What is love? Ask 50 people and get 50 different definitions.
Maybe it’s what makes us smile in a quiet moment. It’s a thought, a feeling, the purrs of our heart.
We all need it, seek it and find it, even in the most unlikely places. Sometimes we just need to open our eyes to see that it’s there, all around us.
Maybe it’s right here, on a sidewalk, at the intersection of Emerald and Bayard streets.
“All of these messages around this block, it’s things I’m screaming at myself, yet if I know I need it, I know the rest of the world needs it,” says Pacific Beach artist Autumn Love. “You know, I need to share this love with the world. I mean, it’s perfect! Chalk, sidewalk, everyone’s walking, it’s beautiful.”
It’s usually while we’re asleep. That’s when Love strikes and writes her life-affirming messages around town. When she needs inspiration while painting in her studio on Emerald Street, she gets on her longboard and rides through the night, leaving messages to inspire others.
“I am on a mission to spread love everywhere I go,” she says. “So that is the underlying theme of my life and my existence. So in any capacity I can do that, I will, and I do.”
It’s even written on her head, her arm, and across her board. It’s the main theme of her paintings. It radiates from her sapphire blue eyes and dimpled smile. She pours her energy into it. Love.
“One piece of chalk. I have 25 pieces of chalk for 99 cents. What is that, 5 cents apiece? I’m like, for 5 cents the impact I could make is just, its unstoppable. It’s amazing.”
The impact has been felt. On Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, locals have been sharing and commenting on the messages. “You’re doing a lot of needed healing for a lot of people whether you know it or not. Keep up the inspiration,” reads one of the comments on Instagram about her “You are perfect as is” message near the Crystal Pier.
Last Saturday, as Autumn was working on another message on Bayard, three young blonde women in wetsuits and carrying shortboards walked by on Emerald. They stopped, looked down, and the one said, “I love seeing all these messages. It makes my day.” The other two shook their heads in agreement as they continued toward the beach.
Autumn stood up, brushed off her scraped knees and just smiled.
“I know that there’s a reason I’m here. I’m here to raise the general vibration to a more loving space, more loving existence in the world. I think the world is shifting into a more beautiful space. With my art and all that I do, I’m on a mission to do that.”
A few nights ago while she was creating her circle of love – “In this space is pure love only” – a distraught young man lumbered by, saw the circle, stood in it and said to Autumn, “You just made my night.”
“I said ‘Thank you’ and gave him a hug. I’m obsessed with hugging people, and I want to be a professional hugger. If we get off track in life, love centers us and brings us back to our purpose and why we’re here.”
Growing up in Michigan, Autumn was smothered with love from an adoring family. She earned an art degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and eventually moved out west a few years ago.
“I account the love that I have in me from my upbringing. So much love, just nothing but love all the time. When you’re little and you have that, you don’t realize the value, you just know you’re a happy child.
“It’s like I can still carry all that love that filled me. What do I do with it? You know, now I’m just this one being, this vessel with all this love in me that I have to just pour everywhere. It’s just what’s in me. It fuels my art, my creativity.”
And her art is not just featured on the boardwalk, benches and sidewalks – it will be hanging on the walls of the Mad Beat’s new location on Garnet Avenue. Her large-scale abstract paintings based on love will be available for purchase at the popular juice shop.
“I’m still growing and I still have so much love to give and to bless this beautiful town and this space. I’m happy here, and especially happy if I feel like I can make a change here. As humans we forget, and we need the reminder all the time. We need to be reminded to love.”
Follow Autumn on her Instagram account at @artbyautumn.