Denver artist made it his mission to spread kindness, love and money on Valentine's Day
In the spirit of Valentine's Day, one local artist is spreading love and money around the city.
Community members helped place 100 paper mache hearts each made of 100 $1 bills throughout the Denver and Boulder areas.
The artist behind it all is Xander Phoenix. He chose to take on this project, the "Heart of Money," because he wanted to spread joy around the city.
"We wanted to have each heart feel special and unique, so they're all numbered one to 100," said Phoenix.
According to Phoenix, everything the hearts are made of is temporary.
Community members came together to create hearts, which are made up of water-soluble art glue and temporary spray paint to spread love and kindness on Valentine's Day.
It took community members 50 hours as many of them contributed to make this a reality. In total, community members contributed $10,000 for this project.
"Each heart has a location, we can track them on a map and get responses from people about which number they found," said Phoenix.
On the gold wire, a QR code is placed where those who find the hearts can scan it and share their story.
"I hope we get to hear tons of stories of who finds it and what they do with it, but for me just putting them out there, that's enough," said Phoenix.
People have a choice to turn the piece back to currency or keep the art piece as is.
"Money can be the root of all evil, money can be the pathway to happiness... and for me, one of the questions of this project is what if money is an ally for us to make the world what we want it to be?" asked Phoenix.
The artist also gave out a couple of money hearts to bystanders at Union Station in Denver.
One man, Gabriel Lara, had been roaming the city all morning and had no luck.
He says he stopped by 15 locations, guided by their Instagram pages, but wasn't lucky enough. Finally, he went to Union Station and was lucky enough to get a money heart.
"It means a lot they're just spreading love and positivity throughout Denver," said Lara.
For Darlene Guerrero, a homeless woman in Denver, this gift meant she would be able to buy the necessary things for the home she is looking to move into next week.
"I am at the recovery center on Stout Street and I'm going to use it for a home, I'll be moving in next week," said Guerrero.
This is a project that was inspired by Phoenix's mother who passed away just a few months ago.
"I decided not to wait on this, I've been thinking about it for years, so I reached out to friends and family and people showed up. A lot of this is in her memory," said Phoenix.