I Love You

I Love You

This horizontal composition consists of a white background with the words "I love you" in large black text in the center-left of the work. Below that is the phrase "BALANCE UNEASY" in pink and black text with the two words stacked one on top of the other and the first word inverted. In the top right quadrant is an abstract green shape with a passage from "The Velveteen Rabbit" by Margery Williams Bianco written in white script.

inscribed: I / love / you / BALANCE / UNEASY / What is real / asked the Rabbit one day / when they were lying / side by side / Does it mean having things that buzz inside you / and a stick-out handle / Real isn't how you're made / said the Skin Horse / It's a thing that happens to you / When a child loves you for a long long time / not just to play with, but Really loves you / then you become real / Does it hurt? asked the Rabbit. / Sometimes, said the Skin Horse for he was / always truthful / When you are Real you don't mind being hurt. / Does it happen all at once, like being wound up / or bit by bit. / It doesn't happen all at once. You become. It takes / a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen / to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, / or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time / you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off / and your eyes drop out and you get loose at the joints / and very shabby. / But these things don't matter at all because once you are Real / you can't be ugly, except to people / who don't understand. / M. Williams

titled, lower left: I love you

circa 1968

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still image

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2013.0.81