We found the perfect location for Purple Wedding to the Moon: a stone amphitheater that had been built in the 1930s located in Farnsworth Park in the foothills of Altadena, in Los Angeles. The best part was that the outdoor venue was open to the sky. It seated more than seven hundred people, had a huge stage, and plenty of dressing rooms for dozens of collaborators.

The venerable Reverend Billy (artist Billy Talen) officiated and emceed. The full choir of the Church of Life After Shopping Choir made this a very special, joyful, activist occasion and we are very grateful to them for officiating and celebrating big love though song and performance. Shout out to Savitri D. the director of the Choir. Artist Larry Bogad performed as a Russian cosmonaut finding his way back to Earth, and Mariko Passion did a burlesque number that included tampons dipped in purple wine, a reference to the moon cycle. Lian Amaris recited all the Shakespeare passages containing the word moon. Blues singer Candye Kane belted out her song “I Deserve Love.” Event producer and friend, Joegh Bullock decorated the stage with giant cones of light. Lunapads International donated dozens of their fashionable, washable panty liners as Wedding to the Moon favors. Lady Monster did a kick-ass burlesque dance to Madonna’s “Ray of Light” wearing LED nipple coverings that looked like moons. And so much more.

The wedding was full of luna love and lunacy. To view the whole series of events and full credits, please take a look at the program.

| ARTISTS’ STATEMENT |

WE, ARTIST-BRIDES, ELIZABETH STEPHENS & ANNIE SPRINKLE, WILL CELEBRATE TWO PURPLE WEDDINGS THIS FALL 2010. First, Purple Wedding to the Moon, will be held in an outdoor amphitheater at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains in Altadena. CA (LA) under the full moon. Then Purple Wedding to the Appalachian Mountains will be produced with the University of Ohio, and will take place in the Gal- breath Chapel in Athens (Ohio), at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. We invite everyone to join us in taking vows to love, honor and cherish the Moon and the Mountains. Or to simply come bear witness.

ON THESE AUSPICIOUS OCCASIONS WE WILL EXPLORE AND ENGAGE THE THEMES OF INTUITION (3rd eye. 6th chakra). water. moon. mountains. ecosexuality and our love of nature. We invite everyone to share our practice of loving the Moon and the Mountains romantically in order to create more intimate relationships with them. We aim to activate a network of global citizens, artists, activists. sexologists. spiritual practitioners. academics, local folk, family and others. We ask for no material gifts but invite people to collaborate on the creation of these weddings. We are thrilled to have the venerable Reverend Billy, his wife/director Savitri D, and the Church of Life After Shopping Choir officiating the Moon Wedding. Mountain Wedding will feature a homily by Lorry Gibson, the heroic keeper of the mountains.

IN OCTOBER 2009, NASA BOMBED THE MOON WITH EXPLOSIVES TO PROSPECT FOR WATER. We thought of the over 1500 miles of Appalachian creeks and streams that have been forever destroyed by mountain top removal coal mining corporations which use 3 million pounds of explosives per day and poison the water with toxic waste. Domestic terrorism now seems to have become intergalactic terrorism. We will stand up to protect and enjoy what still remains of our planet’s mountains and waters while working towards the creation of effective structures for a healthier environment. We will deploy ecosensual practices, artistic activism and love to help heal the damage that has been done. We intend to make the environmental movement a little more sexy and attractive in order to enlist even more citizens to join us in our ecosexual revolution. Our Purple Weddings aim to create a powerful love beam that will help illuminate the dire straits of the Moon and the Appalachian Mountains while drawing the connections between them. Life cannot exist without clean water and it is quickly running out. Let us gather together to explore ideas and enact changes that will enable future generations of humans, animals, and plants to co-exist and enjoy the sensual pleasures, and abundance of our magnificent lover Earth.

