If you’ve ever spent some time in San Francisco you’ve probably seen some of these large heart statues, like this one on Union Square:

This sculpture is called Butterflight and is part of the Hearts in San Francisco public art project that’s been running for over 20 years. New hearts are added each year, and some hearts are also sold off regularly.

Currently there are over 100 of these large hearts to be found in public places all over SF right now. You can find all of them in this hearts gallery or see them on this map of hearts:

click here for an interactive map

Or do as I’ve been doing, and admire them when you randomly bump into them on a city hike. Here are a few of my more recent heart encounters:

• When we were visiting Sutter Health on 1100 Van Ness recently (nothing serious, thanks for asking), we saw this gorgeous heart called “City Fruit” painted by prolific SF Mission artist Sirron Norris:

  

• In Francisco Park you can find this beautiful chrome heart, that somehow is not on the map I included earlier. Hidden hearts! What will they think of next? 🙂

  

• Just like the Butterflight heart at the top of the article, this Tea Time with Laine is on Union Square. Or actually it was there, but it moved to New Hampshire now - the heart goes where the heart goes I guess.

  

Hmmm… I’ve definitely seen more than just these, so I need to get better at taking pictures of them. Do you have a favorite (or just a first) Hearts in San Francisco statue? Share it in the links above 👆

Location of this post on Google Maps opens a new window