Valentine's Day = Jim Dine Art Appreciation Day

If there ever was an artist whose work should be associated with Valentine's Day, it's Jim Dine with his unique use of the heart image.

I used to own a print of the image below.  

I think it's called "Pink Heart" and was done in 1983 as a Metropolitan Opera Centennial poster.  I discovered it in the late '80s and purchased it with great glee one day in the Lincoln Center Gift Shop -- on clearance!  (I was a waitress at the time, okay?)

I loved that print and no matter where I lived I always seemed to find the perfect spot for it.  

For me, what the print represented in its strong, but brightly hopeful way was a statement that beauty is first rooted in nature, but transformed into art only as a result of very hard work and skill.  And that the heart of this skill and labor is essentially impossible unless fueled by an even greater love.

Truthfully, I haven't a clue if this is what the intended message was, but it made perfect sense to me and it always made me deeply happy. And I loved it.  

Alas, as is also the case in real life, sometimes the things we love the most don't always stay in our life;  such was the case in the mysterious disappearance of my beloved Dine Opera Centennial print.

But perhaps it is the absence of it right now in my world which helps me recall its brilliance and clarify just why I loved it so much.

In any event, as luck would have it, today (Valentine's Day) someone else passed along another gorgeous "heart" image of Dine's work on Facebook and I was once again reminded of that wonderful print, and why I had such a personal affinity for it.

Sorry, but I don't know the title of this Dine painting.  I'm sure someone can help me out with that eventually.