BAR HARBOR, Maine — Have you ever stopped and thought about what love actually is?
That's what one initiative on Mount Desert Island is helping kids understand-- what love looks like versus what love is not.
Art Waves is collaborating with Finding Our Voices to help teach kids what makes love, love.
Kids and young adults ages 5 through 21 can submit artwork or poetry based on what actions and feelings they pair with love and those that are not.
"The whole act of creating art for these kids around this topic is therapeutic in a way, as well as teaching them a lot," Maegan Graslie, a Finding Our Voices intern, said. "We need to talk about it more. It's like we take for granted that they know what love what not love is."
The initiative gives kids and young adults the opportunity to express what love looks like in their life and helps younger kids grasp the concept of love.
"If someone had asked me, 'What is love? What is not love?' when I was 6 years old and my family discussed it, I think some of my choices that I made might be a little different. Might be in a happier place at different times of my life," Liz Cutler, Founder of Art Waves, said.
Cutler said it's the conversations that occur while children create their art pieces that give children a common understanding.
"Difficult things may not be so difficult because you find out everyone has the same sort of feelings just different experiences," Culter said. "I wish there was a way of showing the process as opposed to the final product, because there's a lot of decision making that goes into that."
Art Waves will display its Love/not Love submissions at its gallery on MDI, and Finding Our Voices will select submissions from around Maine for a statewide exhibit next fall.
Finding Our Voices will hold summer workshops for children and young adults based on this initiative.