Why Repeat Symbols?
Symbols don’t repeat; they articulate.
Hearts, skulls, diamonds — they keep showing up. Not because I’ve run out of ideas, but because they resist being finished.
A heart in silver isn’t the same as a heart on black; a skull stitched into a hoodie doesn’t speak the same as one painted in blue. Symbols might have a standard definition, but like dreams, they shift with context. I bend them one way as the artist, and the viewer bends them another — meaning isn’t fixed, it’s shared.
Symbols are also a fast track into the artwork. Whether painting, music, or film, they set the tone before anything else unfolds.
That’s why they last. From medieval vanitas to Basquiat’s crowns to the emojis buzzing in your messages now, symbols keep re-entering the conversation. They don’t belong to one artist, they belong to the ongoing act of interpretation.
Even in the search for newness, some things remain. A heart, with its history and weight, can’t be erased.
Words can pinpoint, but symbols encompass.
