Heart You is an anonymous artist, originally an oil painter, who became known for NFT art built around a single recurring character: a heart-shaped figure with X's for eyes.Working first on Tezos before expanding to Ethereum, the artist has described the practice as “a project to spread love”.A recurring theme is self-understanding and acceptance of one's whole self, including what the artist calls the “shadow self”.
Kevin Rose, co-founder of the PROOF Collective, was an early collector of Heart You's work, which led to two collaborative collections. Emotes, a Genesis PFP collection released for PROOF Collective and existing collectors, added 1,433 pieces to the Heart You universe and exceeded 1,350 ETH in trading volume. Monochrome, made in collaboration with Moonbirds, followed as a set of 179 individual 1:1 works. On SuperRare, the artist released 15 individual pieces, including Bear Hug, which contained a hidden clue for the NFT treasure hunt Phrazeboard, and How I Killed My Father.
In November 2022, Heart You released Monomyth, a 10,000-piece profile-picture collection built from more than 2,200 hand-drawn elements, with each character composed to be free of ultra-rare traits. The collection's lore draws on Carl Jung's psychology, with different in-world lands, such as Mythica and Tummy Land, standing for different aspects of the self.
In the Poems series, titled “Forever, Heart You”, the artist released 122 unique poems as individual NFTs, each paired with original artwork and a signature. Each poem is inscribed onto its NFT via Etherscan Story Inscriptions after minting, and collectors are invited to add their own inscriptions, extending each piece into what the artist calls a collaborative work.
