EXHIBITION NEWS

“‘The Hearts Project’ is amazing! The work is SO relevant. Our visitors will love it for its beauty and be emotionally moved by its necessity."

-Casey Seamans, Fort Smith Regional Art Museum (RAM), Gallery Manager

"When I first learned of Monica’s desire to cut over 13,000 very small hearts I thought it was an impossible task. I always believed it could become a monumental project. And it has. Everyone must see this important, most meaningful work.”

-Marta Jones, visual artist, former RAM Board President and former Executive Director

 2024 Exhibit - July 27 - December 1 | Fort Smith Regional Art Museum

Photo of one of the panels of the Covid Hearts Project. Lines of hand-cut paper hearts form intricate shapes like that of a quilt. All the hearts in this pattern are shades of purple and white. This panel symbolizes the healthcare workers who risked
Photo of one of the panels of the Covid Hearts Project. Lines of hand-cut paper hearts form intricate shapes like that of a quilt. The hearts in this panel are lots of different kinds of images - horses, flowers, sunrises, meant to symbolize a lost l
Photo of one of the panels of the Covid Hearts Project - a floral theme. Lines of hand-cut paper hearts form intricate shapes like that of a quilt. All the paper hearts in this quilt have flower imagery.
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Monica Moore, artist, stands in front of the 6 foot panels of cut-out hearts, part of the Covid Hearts Project, in a framing shop. She is a white woman with long curly brown hair, a jean jacket and long flowy red skirt. Behind the large panels of her
Monica Moore and Laura Avila sit together and study quilt making patterns in a book. Monica wears glasses and her brown and gray hair is swept back in a bun. Laura also wears glasses and has long, straight brown hair.
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SNEAK PEEK .......

SNEAK PEEK .......

The Purple Hearts

Design Director: Monica Moore      

Design Assistant: Laura Avila

“The Purple Hearts” frame features stylized Purple Heart icons and shades of purple paper hearts to recognize both the heroism and diversity of health professionals working in the field—including doctors, nurses, EMTs, dispatchers, home health nurses, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and so many others. Many feared for their lives when exposed to patients carrying the lethal virus. The repetition of the “X” symbol connotes the unknown numbers who left the field from exhaustion, of those who carry invisible wounds from that scary time, and also the uncertainty they experienced each time the virus mutated.

Our Frontline Workers

Design Director: Monica Moore      

Design Assistant: Laura Avila

“Our Frontline Workers” patchwork quilt collage includes shades of brown and black hearts and repeating patterns as an analog to COVID’s pattern of attacking vulnerable populations in greater numbers including most typically Black, Brown, Indigenous, and People of Color. We honor these workers, people who died in greater proportions because they did not have the option to work from home. This frame recalls how the pandemic exposed stark socioeconomic disparities in our country and celebrates the role our frontline workers played to keep Arkansas’ essential services and economy going.

A Spiritual Crossing

Design Director: Monica Moore      

Design Assistant: Laura Avila

“A Spritual Crossing” is dedicated to an individual COVID death with the act of mourning in mind. It features many hearts cut by Alice Dawson, the aunt of “Dani,” a young woman who died of COVID. The hearts repeat imagery of things Dani loved most in the world: family, friends, books, horses, and traveling. Panels featuring flowers rest in the four corners of the frame, thereby preserving the funerary tradition to adorn the lost soul with floral ornamentation. Again, the “X” represents the unknown numbers who died without  services to honor their lives and also those who mourned in isolation.