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Why I Never Do a Simple Heart Shape Drawing
A Heart Shape Drawing That Goes Past the Symbol
A simple heart shape drawing — the two-humped symbol that appears on every Valentine’s card — has become so ubiquitous that it barely registers anymore. We see it and immediately know what it means and immediately move on. There is no pause. No second look. No moment of genuine encounter.
That is not the heart shape drawing I make.
I am Kenal Louis. And the heart shape in my work begins from the anatomical form — the real biological heart, drawn with its chambers and vessels and the strong upward curve of the aorta — before filling the interior with a world that demands a second look. And a third. And a fourth.
What Happens When You Go Past the Simple Heart Shape Drawing
When you draw past the symbol and into the real form, everything changes. The anatomical heart shape is immediately recognizable — people know what they are looking at — but it is not so familiar that they stop looking. It holds the eye. It creates the tension between recognition and strangeness that good art requires.
And then the interior of my heart shape drawing fills with something that defies the familiar entirely. Organic textures that flow and coil across the chambers. Botanical elements that grow from within the vessel walls. A weeping eye that looks outward from a chamber as if the heart itself has developed the capacity to witness. A diamond at the base. In another piece, an entire circular world — crystals, flowing organic forms, dripping ink, a central seeing eye — contained within the heart shape.
Furthermore, my heart shape drawing work is always black and white pen and ink. The lines do all the work. The contrast creates all the depth.
The Heart Shape Drawing as an Emotional Document
What I am always trying to create with a heart shape drawing is not a symbol of love. I am trying to create a document — a visual record of what it actually feels like to have a heart in the full sense of the word. The griefs it carries. The things that grow in it despite everything. The way it keeps seeing and feeling even when it is exhausted from both.
So, therefore, my heart shape drawing starts with the anatomical form — because that is the honest form — and uses the interior to say everything the symbol never could.
The Simple Heart Shape Drawing Is Not Enough
However, I want to be clear: the simple heart shape drawing has its place. It is a powerful shorthand. But when an artist chooses to engage seriously with the heart as a subject, the symbol is only the beginning. The real heart shape drawing — the one worth making and worth owning — goes all the way inside. Truly, that is what my work tries to do.
The Heart Shape Drawing as an Invitation
A heart shape drawing — even the complex, anatomically grounded version I create — functions as an invitation. The recognizable form draws the viewer in. Everyone knows what a heart shape drawing is. But the interior world inside my heart shape drawing is not what anyone expects.
The viewer who looks closely finds an organic world that asks real questions. What is the eye doing inside the heart? What does the tear mean? Why are botanical forms growing through the vessel walls? These questions have no single definitive answers. Each viewer answers from their own experience. So, therefore, my heart shape drawing is designed to be completed by the viewer rather than closed by the artist. Truly, that is the kind of art that lasts.
Shop Heart Shape Drawing Prints at kenallouis.com/
My heart shape drawing prints are available as fine art prints, canvas wall art, and apparel. All limited edition — act now. Visit kenallouis.com/ and support a Black artist making original heart art that goes past the symbol.
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