In every situation, we have the option to think about how we want to show up; how we want to answer questions we are asked in private or in public; how vulnerable we want to be; how much of ourselves we want to share. In a variety of formats—from print to online and Instagram Live—over the last eighteen months, I have asked people what made them feel loved on that particular day. I assumed that feeling could be available to everyone, and my intention was to provide an opportunity to rethink our traditional interpretation of how we feel loved. Think love. Be love. Feel love. Have love. It’s risky. But it’s powerful. Vulnerability works.
When I curated a solo exhibition of Friedrich Kunath’s work, he made and sent me two “mixtape” CDs to “get me in the mood.” The gesture was so in keeping with his practice! Kunath’s work is poetic, revealing, and vulnerable, and his paintings often incorporate words and phrases that set the tone. They are romantic but also as honest about failures as they are about the joys and successes of life. As the title of his painting It Gets Easier (2018) declares, life does get easier.
