making love letters

Fact: 500 love letters is a lot of love letters. In fact, I think that’s probably more than most people receive in a lifetime, unless of course they’re dating Pablo Neruda…

a love poem to the ceiling at Union Station

But I’m nearing the homestretch on making these one-of-a-kind pieces and there’s really no better way to spend my days than writing love letters to*:

- hot veal sandwiches from California Sandwiches on Claremont St.

- Jet Fuel lattes, with a big teaspoon of wet brown sugar

- The Dance Cave

- the back lane behind the old Green Room

- the ravine off of St. Clair

- Trinity Bellwoods Park

- the 501 streetcar

- Romni Wool

- Lula Lounge

- Toronto Island

- the ice rink at Dufferin Grove

- fresh salsa from Jumbo Empanada

- Kensington Market

- the spiral staircase in the new AGO

-  tomatoes on people’s rusty fire escapes in the summer

- squealing streetcar curves

- summer patios

- Baldwin Street

- the cob house in Dufferin Grove Park

- the middle seat in the very back of a double street car

- Cherry Bomb coffee shop

- the trees

- the view of the city from the park in the west end by the Lakeshore…and the smell of the Mr. Christie’s factory while you are there

- the overpass to Roncesvalles

- the boardwalk along Harbourfront

a love letter to Roncesvalles

*please note: this is only a mere sampling of the love lettering subjects!!

I am over the moon! Toronto Life magazine has deemed The Love Lettering Project one of the Top 50 reasons to love Toronto now in their June 2011 issue!!

50 Reasons to Love Toronto Now:
It’s time to take a 25-page pause from your inner pessimist and feel the love. Why? For starters: because an energy plant that runs on flaxseed is being built beside the lake; because the GTA has become Bollywood North; because our it girl Malin Akerman isn’t in rehab; because our boy scouts wear designer duds; because we teach yoga to Don Jail inmates; because we turn our water treatment plants into fine art; because tennis phenom Milos Raonic gave us back our game; because our microbrewers are madmen…

AND because of #35: Poet Lindsay Zier-Vogel is hiding 500 love poems about Toronto in envelopes around the city.

Run out and get your copy right this second!! (And keep your eyes peeled for love letters, Toronto…they’re a-comin’!!)

More about The Love Lettering Project here!

the love lettering project vii: NYC

Oh NYC, how I love thee…This morning, my mom, sister and I showed up in Central Park, NYC and covered a tree with love letters.

In the last few moments before leaving Toronto, I had my favourite folks send me things they loved about the city – sushi; the Brooklyn Flea Market; the ever-present tag-a-long, deli pickle; Mexican corn; of course, Grand Central Station; pigeons, the shadows of fire escapes and turtles in Chinatown (to name a few). It was the most inspiring response – I then wrote love poems to each of these NYC bits, made one of a kind art pieces, tucked them into envelopes and filled a tree in Central Park…

Words tossed,
a handful of pennies,
laughing against
the sidewalk.

I love that
you fill the sky,
and make small the
distance between
this sidewalk square
and that fire escape.

the first few love letter-finders!

More on the Love Lettering Project…

(the love lettering project in process)

ps: keep your eyes peeled, Toronto, the Love Lettering Project is coming your way shortly…!!