For the Love of Love

My favourite movie is Love Actually. It has been for a long time. Every Christmas, my Dad and I watch it together and every year I’m reminded that “love, actually, is all around”. However, it’s a reminder that I, personally, don’t really need.

I am a massive, lifelong, hopeless romantic.

You’re probably wondering how any of this is relevant, but love has been intrinsic to the arts for all of human history. From Shakespeare, to Taylor Swift, to the songs I wrote in my moleskin journal at fourteen years old, love has always been something that (I think) only the arts can truly articulate. 

At weddings, we hear poems, we dance, we get photos taken. Dresses are designed, suits are altered, flowers are arranged and everything is made to be beautiful. I think we do this to reflect the beautiful thing that is “love”. 

But love isn’t just on dates and at weddings; it’s in the songs my brother sends me that he knows I’ll love, it’s in the blankets my Mum crochets for every newborn baby we know. It’s almost everywhere- you just have to notice it. 

In some strange magic way, the arts seem to help with this. I love the drive back to my parent’s farm more with Noah Kahan playing through the speakers of my dusty Corolla. I love nights out with the girls much more when we get to dance. I love life more when there’s some kind of art involved, whether it’s painting, writing, music, dance, film, photography- anything creative.

The arts help us to feel, to connect, and thus, to love.

So, for the love of love, appreciate the arts next time you dance with your partner or make a friend at a concert or read your favourite book. 

Where love is, art quickly follows (and vice versa). 

xx Rose