What does ‘love’ look like?

Jewish kindergarten director Shelly Spilkin is one of 12 Australians from different walks of life who were invited by E-Harmony to contribute an artistic interpretation for the dating service’s Painting Love experiment.

Among those invited were The Bachelor heartthrob Konrad Bien-Stephen, artistic TikToker Shelby Sherrit and three-time Olympian Belle Brockoff. The novice artists were mentored by Australian-based abstract artist and self-confessed romantic Kirsten Jackson.

Spilkin, the director of Buddies Early Learning Centre, painted a piece that represented her definition of what love is.

Her finished painting is of vibrant flowers, “symbolising the growth of love and how with it, the world blossoms into a better place”.

The group of amateur artists, ranging in age, background, and sexual orientation, all took vastly different approaches to the task – reinforcing that what represents real love is subjective and unique to each individual.