I’ve got five sources of inspiration for this post: 1) February is Heart Month in Canada, 2) Valentine’s Day is coming up, 3) Marsha’s Wednesday Quotes challenge, 4) Terri’s Sunday Stills February Red colour challenge, and 5) My Photographing Public Art Challenge (PPAC). So, I had fun selecting my digital images and created the following galleries with some quotes.
Red Hearts
A walk in the Distillery District yielded four heart displays: A bubbly heart made of fabric by Designs by the Yard, a soft heart made with red and some blue thread (unknown artist), a big red heart and a Love sign by artist Mathew Rosenblatt. The first two displays were temporary and the last two were permanent. The Love sign is full of locks.
“The locks are a symbol of love and that is emotional and beautiful. When people walk by they see, symbolically by all these locks left here, all this love.”
“We are all artists. We can express in different ways but our life, at the end of day, is our biggest sculpture. Each day we take brush strokes with our actions.”
Mathew Rosenblatt
Another walk in Yorkville led me to discover paintings by artist Anthony Ricciardi. The information sheet at these paintings stated that the artist is colour blind and self-taught. He left the comfort and clout of the corporate finance world to pursue his true passion and lifelong dream: Art. His collections have been showcased worldwide in Toronto, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, London, and Brazil.
“Incredible things happen when you Follow Your Heart.”
Anthony Ricciardi
Red Flowers
Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest times for florists. I have many red flower photos to enjoy. I look forward to Spring when red camellias, peonies and roses bloom in outdoor gardens and I can touch their lovely soft petals.
Red Cars
Some cars give the driver and the passenger heart-pumping or heart-stopping effects.
If you could drive one of the cars, which one would you pick?
Weekend Coffee Share
I’d love for you to share what’s been happening, simple joys from your week, and/or favourite public art around the world in the comments or Weekend Coffee Share linkup #106 InLinkz below.
Have a wonderful weekend and however you choose to spend February 14th, happy Valentine’s Day!
Copyright © 2024 natalietheexplorer.home.blog – All rights reserved.
Natalie the Explorer 
Happy Valentine’s Natalie
I hope you receive cards and flowers. Beautiful images of hearts ❤️
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Thank you, Ali. I’m pleased you like the images of hearts. Happy Valentine’s to you, too.
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Hi Natalie – loved the red and the hearts – it definitely evoked Valentine’s Day for me – hope you have a happy one and thanks for sharing the love 🙂
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Happy Valentine’s, Leanne. It was fun to put this post together. I’m pleased you loved the red and the hearts. Thank you for linking up.
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We’ve been married 32 years, 33 in September. I think after the first Valentines Day we’ve pretty much ignored it. Maybe this year I’ll make him a cake. 🙂
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Dawn, Congratulations on your long marriage! A daily dose of tender loving care beats any commercialized Valentine’s celebration. A homemade cake is definitely an expression of love. Happy Valentine’s!
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That is definitely a Valentine’s inspiring post. Thanks for sharing, Natalie.
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Thanks Shari for joining the conversation.
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Art is such a strange world, isn’t it? It means so many different things to people. I can’t imagine giving up my living to create art, but then, I was never an artist. And so much of what I look at I don’t particularly like, so why would I expect other people to like it? But it’s good to know that it can happen. Happy Valentine’s week, Natalie! Wishing you lots of red roses.
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Thank you for the warm wishes, Jo. I think for artistic people, they need to create. Fortunately, there are so may forms of art that we’ll find something we like. Happy Valentine’s week to you, too.
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Amazing to see what you can find on walks. I think I would choose the veteran car! Good to “meet” you again, I found your linkup via Deb’s World. I’ll add you to my list of linkies.
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Gail, Welcome to my weekly linkup! Feel free to join in any weekend. Every time I step outside, I discover something new so I truly enjoy my walks. Happy Valentine’s week!
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Hi, Natalie – What a wonderful way to celebrate February and all things Valentine’s Day. As part of my own celebration, I asked ChatGPT to write a VD poem for my husband, Richard. It was hilarious — including telling him that he had a cute butt and that I loved him with all my house (no typo hear). It gave us both a good laugh and was a great start to our Valentine’s Day!
