Santa Clara artist and resident Margaret Luo not only left her heart in San Francisco. She sold it at auction in February to the highest bidder at a gala that raised $1.4 million to benefit Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
“Harmony”— Luo’s table-top heart sculpture—was one of 22 fiberglass hearts of three sizes commissioned by the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, which has held the annual Hearts in San Francisco fundraisers since 2004, raising more than $40 million.
The hearts have a steel framework supporting a fiberglass body. The table-top hearts are 17 inches wide by 16 inches high and 8 inches deep and weigh 20 pounds. “Heartists” paint their pre-approved designs in acrylic, finishing with a clear, protective sealant. Bidding for a table-top heart began at $7,500 and at $40,000 for the six-foot-high, large hearts, each weighing 400 pounds.
Luo’s “Harmony” design was inspired by a love of the ocean that is the theme of most of her artwork. On her San Francisco heart, orange, white, and black koi fish—an ornamental variety of carp—swim amidst lily pads in waters that are shades of blue. She explains that the different colors of the koi represent the diversity of San Francisco communities.
“Koi swimming upstream is a metaphor for overcoming adversity,” said Luo, recounting a myth that, like her forebears, is from China.
The oil paintings in Luo’s working art studio at The Alameda Artworks (1068 The Alameda, San Jose) were inspired by Pacific Coast drives that Luo and her husband took after they moved from Massachusetts to California in 2021, during COVID.
“California Highway One: Finding Home” showcases vistas and viewpoints such as Point Lobos. “Ocean Arrangements” is a series of close-ups of seashells and mollusks.
Luo, who paints from reference photos that she takes, is a self-taught painter—other than two art classes she took at Swarthmore College (PA), where she graduated with degrees in math, economics and statistics.
COVID-19 was a time of self-reflection, leading her to transition from a career in business to a career in art when she came to California.
“You have to really think about what you want to do in life, and what makes you happy,” said Luo. “I didn’t want to spend my life behind a computer.”
Taking a neighborhood walk on April 12, San Jose resident Gerardo Melara wandered into Luo’s studio. The Alameda Artworks building—once, among other uses, a roller rink—now houses studios for almost 50 local artists.
“We need to support the arts. It’s important because it reflects our culture. It reflects who we are,” said Melara. “It’s not easy to continue performing one’s art in these tough times.”
To support Santa Clara artist Luo and other local artists, visit The Alameda Artworks on the second Saturday of every month from noon to 3 p.m.
Luo’s San Francisco heart—one of 571 commissioned since 2004—sold privately and is unavailable for public viewing. However, you can still view the most famous heart—singer Tony Bennett’s heart.
Bennett painted a large heart displayed in San Francisco’s Union Square for almost two decades. In 2023, after Bennett’s death earlier that year, his heart sculpture was moved permanently to the lobby of San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel, where, in 1961, he premiered the song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
