Since the Fourth of July is tomorrow, a patriotic sticker would seem to be the logical choice. I have to admit though that I can't say I've seen any that would fall into that category. Plenty that are protesting the government or ridiculing it, but there aren't too many artists out there that are looking to make America look good. So I figured focusing on a sticker that represented passion was a good consolation. I also really like this sticker, which is generally the underlying reason for pretty much all of my picks. The heart is one of the most recognizable symbols around the world and plays a significant role across cultures. It can symbolize strength, the soul, spiritualism, passion, emotions, and most commonly love. It's become a staple in art, literature, advertisements, and in many ways even language. You can show anyone a heart and they will know what you are trying to say. Doing a little research into the concept of the heart and how it evolved into the symbol that it is today, I came across a lecture entitled "Affairs of the Heart: An Exploration of the Symbolism of the Heart in Art" by Gresham College. If you've got about forty minutes I highly suggest watching it since it is a fairly interesting look into the idea. What I find rather interesting about the evolution of the heart as a symbol is how in many ways it was kind of come full circle. If you look at early depictions of hearts in the art and iconography of early civilizations like the Aztecs or the Egyptians, it is fairly realistic in the way it's drawn. This obviously comes from the fact that the actual physical heart played a significant role in their cultures. For the Aztecs you need to sacrifice the heart of your enemy to gain their strength and wisdom. Egyptians held that the heart was where the soul was stored, so it was preserved separately to allow for judgement in the afterlife. As time moved forward the significance of the heart in culture continued to rise but the design starts to simplify. Greeks were among the first to associate love with the organ and felt that the heart looked fairly similar to a pine cone. These two ideas greatly influenced the people of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, which is where you truly start to see the heart develop. In a sort of parallel growth, the symbol of the heart became an important element in religion and in chivalry's representation of love. And despite the increasing enlightenment and understanding of what the heart actually looks like, the symbolic representation of the heart grew and eventually became in many ways more recognizable than the physical organ. (Again if you've got the time check out the lecture, since this is a very brief connection of the ideas they presented.) While the heart symbol still plays a significant role in our society, I feel like there is starting to be a greater presence of the anatomically correct heart out there. I think part of it is the increased scientific knowledge surrounding the heart and the impressive functionality of it. There is a beauty to the complexity of the heart and the role it plays in our lives. We also tend to place a greater significance on these anatomically correct ones. You're not just a meaningless symbol of my love, you are my heart, a piece of me. Or it can be stripped of the idea of love and focus more on symbolizing strength, dedication, or passion towards an idea. For people that get anatomically correct hearts tattooed on themselves, it's a way to literally wear their passions on their sleeve. They also show a greater significance when representing the ideas of lost or suffering. A broken heart takes on a lot more meaning and sticks with you when it actually looks like one. So whether it's an appreciation of the scientific importance of the heart or a way to show an increased significance of an idea, images like tonight's sticker certainly stick with you.
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Maggie Ondrey
An amateur photographer and writer capturing a small portion of the city. Archives
August 2017
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