Valentine's Day - Art & Story by Sandra Russell

Original Art by (c) Sandra Russell

Valentine’s Day
by Sandra Russell

Yummy-Valentine's Day makes me think of chocolates...not just cookies and candy bars, but beautiful heart shaped boxes of cushioned little shells of dark and light chocolates filled with complimentary fruits, nuts and creamy crunchy duets. I also recall the little penny elementary school Valentine's our mothers used to buy for us, and how we 'had to send one to everybody in the class' whether you liked them or not. I actually liked this as it was the first time I even knew the names of some of the kids. The teacher would send a paper home with everyone's name on it. I'd stack up the number of "Bobby's" and "MaryAnne’s" and wonder at the poor kid named "Clarence Duwayne" who sat in the back row. We all wished that someone we secretly thought was extra special, would maybe express they thought we were extra special too?

That is the thing with Valentines, it is a courtly ritual of sorts. It's not only about expressing affection for someone, but it is about hinting at a secret desire, something that is closed in your heart, but now Valentine’s Day demands you ‘open up and confess it’. Pretty scary stuff actually, so it must be sweetened a bit.

I went to an exhibition of over 700 antique valentines on Friday last. The Decorative Arts Center on Main Street in Lancaster, Ohio has a great show of them. The group of German Valentines from the 1920's featured elaborate folding ships and carriages, many pulled by paper swans. I couldn't help but wonder if the fairytale castle there Neuschwanstein may have been a honeymoon destination? Other valentines from soldiers and sailors during wartime featured tanks and guns, eagles and sentiments of how lonely the separation was for them. Chocolate boxes decorated with fancy dressed dolls scattered over a sofa faced tables of lacy and animated paper spectacles devoted to love. Some though were a bit snarky. Known as vinegar or racy types, the messages were more to do with rejection and revenge than with open hearts. One stood out to me was a suffragette holding hands with a strolling cupid. It said something about how 'you snub men, but cupid will get you in the end.' As though a woman who wanted the vote was hard hearted, but once she fell in love all that nonsense would stop. Hmm? The funniest thing I saw was a table of beautiful fans and other mementos used in the Victorian era for ladies to indicate interest or not in a man without saying it in words. There is a whole silent language of flirting with a fan, handkerchief, glove or a parasol. For example, holding your glove with the fingertips down, means 'I wish your acquaintance”, twisting a glove around your fingers means "we are being watched". Folding up your parasol, means “get rid of your friend”, drawing your handkerchief across your right cheek says, "I love you".

Very interesting to me to see how our communication of sentiments has changed. Going into the store now is pretty much all gender neutral stuffed animals where in the past it was more about celebrating a perfect beauty, an ideal love in an ideal world of romance.

How we express our feelings has certainly changed, but the heart still manifests on this day. I'm not so sure it is to confess a secret love though, seems now is more about securing the love already pronounced. Still there is the chocolate! We can all take a bite of that and dream of a faraway romance.