7th January 2025
19th Febuary 2025
Curated by Ted Meyer as part of the Art & Medicine program through HEAL at Keck School of Medicine. The LA iteration of Sudden Cardiac Art features 19 artists from the original show line up. Displayed at the Hoyt Gallery, University of Southern California where it is open weekdays 7 January - 18 February 2025.
A lecture by Hannah Keime, artist and advocate can be accessed here
Celebrating the HeartCharged Warrior journey this exhibition shares that journey with the next generation of physicians. In humanising many of the conditions that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest, this visual feast advocates for quality and quantity of life focus in cardiac care.
Read about our contributing
artists below ….
Charlie Kirkham is a British visual artist with a penchant for the fantastical. Charlie was educated at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Israel, followed by The Heatherley School of Fine Art, London.
She was born with focal atrial tachycardia compounded by a bundle branch block. It meant that playground games and sports led to extreme fatigue. The inability to keep up with her peers led her to focus intensely on academic studies and creative pastimes.
After a winding 17 year journey to diagnosis stopping off at neurology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, respiratory and psychiatric before finding cardiology, Charlie spent much of her young adult life hospitalized or in bed. Needing flexibility led her to embrace an art career, teaching adults and doing commercial design work. Her practice tells stories from an outsider perspective, working in oils and with digital media.
Charlie has received funding from Coventry Mysteries Festival, Edge Arts Bath, and the STEAMhouse, Birmingham. She was awarded the Visions of Science Award in collaboration with the University of Bath in 2018. In 2024, she became a Top Ten Finalist in the international Passion for Freedom exhibition in the Visual Artist category. Charlie is also an elected full member of the Society of Graphic Fine Art (UK Drawing Society) and was their youngest ever Council Member.
Hannah Keime is the creative mind, fierce advocate, and directorial genius behind the Flash The Boobs campaign which led to the Sudden Cardiac Art Exhibition. Hannah is the Co-Founder and President of HeartCharged. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Film.
She is a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patient and survivor of sudden cardiac arrest and aims to use her survivor’s gratitude to raise awareness, like at the Sudden Cardiac Art Exhibition, to raise survival rates.
Hannah knows a picture is worth a thousand words, and until you see a woman topless with AED pads, you will not fully understand the ridiculousness of letting women die because of their anatomy. Hannah is a storyteller. Collaborating with her sister, they knew they had to get creative in order to bring to light the dismal statistics for women surviving sudden cardiac arrest.
Hannah is an award-winning filmmaker, patient advocate, and leader in the resuscitation community. Her hope for one day is to create on the screen the representation of heart patients she would have liked to have found on the screen when she was newly diagnosed.
Bethany Keime is a beacon of body positivity and a patient powerhouse who co-founded HeartCharged in 2020, just a few years after her diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and only months after her defibrillator implantation surgery. Bethany was compelled to start what began as a simple Instagram account, recognizing the need to gain strength from others like herself and finding a lack of real-life information for young heart patients. She began posting her realities, and others quickly found her.
Now, HeartCharged has grown into a global awareness and advocacy organization as well as a patient community, truly saving lives in unique and innovative ways. Bethany is a recognized leader in the resuscitation and patient advocacy communities.
Bethany shares something in common with each HeartCharged Woman she has created. From baking to educating to enjoying exercise to being prepared for resuscitation. In her case, she has her own implanted defibrillator should she experience sudden cardiac arrest. She has prepared tens of thousands of others for resuscitation through free training sessions, educational videos and messaging, and defibrillator donations.
Bethany works professionally in the political arena. She is also a thoughtful author, talented social media content creator, frequent podcast guest, and bold speaker.
Kristen Olinger is an artist based in Southern California. At the age of 37, she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare connective tissue disorder. That was followed by additional diagnoses of neurological conditions and multiple heart-related issues. As a way to cope with her illnesses, she turned to art. Her conditions are classified as “invisible Illnesses“, and her works seek to make visible to the viewer the inner struggle of invisible illnesses.
