A few days before her 31st birthday, performance artist Sadie Lune made a special request to her friends, family and community. She wasn't asking for expensive or hard to find gifts, or anything tangible, really.

She wanted them to send actions for her to perform on her birthday. These actions would have to, in some way, teach Lune something about love. This could refer to love within a variety of contexts, such as self love, spirituality, family, friends, sex, romance or community.

In her request letter, Lune wrote in part: "...the actions can be fun, silly, personal or intense. The idea of Teaching Myself to Love consummated in an action is open to your interpretation."

The only limitation to the actions was that nothing illegal would be allowed, as she would perform the actions in public. On 16th and Mission Streets, outside the BART station, which is as public as it gets.

Part of the reason she chose that spot is "because it's a really interesting intersection of people, people from all sorts of demographics and lifestyles are in this space, and it is a very vibrant space, but it also has a little bit of a dark edge to it, and I've just been really attracted to it as a place to do performance art for a long time," Lune said.

On November 11th, at 11 a.m., Lune arrived wearing all purple -including hair, makeup and nails- and with large bags full in purple supplies in tow.

While she prepared for all the actions ahead of the performance, she did not reveal in advance what these would be, and she did not know for sure how long the entire performance would last.

This BART station is a free-speech zone, and the cylindrical concrete structures which are part of it often double up as a stage. On this day, Lune made a cozy bed out of it, with purple sheets, pillows and an umbrella. Despite the lack of promotion for the performance, a crowd began to surround Lune while she was still setting up.

The actions were a mixed bag of humor, intensity, vulnerability and joy. The first action consisted of brushing her hair for ten minutes. She interpreted the action very literally, brushing also her armpit hair, and then reaching her comb under her skirt, she even brushed her pubic hair to the amazement of passersby.

Some of the actions involved interaction, while others were more contemplative. At one point, she stared at herself in the mirror, in complete silence for seven minutes. Some of the observers who were just walking in would wonder why there was a crowd staring at a woman who was staring in the mirror, and those who had been watching Lune from the beginning would fill in the details for others.

Another self-loving action that left the audience in awe was as simple as smelling her armpit, "slowly, deliberately and with delight," as was instructed to her. Also in the vein of self-love, was applying a mud mask, eating yogurt with figs, and massaging moisturizer to all of her skin.

Lune's mother also contributed an action, instructing Lune to read a book given by her. So as part of the performance, Lune read an excerpt from a book titled "Scientific Curiosities of Sex Life," a book originally published in 1912. Lune and her audience laughed as they listened to antiquated views that portrayed homosexuality as a disorder.

One of the most successful actions had Lune reaching out with her hands to passersby while staying on her improvised stage, and luring them into coming to her for an embrace. The audience also responded well when Lune brought out a cake and chocolate and offered to feed others, while also asking that they feed her. This went on until the cake was almost finished.

Other actions involving interaction and reaching out to community included greeting everyone she could by their name, and asking the names of those whom she did not know. She also spent some time complimenting women as they walked by the space.

The performance went on until almost five o'clock, with a duration of almost six hours. While most of her audience came and went, some people stayed for several hours. "I didn't expect to have a standing audience for so much of, or even the whole time, I thought it would be more people just kind of walking by, but some people stayed all day," said Lune.

"I felt really grateful to those people, that they were taking the time out of their day to participate with me in that way."