Why Hearts Keep Appearing in My Art

Hearts keep turning up in my work.

I think of them as marks and symbols. A bit like branding, really.

You use something often enough and people start to recognise it as part of your visual language. That is how hearts have started to feel in my work especially when I use a heart within lettering or a typeface, it almost feels like signing off the piece.

A little mark that says: this is mine.

Wearing your heart on your sleeve

The phrase wearing your heart on your sleeve springs to mind.

Hearts are probably the ultimate romantic symbol, and I think some of the work I make is romantic. Not all of it, obviously. I do funny things. Strange things. Slightly ridiculous things. But some of the artwork is also quite sweet.

That side of the work matters to me too.

The heart can hold all of that at once. Love, attraction, vulnerability, affection, humour, obsession, tenderness, even a bit of chaos.

That is probably why I keep using it. 

The same symbol, different feeling

I do not sit down and decide that every heart is going to mean the same thing. That would be far too tidy. In one piece, the heart might feel romantic and yet in another it might be playful, awkward, obsessive, funny or damaged.

Sometimes it is the main image just like in Romeo and Juliet. 

Sometimes it is just a tiny detail that is tucked away somewhere small, like the heart on the "I" in OctoWilly. It is not shouting for attention, but it is still there.

That's what I like about recurring symbols. They can become familiar without becoming predictable.

Hearts are only one part of it.

Lightning bolts, lips, moons, stars and other shapes also keep appearing in my work. Over time, those repeated marks have started to feel like a kind of visual vocabulary.

I am often trying to capture a thought, feeling, joke, memory or reaction quickly, and symbols help me do that. They are simple shapes, but they can carry a lot. They are easy to play with, change the colour, distort, add words, hide it in the lettering. That is the fun part. This instinctive way of turning thoughts into images is also central to how I use visual journalling

No matter what I do to the heart, a heart is instantly recognisable. Something you understand before you have even looked closely at the artwork. 

Romantic, but not always serious

I think some of my work is romantic. Romeo & Juliet definitely is.

That piece came out of listening to the Dire Straits song and turned into what I can only describe as an explosion of love. But romance does not have to mean serious or sentimental. It can be loud. It can be messy.

A kind of signature

The more I look across the work, the more I realise the heart has become one of those things I come back to without really thinking about it. 

Especially when it appears in lettering or typography, it can feel almost like I'm signing off a piece of work. Not literally signing my name more like leaving a familiar mark behind. It's a visual sign off I guess.

I expect they will keep appearing....

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