“The Mission Kiss” began as a small personal project with the intent to bring something positive and loving in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco in a time of so much division and suffering. In a short time, it has grown into a public art project that started with the painting of one couple kissing on a heart shaped piece of wood and is now growing into a collaboration with many different artists and makers.
A few months ago, I started making and painting hearts and placing them randomly around the Mission, and people started posting about them on social media. Neighbors thanked me for sharing something so positive and artists started to inquire about how they could get involved. My next thought was, how can I bring more of the community and local artists into this project? I started inviting more artists to paint hearts, and people started to make donations towards the project to cover the cost of the hearts. I’ve been having more hearts cut as donations have come in. In an effort to source help from local makers, I’ve connected with a guitar maker who has been cutting the hearts for me and with the donations I’m able to give the hearts to the artists for free so they can participate at no cost.
I’d like to grow this into a bigger project and am proposing an art walk of hearts, a “HEART-WALK” on September 12th, that would include and celebrate the local community and honor creative businesses along the route. I’m envisioning a trail of at least 100 painted hearts to be hung with twine from trees and on fences along the corridors between 22nd-24th Streets and along Capp, Bartlett, Mission and Valencia. The hearts will be installed during the day of the 12th and the “walk” itself will begin in the evening and continue until dark. The hearts will remain up for people to share via social media, and purchase or donate to the project or buy directly from the artists who created them. Information about the artists, the project and how to support will be on the backs of each heart.
Let’s all support each other! The hearts are about diversity and love and inclusion, but they are also about letting go. Amazing artists are putting their time and energy into them- and though some hearts may get vandalized, or taken… it’s an experiment of sorts and an attempt to bring people together around love. Please see the instagram page https://www.instagram.com/themissionkiss/ and hashtags #themissionkiss and #missionkiss to see how people are sharing images and words about the project.
