Using the Heart Symbol in your Art

I’ve always loved the heart symbol, though as a grown up I started to despise it a little. I thought of it as a childish symbol drawn by little girls who dream about Mr Charming… Not very profound. Not a symbol for the woman I want to be seen as either.

Now a bit older I have to reconsider the symbol of love – again. I do think it is a beautiful shape and symbol. When colored in reds and pinks it speaks volumes about passion, devotion, understanding and sharing both pain and happiness… It is truly a symbol of something that has great meaning to me because I do believe in love, in many ways even though it is sometimes hard!

And I do love to use the heart symbol in my art, especially after reading about the Swedish artist Gunilla Skyttla who uses the heart in her art a lot. She has embroidered the heart in many different ways. Because she is an artist that I admire I feel that I too can be allowed to use the heart as a symbol in my art. Have you ever experienced this? That you need someone already prove to aid your choices?

That I need someone to guide me like that isn’t very strange to me, because I have no art education and I’m not very confident when I call myself artist. I always feel very surprised when others call me that too. Do they think so by looking at what I’ve done or because I’ve proclaimed myself an artist? I do not know.

When I work with collage I feel like an artist. I never hesitate about what will look good or bad, I just do art. When I use the heart-shape it feels good inside, like the love is spreading inside of me. This I know. Therefor I encourage you to explore the heart-shape of your childhood once again. Let it shine with amore, color, glitter glue and passion. It’s a symbol of your love, not only towards others but for yourself and your art.

Ways to incorporate the Heart in your Art today:

• Bring out the child in yourself and draw big bold and tiny small hearts with crayons in your art journal – fill a whole page! Doodle on!
• Cut out two pieces of fabric and sew them together and stuff that, then decorate your heart with beads, buttons, lace etc. Like this.
• Make a couple of those fabric hearts and put them on a string for your wall or mirror like a love garland!
• Draw a big heart in your art journal and fill it with paint or text about what you love
• Look around your home or outside in signs and nature – then take photos of the hearts you see, they are everywhere!
• Free write about what love you have and what love you want to experience – what does the heart symbolizes for you?
• Support a blogger – I love my blog community and hope you do to? Support a blogger by sharing some love with the blogs you like. Great concept!
• Read and print this beautifully designed manifesto [also via Shai]
• Print Lisa’s Valentine Countdown images and glue them in your calendar or diary – cover the love month of February!
• Pick some round rocks and paint them to look like valentine love bugs! So cute!
• Search for the word “heart” in your own flickr-stream and see if you’ve noticed this symbol before, then make a mosaic like this one;

Love mosaic by iHanna. Isn’t it cool? Love it!
The last one is made with the new flickrtoy Love that creates a heart with all your flickr contacts names in it! A tribute to photographic friends all over the world.

Two other heart favorites that I’ve taken:

The window of an outdoor toilet in the Finnish archipelago that I took two summers ago sitting inside looking out. What a lovely view!

A heart shaped diary lock that I thrifted once. Very girlish, but that is cool too once you’ve let the heart be profound again, don’t you think?

If you decide to write about HEARTS and what they mean to you in your blog, with journal pages, photos, mosaic etc – please let me know and post your links below! I want to see into your Heart and feel the love spread around the universe. Thanks!

Metta to all of you!