Feeling Heart Project

How it Began

Beginning as my Father’s Idea to recreate my niece's feelings chart from-Daystar Counseling (by Katie Bomar), Feeling Heart evolved into a research/ passion project, where l curiously sought to visualize and externalize our inner landscapes. I collected qualitative data responses on social media for each emotion (associated colors 8 & shapes, where an emotion Is felt in the body). I then intuitively painted multiple paintings based on this information for how we experience an emotion. After engaging the public to narrow down these multiple paintings per feeling, I tallied up the responses and then put up a vote between the top 2 candidates via a poll on lnstagram Stories. Finally, the winner made it into the Feeling Heart chart to officially represent said emotion. You can purchase the final print here.

Feeling Heart Exhibit

One of the biggest surprises from this process is just how diverse, instinctive and intuitive people’s responses were in picking their favorites for each emotion. Equally surprising was the lack of a unanimous vote for an emotion, as the votes were often spread across multiple options. This diversity in response revealed just how expansive, unique and mysterious our emotional worlds are, supporting science’s research. Hence, my goal for my Feeling Heart solo show in 2019 was to exhibit and provide an opportunity for YOU to interact with the art. I commissioned a woodworker to create an interactive installation, where visitors could create their own charts, unique to their hearts. I wanted to provide an opportunity to reflect and perhaps choose different paintings from the final, democratically elected winners for each feeling.

Feeling Heart Lessons