DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION GALLERY
THE HEART WANTS WHAT IT WANTS
The Heart Wants What It Wants, Valerie Caesar, 2026.
I was inspired to create a t-shirt graphic with the phrase The Heart Wants What It Wants in the shape of an anatomical heart, so I set about doing so. When it was mostly completed but not yet final (the text is still a bit too regular and not as wonky in the bottom half as I want it to be), I had the urge to see it with a little more dynamism and movement.
It wouldn’t be the first time I animated a beating heart, and probably won’t be the last. (See the gif below.) But I like the red/blue contrast here. It feels deep and soulful, and I enjoy the way its moody vibe is broken up by the cheery lime green and sunny yellow energy of U entering its somber chamber, causing it to perk up its beat. It’s the animated metaphor for the way it feels when new love enters your life. And the animation reminds me of the Schoolhouse Rock-style of my adolescence; I guess that’s part of why I’m so drawn to it.
The lyrics paired here from Thatsmyluvr, my favorite track on the GENA/The Pleasure Is Yours album, are so well suited to the depiction of new love:
My heart started doing its calling/I knew you’d come to live in my life/But how do we make this thing physical?/Like come and flex me out/You took my by the hand; helped me understand/All the things I’m feeling inside/You told me to believe in these miracles/Like — let me show you how…
Check out Perpetual Motion, another animated anatomical heart, created in the early 2010s. It’s kind of a motif for me.
A LOOK BACK
