My secret? Pick my subject matter in advance of the workshop. Doing this allows me to focus on learning a new process or technique without agonizing over the content.

The images above are from a series of monotype and collagraphs I did during a summer workshop taught by Penny Barringer of the Art League School in Alexandria, VA. A coworker had been taking dance lessons with her husband, and the design studio where I worked at the time had a book of photographs of shoes, which had been the subject of a museum exhibit.

Voilà, shoes became my focus for the duration.

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.