Words and Images: Beyond Beautiful-One Thousand Love Letters

The Essence of Love

By Christine Sloan Stoddard

Love is universal and that is why it continues to fascinate us. Anyone who yawns is lying (probably more to themselves than anyone.) I don't care if it sounds cheesy: I love love stories. So when I saw a call for love letters from artist Peter Bruun last year, I knew I had to take part. Now my words are a tiny part of The One Thousand Love Letters Project.

​Here's how the project came into being: Bruun called on people from all over the world to email him their love letters. He reviewed the letters as they came in and ultimately illustrated 1,000 of them with abstracted drawings, incorporating the text into each piece. Bruun created each drawing on an 8.5"x11" sheet of Rives BFK paper. Some of the love letters were excerpted; others were featured in their entirety. To use the artist's words, "The drawing is completed in an intuitive manner, where successful expression of some essence to the letter becomes an article of faith." Now all 1,000 letters are available online. You even have a chance to see them displayed in person. Beyond Beautiful: One Thousand Love Letters opens in Baltimore, Maryland on January 17th and will remain on view through March 10th. Bruun has organized the two-site exhibition around eight themes and programmed free public events to activate the drawings. Find out about the opening event on Facebook.
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Here is the drawing that Bruun created for my love letter:

​Below are just 10 more of the 1,000 drawings created for this project. You can view the full collection here.

Beyond Beautiful: One Thousand Love Letters is on view at both Maryland Art Place and Area 405 from January 17 through March 10, 2019. 

Maryland Art Place
218 W. Saratoga Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-962-8565
www.mdartplace.org
Gallery Hours:
Tuesday–Saturday, Noon–4:00pm

Area 405
405 E. Oliver Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
410-528-1968
www.area405.com
Gallery Hours:
Saturday 10:00am–3:00pm