EVERYONE IS INVITED TO JOIN US FOR A HONEYMOON ECOSEX SYMPOSIUM the day after the Wedding to the Moon at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, CA. Together we will explore and learn more about sexecology. At University of Ohio we will have an art exhibit at the Trisolini Gallery, do a Sexecological Walking Tour and have an installation of wedding ephemera at Kennedy Art Museum.

JOIN US IN HOLY AND IRREVERENT MATRIMONY AT OUR CELEBRATION of love for the Moon. the Mountains, and each other. Please wear purple and keep your third eye open.

| ARTISTS’ STATEMENT | ECO-SEXUAL BLUE WEDDING TO THE SEA

WE ARE THE LOVE ART LABORATORY, an artist couple dedicated to doing art projects that explore, generate, and celebrate love. We orchestrate performance art weddings in collaboration with various international communities. Each wedding is site-specific, interactive, and utilizes a different theme and color based on the seven chakra system (inspired by artist Linda Montano’s 14 Years of Living Art.) The Love Art Laboratory grew out of our response to the violence of war, the anti-gay marriage movement, and the corporate greed causing the destruction of our planet. Our projects are symbolic gestures, which aim to instill hope, to be an antidote to fear, and act as a call to action.

THIS PAST YEAR, WE MARRIED the Earth in a magnificent redwood tree grove in California, we married the Sky in Oxford, England, and we had what may have been the first queer wed- ding in the Balkans, in Zagreb, Croatia. Hundreds of people attended these weddings and helped to create them through their generous collaborations.

FOR OUR SEVENTH WEDDING, AND IN OUR BLUE YEAR, we will marry the Sea. We are passionately in love with her and desire to take care of her in order to help save her. We are eco-sexuals, meaning that we find nature incredibly romantic, extraordinarily sensual, and an exquisite lover. Additionally, we are “sexecologists,” who combine sexology and ecology, and we intend to make the environmental movement a little sexier.

WHY MARRY THE SEA IN VENICE? During the Renaissance, the Doge (chief magistrate) de- creed that, “Venice must marry the sea as a man marries a women and thus become her Lord.” So each year the Doge would go out on a boat and drop a ring into the water. But can people really Lord over the Sea? What is perfectly clear is that people do have the power to destroy her, and are rapidly doing so. We will follow the tradition of marrying the Sea in Venice — as two women who have moved beyond the dominant-male and submissive-female dynamic, as seduc- tive eco-sexual artists, and as global citizens who care deeply about the welfare of our planet.

THE FEAR SOCIETY PAVILION IS THE PERFECT PLACE for this wedding as we are afraid of the total destruction of our beautiful environment. The Sea has a fast growing cancer made of islands of plastic the size of Texas. She is suffocating from gasses caused by our pollution. Glob- ally, 90% of her large fish have been wiped out. She’s overheating. Her reefs have been brutally destroyed. She’s being raped and… Need we go on? And we simply can’t live without her.

LOVING THE SEA EROTICALLY takes us all deliciously deep, deep, deep inside our primordial selves. Our bodies are made largely of water so in fact we are the Sea. We hope that our guests will take vows to love and protect Sea along with us. Now let’s get wet!

Click here for the Wedding Program!

ELIZABETH M. STEPHENS & ANNIE M. SPRINKLE

The wedding was produced by Luke Dixon of the International Workshop Festival. So we also did a five-day workshop that led up to the wedding. Fourteen people attended our Making Love into Art and Art into Love Workshop, then presented their creations at the wedding. It poured rain most of the five days, and cleared up just in time for the wedding. Our Mistress of Ceremonies was Veronica Hart, the lovely adult film star and director. The owner of Grove House, Polly McLean, provided a beautiful environment in which to do the wedding. As some folks wanted to bring their children, we decided to stretch our boundaries and try to do a “family friendly” performance event. Something we have never done before! It was a real challenge, but we all pulled it off without a glitch.

For more info about the collaborators view the program.

