Published: October 12, 2009 10:24 am      

Northern People: Someone hearts TC

Graffiti shows up everywhere -- who's behind it?

TRAVERSE CITY -- Mystery cupid, who are you?

You let loose a quiver full of spray paint, covering Traverse City in graffiti hearts. Are you young or old; working alone or with a lover/accomplice?

Hey, are you that girl from grade school? The one who dotted all her 'i's with hearts?

Whoever you are, people are noticing your signature symbol scattered across the city's facades.

You painted a single blue heart on a drinking water fountain at State and Union streets. There's a flock of hearts taking wing in a downtown doorway. A cement building in a field off Barney Road is plastered with them. And, on a flesh-colored brick wall, a lone red heart tops a fire hydrant, like a tattoo just above a waistband.

Your hearts vary in size and color but are similar in design. Each is elongated, as if stretched from its "m"-shaped top to the "v"-shaped point. The recent invasion prompted some to ask who you are and if your work is art or vandalism.

"They would be considered graffiti, and it is illegal to do. If you have the building owner's permission then it might be different," said Loyd Morris, the city's code enforcement officer.

So technically, dear heart, you could be in some trouble. City police received two or three complaints from targeted downtown businesses. Morris fielded calls from the curious who have seen the shapes on public and private property.

"It's not like they are, you know, bad words or anything like that. They are just little hearts," Morris said.

He still wishes you would stop.

Rebecca Vander Sys also is intrigued. She has a studio and gallery in the Warehouse District that you tagged with a trio of florescent hearts. They appeared mysteriously overnight at least a month ago. She spotted black hearts in other places and wondered if meant anything that hers were vibrantly hued.

"I'm cool, so mine are colored?" she mused.

She's thankful you didn't get paint on a bench beneath the wall you sprayed, but she'd like to know what the hearts mean. Vander Sys knows it's not a gang sign, or "not a bad gang, anyways. A love gang."

You were pretty busy in the Warehouse District. Mike Curths of InsideOut Gallery discovered your work, a large panel of primary colored hearts, on an outside wall he reserves for "invitation-only" graffiti. This guy knows graffiti. His gallery is dedicated to outsider and street art and pop surrealism. He admires the medium as "political statement" as well as art, but even he doesn't know who you are.

Curths' reaction is complicated. He respects your moxie, but thinks you're "too cutesy."

"I am not real happy with all the hearts on the side of my building," he said. "If somebody in the middle of the night would have done just an amazing tag I would have probably (said) 'Wow.'"

Still, Curths said maybe the town should just embrace it, make the heart a symbol of Traverse City, so long as it doesn't "get out of hand."

"The heart thing, I think it's kind of fun. I've only noticed them on smaller items, on bridges. At least it's a heart not a hand grenade," he said.

That's a common observation. Chris Rogers of Traverse City blogged about the phenomenon, which he first noticed in a plaza off East Front Street.

Since then, he has spotted the hearts frequently. Like others, he said your creations straddle "a fine line."

"I think it adds an interesting texture, and, fortunately, they are hearts and something not more controversial," he said.