The goal with Kristen’s work is to connect with others who are experiencing similar situations and to show them they are not alone. So often the topic of illness is not shared openly. Olinger hopes her works can spark conversations surrounding chronic illness despite how uncomfortable and difficult this topic can be, and by doing so, hopefully both raise awareness and remove the stigma of these topics.
At 10,000 feet over Europe, a thunderstorm comes knocking.
Robert’s chest tightens, his breath quickens. In a spin cycle of nothingness, his clammy hands grip the handrests. He is powerless to focus on anything but the propeller blades clawing at the window next to him. Each breath becomes shallower, his heart pounding against his ribs. He feels weak, helpless, done. He fights the urge to stay put; there is nowhere to go. His throat constricts and the fear tightens its grip. Final words are silently communicated.
Such was the first experience of Robert’s heart deciding to tell him a different story from its normal daily experience. It took 150 long, debilitating, hard weeks and medication to recover any sense of his composure and even then anxietal peaks of doubt ripple through his adult life, an arrhythmic reminder of all things coronary.
Without warning, the beat and doubt of an unsure atrial fibrillation heart revisited Robert in 2023 over a period of a few months. Enough then, that when an artistic opportunity came to support those who live with the condition and its associated thoughts on a daily basis, he felt the need to reach out and help.
The works - his direct response.
Adolfo Lopez is an artist, heart transplant recipient, and man on a mission.
While people often think of Abnormal Hearts as an artist, there is much more to that name. It is bigger than Adolfo. It is a movement, story, struggle, reality, and community.
The day Adolfo started Abnormal Hearts with his sisters, one who has had two heart transplants and one who has a congenital heart disease, he had no idea where it would lead. However, he knew two things. God had his back, as He always has. The world needs to know that no circumstances or sickness can define what a person will do or be.
He strives to share that every day, always wanting to be real. The scars that his family carries were in no way obtained easily. They hurt and cost them a lot of pain, but they know God never left them and never will. He is clear in telling people that what came after that pain is the art, smiles, laughs, and stories.
‘Abnormal Hearts’ is the weight and fight his art carries. That is the encouragement he and his family pass along to others in their struggles and in their pain because they know they will be ok, they will overcome.
Garland is an illustrator and webcomic artist living with the rare congenital heart defect (CHD) heterotaxy syndrome. Garland writes and illustrates comics about their life with heart disease, featuring their heart, named Brady, short for bradycardia. Garland began creating CHD comics in their sketchbook during art school to express their frustrations living with CHD. Now through fully-illustrated comics, they spread awareness in a fun, light-hearted manner in contrast to many personal experiences.
Garland had open-heart surgery when three months old and stayed in the hospital for so long after that they said their first word, “mama”, there. Their sleep-deprived mom thought she misheard.
Garland got a pacemaker at 17 at the end of senior high school. Still a minor, they were in the babies’ and children’s wing for a month doing school work and more anxious about graduating than getting the pacemaker.
Even amongst cardiologists, Garland’s condition is almost unknown and considered complex, leading a doctor to even call them ‘scary’.
Now 28, Garland hopes to be done bouncing from doctor to doctor and awaits ICD implantation.
Their exhibition piece is one of Garland’s favorites. More of their work and additional adventures of Brady can be found @openheartart_ on Instagram.
Elise George, a writer and poet, was born on Christmas day in Phoenix, Arizona, with a congenital heart defect called Tricuspid Atresia. Her first surgery happened when she was three days-old, and she has had eight surgeries since then to maintain her health.
Elise’s heart condition plays a significant role in how she approaches her day-to-day life while feeling like she is delicately balancing on the beam of death. This outlook allows her to play with both the lighter and darker themes in her writing.
Her poetry can be, as her friends say, “quite dark”. The dark humor masks the tragic side of living with CHD, such as the unknown in getting older, the mental challenges of not being “normal," constant appointments, and the ever-looming procedures and surgeries.
