Start with the Heart

Last year, around this time I think, I was in a bit of a dilemma. I was being flooded, like many of us, with images of hearts and various 'valentine' related images.
I for one, never subscribed completely to the Valentine ethics, or aesthetics for that matter.  Too obvious, too cheap, too cheesy and so on. At the same time, I like the heart as a symbol, I like the colour red, I was dying to use its shape and anything that hints at love doesn't fail to attract me. It can only be a good, positive thing. Or can it?
So it set me thinking about how we women (especially) are kind of easily fooled by the concept of love, how we easily trade, status, dignity, possibilities and lots of other things including freedom and independence all in its name. And I am basically referring to romantic love here.  So caught  between these two poles, I started a collage

to elaborate on the subject and the imagery.  So this is the first part which is then actually followed by what seems to be its natural progression

The need to take the symbol and dissect it just as the multiplicity of illusions do to the 'real' thing when they reveal the less appealing (sometimes downright ugly) reality beneath.

...To be continued...