Photos by Del La Grace Volcano, Sarah Ainsley, and Petra Joy.

In the redwood trees of Santa Cruz, California, on May 17, 2008, 350 guests witnessed our Green Wedding #4. Our bridal parties and twenty six performance artists wowed the crowd. We made our vows to the Earth, officiated by Guillermo Gomez Pena as our High Aztec Priest. We asked for no material gifts, but invited people to help us co-create the wedding. One hundred and seventy people volunteered and helped to make it happen. It was a dream artist wedding. Here are some of the photos by Lydia Daniller and Danielle Barnett.

Click here for the Wedding Program!

| ARTIST’S STATEMENT |

WE, ELIZABETH M. STEPHENS & ANNIE SPRINKLE, HAVE DEDICATED OURSELVES TO DOING ART PROJECTS THAT GENERATE, CELEBRATE, AND GLORIFY LOVE. This is the ‘Love Art Laboratory,‘ and our response to the violence of war. the intolerance of the anti-gay rights movement. and the excessive fear and greed in our culture. Inspired by Linda M. Montano’s 14 Years of Living Art, we made the Love Art Lab a seven year project, and each year is devoted to a different theme and color. Each year we have a big wedding. Now in our fourth year, we will have our fourth wedding on May 17th, 2008. This year we will take vows to love and cherish the Earth.

WHY VOWS TO THE EARTH, AND WHY NOW? A wise woman told us a story. “People often think of the Earth as ‘Mother Earth.‘ But today the Earth is so battered, abused, exploited; polluted, blown up and ripped apart, that she can’t handle the burden of being a ‘mother’any more. It would be better to think of the Earth as a ‘lover’ because we take care of our lovers instead of expecting them to take care of us.”

YES, YES, THE EARTH IS OUR LOVER! With her abundant sensual delights, breathtaking beauty, her delicious scents, tastes, and occasional temper tantrums. She’s magical, mysterious, curvaceous, exciting. and unpredictable. We love to nestle in her woods, walk barefoot on her soft skin. circulate erotic energy with her, float in her luscious waters. She’s a fantastic lover and we simply can’t live without her. It‘s so painful to watch her suffer—to witness the unbelievable pollution of her oceans, her mountaintops brutally sliced off, deadly chemicals and piles of electronic waste dumped all over her, her premature global warming. the pollution of her air, the holocaust of her trees… need we go on?

WE ARE INSPIRED BY PEOPLE THAT WE KNOW WHO ARE ACTIVELY LOVING THE EARTH, such as the pioneers of environmental art. Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison. We are honored that they will do our wedding homily. We are inspired by the work of artist and activist Guillermo Gomez-Pena, who will be so generous as to facilitate our vows. Educators Julia Butterfly, Kutira, Bell Hooks, and Kaytea Petro—a former student studying sustainable business—are all teaching us new ways to love our Earth. We are also inspired by the eco-porn activists of fud<forforest.com.

SO ON MAY 17TH WE WILL VOW TO LOVE, HONOR AND CHERISH THE EARTH UNTIL DEATH DO US PART. We will enter into a deeper. more committed relationship with her. and celebrate our love. We will vow to make more of an effort to be biodegradable, sustainable, spend more time cleaning the beach, drive less—walk more. and we will promise to install a grey water system in our house. We are beginning work on a new theater proiect about our jowney into the environmental movement, to help educate ourselves and the public about how to have a more healthy relationship with our Earth. We will vow to help make the environmental movement more fun and sexy. We invite our wedding guests who are ready to make some vows to the Earth, to do so, along with us.

ULTIMATELY WE HOPE TO DO OUR PART TO LEAVE OUR LOVER EARTH IN A NICE AFTERGLOW for future generations so that they too may experience all of the pleasures, excitement and satisfactions that we have experienced with her in our lifetimes. We hope you will join us.

ANNIE M. SPRINKLE & ELIZABETH M. STEPHENS