In the summer of 2023, Elise was diagnosed with anxiety from PTSD, brought to a head by a medical procedure. Therapy and pouring herself into her art became a form of healing. She learned how to project the darkness into lyrical words of art, like the darkness could dance amongst a sea of rocky waters.
She currently resides in the Valley of the Sun with her husband and fur babies.
In 2015, Iluá Hauck da Silva developed an ear infection that spread to her skull. Her optical nerve was affected, and she had sixth cranial nerve palsy, leading her to suffer from double vision. Once hospitalized, CT scans showed the infection was nearly reaching Iluá’s brain, which would have been fatal. Twelve hours of intensive intravenous antibiotics and steroids administration meant she did not need head surgery, but full recovery took over six months.
In 2019, Iluá was appointed artist-in-residence at London’s College of Optometrists, which houses the oldest museum dedicated to eye health in the world. She went on to create a body of work inspired by the Museum’s collection, her own ocular pathology, and the iconography of Saint Lucy, the patron saint of eyesight.
Having survived the cranial infection, something that would have been impossible before the discovery of antibiotics, Iluá began to think about how our attitudes towards health and illness have evolved as medical knowledge developed. She is now doing a PhD in Fine Art, creating work that speaks of the analogies between sin and pathology, salvation and cure, and our understanding of embodied existence.
Amie Leonhardt describes the woman in her oil painting, Kintsugi, this way. “Gold runs through her heart and her scar as she is shocked again by her device. She takes peace in this, knowing that women are less likely to receive bystander help either using CPR or an AED. AEDs and devices like ICDs and pacemakers are like the gold in the art of kintsugi. They make our imperfections beautiful and help our souls shine on for longer, giving us another chance at life.”
After experiencing two out-of-hospital cardiac arrests which Amie was incredibly lucky to survive, art came to the forefront of her mind to cope with the new reality she was facing. Her whole future dramatically changed and became very uncertain as I was diagnosed with two deadly heart conditions, Arrhythmic Mitral Valve Prolapse and Dilated Cardiomyopathy. With this new knowledge, she rearranged her priorities and took her life and art towards a more meaningful route. With her newfound courage, she hopes to raise awareness of cardiac conditions, some of the shocking statistics around women's survival rates with sudden cardiac arrest, and finally begin making art for herself.
Pop Up CPR: Chime Lhatso & Michael Scarola
Growing up in a refugee community in South Asia, Chime Lhatso’s passion for medicine was shaped by a desire to serve others and improve access to healthcare. A family tragedy and the lack of medically-trained personnel highlighted an urgent need for more bystander knowledge about and access to life-saving skills like CPR in her community. Initiating CPR immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can make all the difference between life and death. Unfortunately, women are less likely than men to receive bystander CPR or defibrillation.
As a Tibetan immigrant raised in India, she’s especially passionate about promoting CPR education among South Asian women. She’s taught in such underserved communities in the USA and India, where barriers such as limited resources and education prevent people from receiving vital training.
Chime faced distinct challenges in her home country and when she immigrated. However, she has come far compared to her mother's generation and because of supportive family and friends.
Chime is deeply grateful to her partner, Michael Scarola, both in art and life. His support and encouragement enabled Chime to turn her vision into this art work. Chime dedicates this art to all the unique, intelligent, compassionate, and strong South Asian women in this lifetime and beyond.
Arianna Tinulla Milesi works nationally and internationally with institutional spaces, galleries, and private clients. She’s on the Drawing Society UK Council, is Artist in Residence at Nottingham Trent University, and writes an art history column. She’s also a lecturer and freelance illustrator.
Drawing is her forma mentis and her chronic illness has been her tutor. She understands a chronic disease is always with you and will shape and test and push you. It makes you deal with your own best/worst parts while making you kinder to yourself and others. We’re not just our fragilities, names, shapes, or lives; we’re more. We’re connections, links, memories, and actions. Arianna believes diagnoses can be opportunities and though at times their taste is awfully bitter, almost unbearable, they can lead to massively broader perspectives.
