The giant human heart statue in Puyallup looks different this week. It’s a local landmark
Puyallup’s boldly-colored heart statue got a cleaning after almost 10 years.
The “Open Heart” or “Exposed Heart” statue in downtown Puyallup on the corner of East Pioneer and Fifth Street Southeast has been a bit dirty the past few years.
After several comments on the statue’s cleanliness, Chuck Fitzgerald, the artist who created it more than 20 years ago, decided it was time to make it sparkle.
The statue was repainted in 2015. It got a new coat to spark up the anatomically correct heart shape and valves.
Standing at 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide, “Exposed Heart” sits on a large red and white striped pole. The pole is to deter vandalism and also holds a sign with the heart’s slogan: “Hearts are bigger in Puyallup.”
The phrase plays off the old slogan: “Cars are bigger in Puyallup,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald is a Puyallup-based artist who specializes in sculpture work. He had heart surgery years before and was thinking a lot about the value a heart has to humans.
“It represents the importance of blood and the heart, both physically and spiritually,” Fitzgerald said.
He was initially selected and sponsored by a Puyallup group he co-founded called Arts Downtown.
The organization commissioned 10 artists to create statues around the city, each sponsored by a business. All statues were replaced after a period of time with a new statue.
The heart failed to get placed by a business. Fitzgerald had to find another way for the statue to become part of the community.
“Businesses were kind of reluctant to have that in front of their business for a couple of reasons,” Fitzgerald said. “One is the size and two, probably the spiritual side of it.”
He then asked his late friend, Dr. Paul Gerstmann, a Puyallup pediatrician, to put it in front of his office. Since its placement in the spring of 2000, it’s become a local landmark.
“It represents the center of Puyallup,” said Isaiah Moody, the Puyallup local who cleaned the heart Thursday. “The heart of Puyallup, here in the downtown area.”
Moody had already planned to wash the heart on his own. Then he realized Fitzgerald was his neighbor. Moody owns Precision Pro Wash Tacoma and offered to wash the heart for free.
“I noticed the heart was really dirty,” Moody said. “I was like, yeah, we should clean the heart.”
Fitzgerald has been creating art since 1979. His projects can be found on his website, https://www.northwest-designs.com/.
