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The local artist is known for her series of hearts that have popped up on walls, were featured in their own Valentine’s Day show a year ago in the now-defunct Phoenicia Association on Third Street, and currently hang in a layered installation at chef Johnny Chu’s Sens in downtown Phoenix. Since the theme of this year’s guide is loving our hometown, we found it only fitting to take a note or two (and a cover design) by the queen of hearts, herself.
Brooke answers a few questions about her series, and shares her design process (and a few out takes after the jump …
Brooke says her design for the cover of the resolution guide came from mythology and current culture.
”I wanted to do something with the mythological phoenix bird because that’s kind of how i feel about Phoenix, like, it’s constantly being reborn,” she says. “I also thought about the resolution to completely fall in love with Phoenix. Maybe we should all act like Phoenix had a rebirth and to look around and appreciate it — in its flawed state.”
She says the hearts in her design come from her reoccurring series that began as a “picture of love to herself” and ultimately grew into a longer project that included installations, exhibitions, and commissioned artwork.
“By the time I had finished a dozen hearts, I was making print packs called a dozen hearts and meeting my boyfriend,” she says. “After that (with heart No.13), it all started to change and formed into something else.”
That something else included street art, and a “love life/fuck life” series of wheat pasted hearts that appeared all over downtown Phoenix.
“When the hearts are put on walls, they change again, it becomes its own piece of work taking on a life of its own,” she says. “And I think the iconic image of love/fuck life heart was kind of putting an end to the series in some ways. Now I am making screen printing posters of the lovelife icon heart — who knows if it ever really ends.”
Total, Brooke’s made 36 (or so) hearts. She says some will be available as prints and postcards in time for Valentine’s Day, on her website.
Check out the full Resolution Guide — with stories of (almost) failed resolutions of loving Phoenix — right here.
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