Valentine's Day, Love, and Our Logo

With Valentine's Day coming up, I wanted to share the origin of the LILA logo, since there's a thread from one to the other...

Back in 2009, I performed in a play called Birdbath in Los Angeles. Written by beloved New York playwright Leonard Melfi in the 1960s, it's the story of a late night collision between two lonely people, a waitress and a poet, who work in a diner. And it takes place the night before Valentine's Day, which we learn as they get to talking and my character, the waitress Velma, reveals to the poet Frankie both her enthusiasm for the holiday and that she's never once received a valentine in her whole life, although she didn't mind too much.

During the rehearsal process for the play, the male lead, the director, and I were discussing what we wanted for the poster, and the director mentioned that he thought it should be something like Matisse's Blue Nude, as my character is vulnerable and metaphorically nude in the story.

Inspired by the idea, I went home and put together this marker on paper and digital artwork.

It depicts Velma, alone in the world, looking wistfully toward the night sky with memories of her brother (the moon) and father and mother (the stars), as Frankie (the hand) provides the support through which she confronts and is washed clean of the act she's committed. (As well, the combined figure makes the shape of a birdbath.)

Getting the hand just right was essential — I saw it is as offering a kind of love without attachment, thus it's open and slightly intertwined, but not grasping.

Fast-forward to last year...

One of my cats goes missing, and I find myself in a state of worry and depression, not knowing what's happened to him, and I'm finding it difficult to muster the energy to do things that normally bring me joy, like kitesurfing.

Well, after a few days, out of nowhere the image of that supportive hand appears in my head, and it serves to remind me that that is the kind of love I should have for my cats — that I can't do everything for them, and I can't control everything, but I can give them supportive love, the kind that lifts a bird up in order for it to fly freely and to live and to fulfill its unique bird purpose on Earth. And in seeing that, the depression lifts a bit, and I feel like kitesurfing again.

So, when it came time to make a logo, I wanted to use that image / symbol.

For closure, I'll tell you that on that occasion my cat, the little stinker, ended up coming back after 11 days, as if nothing had happened. Now he regularly goes off adventuring for weeks or months at a time. But that's another story.