Stephanie Pelletier

Feeling inspired from Dr. Brown’s lecture, I decided to illustrate an image of two skeletons and a heart between them. To me, this image symbolizes the biological, fundamental aspect of love that Dr. Brown was speaking of- love is just as essential as our need to drink and eat. I wanted the image to be handmade and raw- love in a bare, quintessentially human form. We are all connected by our bones, kept alive by our hearts, and although it is true that the feeling of love is in our brains our hearts are intimately connected to that current state of love.

This image is relative to the ideas and themes discussed in class because it is so versatile, and can connect to any topic we discussed. For example, when we were discussing Django Unchained during Dr. Reed’s lecture, and looking at racism, the image of two skeletons and a heart is very much connected to the issue of racism. Despite as cliché as it sounds, love is love, despite outward appearance, and if it is strong enough it can overcome social adversity.

I also chose to make this image because I love the visual of a skeleton and a heart- I think the icon that typically represents a heart is interesting but also inaccurate, as a real heard doesn’t look like that. Why did this unique icon even come into play in the first place? Was the actual image of a heart too grotesque, too “real” to be duplicated through endless kinds of media? Perhaps as humans we want that distance from our bodies, as we cannot actually be distant from them, and want to imagine that this icon with a triangular bottom and circular top represents love and desire. I wanted to make a more accurate representation of a heart and prove that it doesn’t have to be gross or appalling, that it can be interesting and maybe even aesthetically appealing.