Her artistic practice focuses on relationships and connections, explored across different fields. Consequently, she enjoys collaborating with other artists. She primarily draws, paints on clothes, prints, sews, and creates interactive installations, aiming for her work to always have a sense of lightness. The main themes she explores are: the formation of memories; folklore, devotional art and anthropology; the perception of gender-related violence; vulnerability; and death
Dr. Liz Murray is a former doctor, multi-award winning artist, founder of Mortal And Strong, and UN Women UK delegate. After being a medical doctor for over ten years, Liz left a clinical role following a diagnosis of complex autoimmune conditions and founded the charity and art campaign ‘Mortal And Strong’. Liz is known for her mission to embrace the arts to address health inequalities and works as a keen health advocate to support women’s health. Liz began using art to address social stigmatisation of disease during the Covid-19 pandemic seeing her as a finalist in the international VAO exhibition. Liz continues to paint fine art oil paintings inspired by exploring mortality, life and messages of strength.
Liz’s work continues to bring together her professional experience as a medical doctor and artistic passions to provide new ways to put a spotlight on a wide range of health inequalities.
Rukz One was born and raised in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne Australia. Rukz had life-saving surgery at 13 months old. Unable to breathe, they found an artery was pushing against his windpipe due to a tilted heart. This greatly impacted his lung development, and he grew up with an irregular heartbeat that spiked easily. This left Rukz struggling with asthma and self-consciousness about the scar that runs down his chest growing up. Art helped provide an escape. Putting on a mask to hide the struggles became normal practice which evolved into his Mr Ukz character.
Jenny Sjolund is a writer and artist whose work explores the intersection of storytelling, healing, and advocacy. Born with a congenital heart condition that went undiagnosed until later in life, Jenny draws on her lived experience as both a patient and a survivor to create art that illuminates the emotional and physical complexities of living with a life-altering diagnosis. Her work serves as an expression of resilience, while offering a pathway to healing for those navigating medical trauma.
Jenny holds an MFA in Creative Writing for Entertainment Media, where she honed her ability to craft powerful narratives that resonate with diverse audiences. She has contributed to award-winning projects and recently authored a children’s book designed to support young patients facing open-heart surgery. Her participation in the Sudden Cardiac Art Exhibition reflects her belief in the transformative power of the expressive arts to bring meaning and connection to challenging, often isolating experiences.
A passionate advocate for disability rights, Jenny sees storytelling as a vital tool for fostering awareness, empathy, and systemic change. Through her writing and art, she invites others to find strength in their own stories, offering a message of hope and solidarity to those navigating health challenges.
As a self-taught pop artist hailing from Brooklyn and now based in Philadelphia, Jae Martin's work is infused with the frenetic energy of city life and the vibrant hues of street art. With a deep respect for the graffiti art style, he incorporates its elements into his pieces to create something truly unique.
Jae's art is anything but ordinary, capturing the fleeting emotions and thoughts of the moment. He works quickly, often completing a piece in just one day using a variety of mediums, including acrylics, Sharpie oil markers, and spray paint.
After the loss of his parents, Jae is driven to succeed and honour their memory. Drawing on anecdotes from his father and the love of life instilled in him by his mother, he adds depth to his creations. His goal is to infuse each piece with a sense of love, inspiring others to spread joy and positivity.
After the loss of his parents, Jae is driven to succeed and honour their memory. Drawing on anecdotes from his father and the love of life instilled in him by his mother, he adds depth to his creations. His goal is to infuse each piece with a sense of love, inspiring others to spread joy and positivity.
Jae is fortunate to have a close circle of friends who serve as both sounding boards and motivators, keeping him grounded and focused on his mission. Through his art and brand, he aims to bring more love and colour into the world, using his creativity as his language of choice.