Generations of Calgarians will likely know Jane Seymour from her role as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, a Bond girl in 1973’s Live and Let Die, and for her Prudence series of Hallmark movies that were filmed in Calgary during the mid-2000s.

But on June 28, Seymour touched the hearts of residents of the community of Kingsland in her role as an artist, as she unveiled her public art sculpture Open Heart at the Kingsland Junction Park.

The artwork was the latest by Seymour in a long-running series of paintings, sculptures, and jewelry work centred around her conception of a universal symbol to represent giving and receiving love.

She said that public art sculpture was an incredible way to reach people with her message.

“Sculpture is forever, it’s not housed in a museum or in someone’s home. I also love the tactile nature of it and the permanence. It’s huge, it’s tactile, you get to touch it, it feels beautiful and you kind of relate to it with many different senses,” Seymour said.

The bronze sculpture lacquered in translucent bright red, and standing over a metre and a half tall from a flower bed base, forms the top half of Seymour’s double open heart symbol.

She said that the symbol came to her almost by accident after she was commissioned by the American Heart Association to promote women’s heart health through her work as a painter.

That celebrity cause became a passion for Seymour, eventually becoming a focus of her work as an artist and as part of the Open Hearts Foundation.

“When I kind of did one of the paintings the heart was open, I thought, well, that reminds me of my mother’s ideas. Then I came up with ‘I wonder what happens if I connect one to another,’ and I came up with this double open heart,” she said.

“No one had ever done anything like this, believe it or not, although it relates to almost every culture.”

Acceptance and help opening hearts

Seymour said that it was her mother’s experience interned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp over three years during World War II and her message of kindness after the war that resonated with her.

“She said ‘darling, everyone in life has challenge and when they do they close off their heart and when they do that, it will eat them alive.’ It is like an LP record with a scratch in it. They cannot get over what that was,” Seymour said.

“She said the hardest thing in life is to accept, but if you can accept and open your heart and reach out to help someone—you don’t have to look far to find someone worse off than you—and when you do, and if you can uniquely help in some way, even if it’s touch, listening, hearing, whatever it is, then you will have purpose in life.”

The work was commissioned by Trico Homes for the park that is situated next to their LivingWell seniors retirement community.

Michael Brown, CEO of Trico Homes, said that commissioning Seymour to create the artwork had a lot to do with how her message resonated with founder Wayne Chiu.

He said that the work is really one that embraces the Kingsland community.

“Being down here, we have this amazing park space, we have seniors, we have some great retail, we have all of that, and this piece just finishes it off,” Brown said.

“The really neat thing is on any day of the week, you’re seeing people from the Kingsland community going into the restaurants, going to the parks. It really speaks to how this become really a hub for the community, not just another development.”

Brown said that what struck him about the decision to commission Seymour was that it was about a mission to bring public art to the Kingsland community that didn’t have to be paid for by the public, and that also had an important message and meaning behind it.

“I’m pretty lucky because, in my past life, I’ve been involved in many projects that had art, and I think one of the pieces that really struck me is that our founder of this is a private company is really investing in art,” he said.

“I think we all love art, we all love the fabric of art, what it means, but I think the story is something that people see. That’s what they really buy into: her story around inclusivity, her story around being true to who you are, and being part of the community. That really resonates with us.”

As for whether Open Heart would be particularly special to the residents of LivingWell, given how popular Seymour has been and continues to be for that generation, Brown said that her life and her work have crossed many generations.

“My parents’ generation is one that really knows her. I knew her, and I’m getting to that age. But my daughter when she looked into it was just so impressed with what she’s all about in her story. So I think this will speak to many generations,” he said.