Green and Simple: Looking for Hearts, Finding Love

When thinking about Valentine’s Day, one can hardly escape the indelible image of bulbous, bliss-filled hearts. Shortly after the new year dawns, pink and red embellishments start cropping up in store fronts and in-store displays, shocking shoppers into the new year long before our brains have adjusted to writing 2012. 

For me, thinking of hearts brings to mind a local artist I met five years ago, whose work is all about hearts, and his incredible eye for them.

A geologist by training and a jewelry maker by trade, Rick Ruggles is now an artist based in Washington, D.C., who has a special talent for finding hearts in the most banal and pedestrian places. From cast-iron railings to spots on the ground, Rick sees heart shapes everywhere. Some of his most popular images are those of hearts found in nature. From clouds to sea shells to vegetables, the heart shapes reveal themselves to his keenly observant eyes, while going unnoticed by most others. 

He captures these images, creating composites of photographs as framed prints, posters, greeting cards, bookmarks, book covers and more, as can been seen on his website, Found Hearts.  In 2011, Rick collaborated with poet Steve Goodwin, who wrote a collection of poems inspired by Rick’s heart-shaped images called “Finding Heart.”

It all started 12 years ago, when Rick noticed a pothole in the shape of a heart on a path that he traveled as part of his regular route. For two months, Rick passed the pothole, each time reminding himself to bring a camera to capture the image. But, he would forget, only to be reminded the next time he passed the anomalous hole. 

One day, he grabbed his camera and set out with the sole intention of capturing the likeness. “It was a good thing I did,” Rick shared. “Within a couple of days, it was gone.” The pothole had been repaired and the heart had been erased. While photographing that pothole, he spotted a few other hearts as well, which he compiled into a composite. Upon seeing it, a friend suggested that he continue to find hearts, which he did, and so Found Hearts was born.

Over the years, Rick has amassed so many heart images that he stopped counting long ago, though he estimates the total to be in the neighborhood of ten thousand images. The images Rick captures are unaltered. He does not manipulate objects nor does he modify what he captures with photo editing software. All images are of objects, as he found them. 

In addition to the thousands of photographs he has captured, he has also amassed a collection of heart-shaped rocks, which he will some day find a creative way to share with the community in a meaningful way.

His life-long interest in shapes, patterns, and textures, in concert with his discerning observation skills honed during geological studies, enables him to create works of love. His heart-seeking quest has also become soul serving.

Although Rick is not motivated by Valentine’s Day, he does feel a sense of connection between finding hearts and finding love in the world. Since he began this odyssey, Rick shared that he has “become more serene, more comfortable in my own skin.  And I have learned to love myself better.” By focusing on finding love in the world, he’s grown more accepting of where we all are. He feels less wrangled by the usual stressors that sometimes throw us of kilter, like getting cut off in traffic. 

And, the impact of Rick’s work on others is readily apparent and moving. Other “heart seekers,” inspired by his work, have embarked on their own heart-finding quests. Many individuals and non-profits have reached out to Rick to share stories of how they feel connected to his work through their own. Like the story of a woman who stared a non-profit after losing a loved one due to an undiagnosed heart condition and wanted permission to use Rick’s heart images to raise awareness of the condition. His work has even been shared with women in prison, one of whom he learned, spotted a heart in a rug on the floor shortly after viewing Rick’s work.

Rick, who feels it’s important to share what he can when he can, said that these stores remind him that “things aren’t always fine for everyone,” and to “be more mindful about my choices and how I spend my time.”  

As a mom of young kids, Rick’s work is particularly impactful. Looking for hearts in unusual places is a great way to help kids learn to focus, engage, observe, imagine and create – skills that are invaluable in learning and in life. And, they are skills that translate to so many other situations. The search also keeps them connected the concepts of compassion, empathy and love.

When I first met Rick, I had only two kids. Our four year old would delightfully squeal whenever she saw a “happy heart,” as she called them, causing me to slow down, to pause, and to savor the serendipitous sightings. The hearts have had an enduring impact on our then two year old as well. This morning, when I placed a fried egg on the now seven-year-old’s plate she extolled, “It’s shaped like a heart!” When we looked at it again together, we were elated to find yet another heart within the larger heart. 

This Valentine’s Day remember, as Rick shared: “Love really is everywhere, if we let our eyes be more open.”