nofilter Valentine

The filter that never comes down is the privacy of someone's inner world. The beauty of intimacy is sharing so much, loving that sharing. But sometimes a stray look hints at that hidden place.