Community members filed into the old glove factory on Valentine’s Day and were greeted by walls covered in vulvas, dildos and other exhibits meant to convey the meaning of love.

The show featured art of all mediums including photography, ceramics, paintings, film, performance, metal art and interactive pieces.

Chase Turner, a 19-year-old SIU student and surrealist, displayed a piece titled “Woman Sexuality” where a woman’s body was painted in watercolor with flowers blooming over the breasts and groin. A transgender pride flag was visible in the background.

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“In this piece I did very round hips and thicker thighs which is not seen in media pieces depicting beautiful women,” Turner said. “Even rounder, fuller women can be sexually active and can explore their bodies in the ways they want to.”

The transgender flag was incorporated into the piece to include trans women and to show that women should be able to explore their bodies without fear, Turner said.

“For us both [Turner and his partner] being transgender is a part of our lives, its not really something that inhibits our sex life in any way,” he said. “It doesn’t inhibit our way of being intimate with each other. It opens up different views of what sex is.”

Luca Caruzat and George Mendez have been married for 33 years and try to come to the show every year.

“Love is what sustains the world,” Carauzat said.

Love, to Mendez, is a special relationship that comes from someone’s core and connects to others.

Art is seen as a necessity for the couple and art shows people the depth of the human experience, Mendez said.

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Lana and Jeremy Crawford, another couple along with their baby, went to the exhibit as viewers but also submitted work. They have been together for 20 years, but married for four.

Love to the Crawfords is understanding, compassion, support, and laughter, they said. They have been celebrating love and creating art for Love at the Glove for two or three years.

“Art is creative problem solving,” Jeremy Crawford said. “It’s finding interesting ways to make people look at objects in a different manner.”

One of the artists at the exhibit, Kennedy Joseph, said love is one of the most powerful entities in the world. It led her to create her film titled “love (or something like it).”

In her film, Joseph focused the camera closely on people she interviewed as she asked them about love. 

Joseph said she is still trying to figure out what love means to her, which is what led her to making her film.

“Talking about love and how uncomfortable, gross, and awkward it can be is important in society,” Joseph said. “We are in a very dark time and love is the essence of what we have.”

Staff reporter Keaton Yates can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @keatsians.

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