Around Waynedale, people often keep a few stray singles in their pocket. After all, they might want to pick up a fried tenderloin sandwich at a church fundraiser or toss some money into a collection can at a business to help a resident fight cancer.Flowers, jewelry, dinner out. Why not think outside the (candy) box this year for Valentine’s Day and choose a gift not only from the heart but with a heart?
Area artists, and those who display at area galleries, are true romantics and have created heartfelt pieces of home décor that can remind you of your love year round.
Kristy Jo Beber, a Fort Wayne potter and coordinator of the Orchard Gallery, 6312 Covington Road, says artists like to work with the heart motif because it has so much symbolism.
“I think it’s a symbol of love and affection that everyone can relate to,” she says. “It’s instantly recognizable. And then you can add other symbols to it for textured symbolism.”
Hearts also are adaptable to all kinds of décor schemes, Beber says. Something with a lot of heart “doesn’t have to be real crafty or country or sentimental or clichéd,” she says.
Unending love
Not just figuratively, but literally in this example of Decatur resident Curtis Rose’s wooden mobius heart sculptures. They seem to have two surfaces but really have only one continuous surface. Here, a heart within a heart. At Fort Wayne Museum of Art gift shop, $175.
Lucky in love?
Perhaps that’s what’s behind the Jack and seven of hearts playing cards included in this contemporary mixed-media collage/painting by Fort Wayne resident Ales Pancner. At Orchard Gallery, $500.
‘Mother’s Valentine’
It takes some looking to find the subtle heart-shaped brush strokes in this painting of a grandchild of Fort Wayne oil painter Dr. Fred Doloresco, but they’re there. In the “Valentine’s Show” of Castle Gallery, 1202 W. Wayne St., through March 11, $1,200.
Time flies when you’re in love
That could be the sentiment for this winged heart-shaped clock made from found objects by Lisa Vetter, co-founder of The Art Farm, Spencerville; through March 24 in the “Objets Trouve (Found Objects)” show at The Potter’s Wife Gallery, 1421 Broadway, $125.
Who needs jewelry?
This lined wooden box made and decorated with hearts by husband-and-wife artists Jon and Pat Hecker of Bloomington looks beautiful even empty. At Orchard Gallery, $50.
Melt a heart
Glass heart paperweights by Holland, Ohio, artist Matthew J. Paskiet are made with melting techniques similar to those practiced by American Indians. At Fort Wayne Museum of Art gift shop, $40 to $60.