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Hi Donna, A good laugh is a wonderful start to Valentine’s Day. Thank you for sharing what ChatGPT came up with. That’s hilarious. I’d frame that poem 🙂
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I love all those hearts! My husband and I don’t really celebrate Valentines Day (although, if he wanted to give me some chocolate, I wouldn’t turn it down 🙂 ) but the imagery is bright and cheery, and I like that.
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Janis, Chocolate also works for me 🙂 I had fun putting this post together. I’m pleased you love those hearts.
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I love all the red. I also love Janis’ comment about chocolate. As far as cars go, I love the looks of the Corvette best. We had an old one – 67 or 68, I think. Vince sold it pretty quickly. The front of it was so long you could hardly drive it! The one you took looks fun to drive. I’d pick it in an instant. I love all the public art, too. It’s amazing that a blind person could draw those pictures. We had a speaker at our church a long time ago who was paralyzed and painted with her teeth. Her name is Joni Eareckson Tada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joni_Eareckson_Tada.
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Marsha, I thought of you when I included my car photos in this post 🙂 The artist that I mentioned (A. Ricciardi ) is colour blind, not blind. Thank you for sharing about Joni E. Tada who has amazing accomplishments in spite of her disability.
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Awww, my face is Corvette red. LOL. I must have read too fast. I wondered how a blind person could paint! It’s so amazing when people are so determined to succeed in spite of huge obstacles. I love reading about and meeting people like that. Thanks for linking.
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Yes, it’s inspiring to read about and meet people who overcome huge obstacles and live a full life.
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A big amen to that statement! Have a great week. You inspire us without even mentioning any obstacles. 🙂
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Aww, thank you Marsha. You gave me a big compliment 🙂 Have a wonderful week!
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Attaching the locks to that LOVE sign is a good idea — much better than attaching them to our bridges.
https://operasandcycling.com/pont-des-arts-without-the-love-locks/
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Don, Thank you for your visit and comment. I saw the love locks on Pont des Arts. I also saw love locks on a bridge in Ljubljana, Slovenia. I prefer bridges without locks. The Pont des Arts is beautiful on its own.
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That’s a great depiction of love Natalie – my favourite is the word love spelt out in locks, such a clever take on the whole lovelocks theme!
As to the car I’d probably go for the first one, just for the thrills! We’ve never really celebrated Valentine’s Day but it’s fun to see how others do. Your 5 inspirations worked perfectly!
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Thank you, Debbie. I’m pleased you enjoyed the post. I had fun writing it up. That LOVE sign is very popular with visitors. The first red car would be a thrill to drive. Excellent pick 🙂
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What a great idea for a post! Love the street art of course. I’m on holiday amd justnn my iPad so will do my best to link up.
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Oops! Lots of typos!
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Thank you for linking up while you’re on holiday. I hope you’re having a great time. No worries about the typos.
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What a lovely, lovely post!! I love the love locks installation (which is funny because I hate them on bridges – what started as a spontaneous thing is sort of annoying and less charming when they’ve been engraved at an engraver and seems completely unoriginal. But this, I love. Hope you have a lovely Valentine’s day, whatever you do!
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Thank you, Lydia. I’m pleased you enjoyed the post and the Love sign. I don’t like love locks on bridges either. Happy Valentine’s week!
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Happy Valentine’s Day Natalie! Love the hearts👍 Here’s my entry for this week.
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Thank you Teresa. I’m pleased you love the hearts. I’ll be over to your blog shortly.
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Until I saw your post pop up in my inbox, I wasn’t aware that Valentine’s Day is upon us. We don’t celebrate this, but it’s a good time to contemplate about love and the color red. 🙂
I’d take a ride in that classic car, please! I hope your winter is going well, Natalie!
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Hi Liesbet, Winter is going very well. We had two bitter cold days last week and that’s it so far. This week’s daytime highs are a few Celsius degrees above freezing point so no ice and no snow accumulation. Next week’s forecast is mild, too. I hope you’re enjoying Colombia. Have a wonderful weekend!
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I love these red hearts Natalie. The paintings by Anthony Ricciardi amazes me. For someone who is colour blind and self taught to be so talented blows my mind.
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Jennifer, I’m pleased you love the red hearts and A. Ricciardi’s paintings. I was impressed by his talent, too. Good for him to follow his passion for art.
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Thanks for the festive post, Natalie. I enjoyed the photos!
