“What the world needs now, is love, sweet love.” 

Lyrics from Burt Bacharach and Hal David that I couldn’t seem to get out of my head last summer.  It’s pretty simple.  As they go on to say “it’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.”   Not thinking of the romantic love, although, yes, please keep that coming.  

I’m thinking more of the love thy neighbor type.  Love for the stranger who is struggling to make ends meet.  Love for the teenager who finds themself in a confusing space of self identity.  Love for the immigrant who’s world is turning upside down.  Insert compassion or kindness for love. . .we need more of that too. 

I’m also thinking of love of the planet, democracy, honest portrayal of history, discoveries in science, clear reporting and so on.  When we love something we protect it, we use our energy to take care of it.  This goes for people, the environment, values that make us who we are.  Love more, look for it, show it, share it.

I had the Bacharach/David song in my head when I divided a small slab of clay into two for another set of trial slabs.  I repeatedly stamped “LOVE” on both slabs.  On this slab, I painted yellow, fire engine red and light pink.  I had some fun experimenting with marbling the red and pink and splattering pink on the slab.   The two mini-slabs resulted in my first set of dots that actually worked in the way I wanted them to.  Hooray!  I figured out the depth of clay and how much pressure I could use with impressions; (press too hard and it’s too thin to drill holes for the dot.)  The stripes of red, obvious letters from LOVE and the little bit of marbling made some really interesting dots.  The dots’ yellow and pink bits are fun and feel like celebratory confetti.  So the original series was created in two little slabs, and it’s about love; seems like a fitting story to launch Connected Dots Project.