What else would I have expected for the month of February than a theme of "love"? Love is love is love. No matter whether light or dark. I prefer the dark that extracts deep emotions or turmoil that eventually smooths itself out upon resolution.

Sometimes.

However, left to its own devices in the wrong hands or under the wrong circumstances, love can morph into the unthinkable. The uncontrollable. The horrid. Or, the unforgivable.

That was the story of Cassandra and Casio.

Flames and more flames. Smothering apart. Combustible together.

The Fire Lovers.

The encounter happened by chance at the crossroad where the valley dipped behind the mountain ridge.

He running from his past. She escaping her future.

It was the blistering heat of the midday sun that flung them onto each other's weary paths as they forged ahead, seeking relief under a nearby palm tree.

Cassandra was first to arrive. Moisture in the otherwise desolate, arid desert filled her nostrils. I must be close to the spring, she hoped, her pulse racing in anticipation of relief. Glancing furtively over her shoulders, she removed her veil slowly and wiped beads of sweat from her forehead. Detection would mean returning to the tent of a hundred concubines.

In the distance, she didn't notice a tall figure approach. She jerked away, suppressing a scream as the man stood squarely behind her. He quickly fingered her long, silky midnight strands then pulled her backward into his chest.

[to be continued]

In the post, [nftshowroom X alienarthive challenge for February: nftshowroom X alienarthive challenge for February: love, NFTShowroom has featured all the month's Geometry themed Art minted so far on the NFT Showroom's home page / twitter. Also, Alien Art Hive will be curating participants' blog posts. This challenge was intended for the full month of February. Participants are required to:

• make art incorporating love themes;
• mint it on https://nftshowroom.com/;
• make a blog post about it in Alien Art Hive; and
• use #nftshowroom in your tags

Below are my steps I took to create my first design for this theme.

The information for my mint on NFTShowroom.

My Creation Process:

For creation of the "love" scene in this dark design, I molded the favorite color of the month that depicts love. Red. In all its variations, red is bold; strong; and powerful. I discovered a unique image in a free-sourced site for the search description concept of love. The broken heart was perfect for the depiction I wanted to portray.

Uploading all images into Canva, my design program, I added layers of elements. Images included in my design are other images I felt would depict a scene of love:

^{Man and woman embracing ~ Butterfly background ~ Hand in light show}

Taking my still version to LunaPic, I applied several filters to see how the program would handle it.

ILLUSION

SMOKE

REFLECTING WATER

Thanks for taking the time to view my post. I hope you like my final mixed media project for the September Geometry challenge.