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Thank you, Jill, for your comment. Have a wonderful weekend!
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Lots of fun reds you share this week, Natalie! The love locks in the one public art shot must be amazing to see in person! Like you, I will be super excited to see floral blooms in spring–closer to late April for us. I’ll have your link live first thing Sunday morning. Enjoy your weekend!
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Terri, That LOVE sign with locks is very popular with visitors and it’s beautiful to see IRL, especially with the red bricks behind it. I’ll do ping back once your SS post goes live. Thank you hosting for the monthly colour challenge. I had fun putting this post together.
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Just public art this week, I searched in vain for red!
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Ali, Thank you for your PPAC contribution. I enjoyed seeing Dublin through your lens. Sometimes when we look for a colour, it’s not there and when we don’t look for it, it’s everywhere 🙂
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Haha so true 🙂
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What a fun collection of red and hearts. My favorite is probably the love sign with the locks.
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Thank you, Joanne. That Love sign is a popular photo spot.
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Love all of the heart photos.
I have a friend who is a good artist. His paintings were, well, different. One day he admitted that he is color blind. Saying Anthony Ricciard is color blind reminded me of George.
Of course, red corvettes reminds me of the artist formerly known as Prince…
Have a great weekend!
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Same here. I’ll probably have “Little Red Corvette” going through my head all day.
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Glad I am not the only one with that song on the brain now…
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I also thought of “Little Red Corvette” song and Prince.
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lol, I think all of the weekend coffee share folk are now humming that song.
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Cool music for the weekend is a good idea 🙂
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Yep, I agree – the weekly theme music 🙂
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What a great photo essay on red and love! I am amazed that a color blind can pain and make a living from his work. It’s awesome to read stories like that.
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Thank you, Michelle, for your comment. I was impressed how a colour blind person can paint so well, too.
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I should have reread what I’d written. Too many typos! 🤨
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No worries. It happens to all of us now and then.
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Red is my favorite color. I enjoyed all your red themed pictures. I wanted to lean in & smell the roses. #Weekendcoffeeshare
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Karen, I’m pleased you enjoyed my red themed pictures. I look forward to spring when flowers bloom everywhere.
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Lovely post! I had to Google love locks–had never heard of them. The whole idea of a lock as a symbol of love is weird to me, but then I watch a lot of serial killer documentaries, so locks don’t seem so romantic 🙂
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Thank you, Janet. Love locks are popular in some European cities that I’ve been to and they are attached to bridges. Not a good idea.
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Well done, all around, Natalie!
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Thank you, Dan. I had fun putting this post together.
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Great post, Natalie, so much fun.
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Thank you, Sofia. Good to have something fun for the weekend.
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Red, love, hearts and flowers are all beautiful and makes for a wonderful theme ❤
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Thank you, Maria. My intention was something fun and bright for the weekend 🙂
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Beautiful photos that are perfectly Valentine-y. I adore where you live and what you see. Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you, Ally. It was fun putting this post together.
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So very cool. I love those hearts at the distillery district. A sweet post. Thanks for hosting and I hope that you have a wonderful week.
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Thank you, Patrick. I’m pleased you love those hearts. Have a great week ahead!
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Natalie, I always love the art you share on your blog, but those artists quotes are quite moving. Thank you for sharing!- Pamela
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Thank you, Pam. I’m pleased you find those quotes moving. Something to think about.
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I really love those quotes, especially the Matthew Rosenblatt one. I also love how you find such interesting things to photograph each time.
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Thank you, Astrid. I’m pleased you love those quotes. I go outside almost daily and the city has a lot of interesting public art to photograph.
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I love the hearts! I like your collection of reds.
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Thank you, Julie. I had fun while preparing this post.
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Definitely the red Pontiac! Do peonies bloom in the spring there?mid summer here usually.
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Peonies bloom around late May and early June here.
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Wow! In late May my peony plant is about 6 to 12″ tall!
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Toronto is much further south than Saskatoon so I think it warms up sooner here. When I was in Newfoundland, I noticed tulips started blooming there in June when they were blooming in Toronto in late April through May.
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I love all those photos Natalie. I zoomed in to see the love photo with the locks up close. How cool!
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Thanks, Kirstin. That Love sign is popular with visitors. It looks very nice IRL with the red bricks as backdrop.
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