Broken hearts

The maternal side of my family has bad heart genes.

My mother and nearly all of her seven siblings suffered from premature cardiovascular disease and highly elevated cholesterol levels. My sister died of a heart attack at age 42.

This legacy has influenced me in a lot of ways. I strictly avoided taking up smoking. I regularly monitor my heart disease risk markers. And, sometimes, I fight a sense of impending doom.

One summer at the Penland School, I used the printmaking workshop to explore the idea of “broken hearts” in the medical sense. Here are some of the series.