As Valentine's Day approaches, people across the world feel moved to speak from their hearts, letting their emotions pour forth in displays of affection for those they cherish. But no paper card or expensive gemstone can contain the immense force that is Love.
In my eyes, Love is the axis of all creation. It is in the matter composing every flower and fluttering bird, every majestic ocean and trickling stream, each woman and man equally. When chaos and darkness threaten to overthrow the balance of life, Love is gravity, the uniting law of Nature that binds down to our very atoms.
Love defies all definition, for each time it is touched by light, another facet of its beauteous face is revealed to us. As such, we give it many names: the Ancient Greeks described the kinds of Love as charity (agape), romance (eros), the bond between families (storge), and friendship (philia). In the Chinese Buddhist tradition, ai indicates deep feelings of universal Love that can lead to either selfish indulgence or the purest enlightenment, while ren, from Confucian practice, is the 'everyday' Love that preserves order in interactions.
It is a fantastic power, capable of being constructive or destructive depending upon how it is used by those it leaves enchanted. Constructive Love is giving, transformative, and transcendent--the very foundations upon which civilization rests. Destructive Love is characterized by lust, jealousy, and temptation--insidious feelings that lead only to emptiness. Religions throughout time have worshiped gods and goddesses who act as avatars of these faces of Love--from vengeful Hera and vain Aphrodite to charming Krishna and dazzling Tripurasundarĩ. Each kind of Love is unique and serves its own distinct purpose, necessary to the development of human character.
Like so many generations of artists before me, I am stirred by Love to create. Love & Peace, my global sculptural project, was born from Love in my soul as a way to reflect the beauty of life. This Valentine's Day, I pay tribute to all of the wonders I have seen by giving these tremendous flowers to all open hearts, a bouquet blooming over oceans and borders in the colours of Love. For Love needs no translator: is the language of the universe, the nucleus of this dancing galaxy made to delight us. It is every joy we celebrate and every hope we cling to, the essence of Truth--all else falls away, and at all times Love remains constant.
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