Eric Telchin sees hearts. Everywhere. In an orange or a puddle and even on a dog. These heartshaped coincidences have turned into a movement for the artist.

Not only have the images been transformed into popular mosaic prints, one featuring a skull and one with a smooch, they've become a concept in how to view the world.

"Everything I do is about the mission: helping people see things from a different point of view," said Telchin from his home in West Palm Beach, Florida. "It's really about using (the hearts) as a vehicle to convey the message."

This mission all started with a drop of ice cream. Telchin was throwing a party in July 2009, and while serving some Ben and Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk ice cream, he dropped some on the counter and one droplet turned into an imperfect heart. He snapped a picture of it with his phone, chalking it up to happenstance. But then he started noticing hearts popping up everywhere, the next being an elastic on his mother's notebook. He also saw a heart on a dog's back. He started posting them on Facebook, and it seemed as though the more he posted, the more they showed up.

By last October, he had amassed 100 hearts and created Boy Sees Hearts Skull and Smooch prints. He printed them to give as gifts. One of his friends brought it into work and her co-worker saw it and started crying. "It made me realize people are reacting and connecting with this," said Telchin.

He began to print them to sell affordably because he wanted everyone to be able to enjoy it. Then he earned the attention of AHALife.com, a luxe retail site that features one product for 24 hours that's been handpicked by big-name tastemakers like Tim Gunn. Telchin's work also appeared on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on January 30, where he created a whole wall's worth of Boy Sees Hearts for a 12- year-old girl who lost her sister in a texting while driving accident.

With his broad audience, he finds the message behind the pieces is different for everyone. Some see it as a reminder that "beauty is all around" or "universal love," he said. The growth of the project is also of major interest to him. "What's awesome is the more it's shared, the more it grows and affects life."

He was informed that a teacher gave her entire class a print of his work on the last day of school, and Legacy Charter School in Chicago did a Valentine's Day project inspired by Boy Sees Hearts, which has inspired another teacher.

Telchin will actually be spending his Valentine's Day in school as well, creating with 21 Grade 4 students.

Not bad for someone who sells real estate by day and doesn't consider himself a photographer, although he would welcome doing this full-time — as long as it always came from a place of good, he said.

"A puddle of ice cream changed the way I see the world, how something ugly can be something beautiful ... That's sort of what it's all about, I think," he said.

For more information on Eric Telchin and Boy Sees Hearts, visit his website at www.boyseeshearts.com. You can even post your own hearts, but the criteria is that they must be unintentional hearts, which means they may be imperfect, but that's the whole point.