Valentines for a City: The Hearts of San Francisco Project

Hearts of San Francisco was launched in 2004 as a Bay Area wide “heart installation” with artist-created hearts installed in public places throughout San Francisco. This year marks the 10th anniversary of this project, which combines fundraising, community involvement and the nurturing of artistic expression. The unique heart sculptures, found throughout the City, have become iconic to San Francisco locals and tourists alike. The jury-selected heart designs are created by the artists, then auctioned and sold, to raise money for vital programs at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.

San Francisco General Hospital Foundation will debut the brand new ‘Hearts in San Francisco’ series at the tenth annual Heroes & Hearts Luncheon and Hearts After Dark on Thursday February 12, 2015 on the field at AT&T Park. The 25 new hearts feature a variety of designs, ranging from reflective chrome, Swarovski crystals, wood panels, Polaroid photos, kaleidoscope-like shapes and more. The series includes nine large hearts, five tabletop hearts and 11 mini mosaic hearts. After the Hearts events, select large hearts may remain on display in San Francisco’s Union Square.

Here are a few of this year’s heart designs and artists:

Kristine Mays, “Love Captured”

Kristine has developed a way of expressing the human experience through wire. Her piece, “Love Captured” features a gold heart veiled in a red wire casing. Kristine has been an exhibiting artist around the San Francisco Bay Area since 1993, working in wire for 20 years. She is an annual participant in ArtSpan’s San Francisco Open Studios Program. She has helped to raise thousands of dollars for AIDS research through her participation in the UCSF Art for AIDS Benefit Auction.

 

 

Tom Connelly, “Heart Wood”

Having grown up with a father who was a second generation California farmer, Tom constantly watched the repairs of farm machinery, where tools were manufactured and created to fit the need then broken down and reused over and over again. Tom began to see without being limited by an object’s original purpose. In “Heart Wood” each piece of wood acts as a memory to its past. The pieces are cut up, reshaped, and combined with other pieces to create a new story in the present. The wood, like our memories, accumulates a patina and changes with time.

 

Laura Lineback, “#heartsinsf”

Laura gained a heightened awareness to preventable heart disease after losing her father to a heart attack at 60 years old. She looks to bring awareness through her artwork “#heartsinsf”—a giant, reflective, chrome mirror, allowing viewers to take their own photo within the heart. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Laura graduated from San Francisco State University with a BFA degree in painting and drawing. Her works have been featured in a variety of exhibitions around the city including the 2011 New Generations Student Showcase at the de Young Fine Arts Museum. Visit her website: lauralineback.com.

 

Mackiebuilder.com, “Everett’s Heart Planes, Brave Strong Boar”

Builder, fabricator and maker, Matthew Mackie Pigman created this heart sculpture with his local studio, Mackie Builder. Cut from 2000 lbs of plate steel, sand blasted, powder coated, and illuminated with solar powered light, the heart was created to honor the medical community and to honor Matthew’s son Everett’s true-heart grit to stay alive during 6 days of life-support, followed by lung collapse and 3 weeks of Pediatric ICU, after he accidentally ingested the contents of a 80 year old bottle of iodine suspended in a caustic unknown solvent. Matthew witnessed the extent of Everett’s strength and will to survive; this struggle became a deep source of inspiration.

 

 

Polaroid SF, “Polaroid Heart”

For the past three years, San Francisco artists, Bruce Scott and William Westley have been sharing one photo a day through the Polaroid SF project. The project was inspired by their deep-rooted love of San Francisco. With “Polaroid Heart,” Polaroid SF asked the community to participate by donating their own Polaroid photos that were taken within the City. 1,035 Polaroid images cover the heart in a collage that is as diverse as the city of San Francisco.

 

 

Kristin Farr, “Magic Hexagon Heart”

Kristin is an artist, journalist and video producer, creating works in different mediums that focus on nostalgia, humor and relationships between colors. Her heart, a striking configuration of bright colors and shapes, calls to mind the image of a kaleidoscope. Kristin’s artwork has been exhibited around the Bay Area at locations including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and The Bedford Gallery, and her iPhone art app, FarrOut, was released in 2013. She has painted public murals in Taiwan, Honolulu and San Francisco.

For more information on the hearts and artists, click here.

Ticket info for the events at AT&T Park on Thursday, February 12, 2015:

Heroes & Hearts tickets - 11:30am-1:30pm

Hearts After Dark tickets - 8:00pm-11:00pm

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Have a winning heart idea?

Anyone is welcome to submit designs to create a heart. There is an open call for submissions during the summer, and designs are selected by a committee. For questions about design submissions, please contact Elaine Leong at (415) 206-5959 or eleong@sfghf.net. For more information, click here.