Five Medsan works are about the heart, each about a situation cardiologists know well: ectopic beats, infarction, transplantation, broken heart syndrome, and the systole itself.
I paint the heart as an organ, with its aorta and ventricles, not as the symbol people doodle in margins. Cor Vitreum began with a word I heard at a cardiologist’s: extrasystole. A beat that comes too early, then a silence that lasts a little too long. A woman of twenty-nine feels it several times a day; the tests find nothing, her heart is healthy, but it is the sense of emptiness just after that wakes her at night. I wanted to paint that silence, with a koi leaping out of a glass heart.
The other hearts tell of other moments. Heart Attack shows a myocardial infarction: a heart struck mid-beat by a taiko drumstick, which I painted in a single night. Nidus Cordis turns a ribcage into a nest, for heart transplantation and for the family who, somewhere, said yes. Chou’s Spine hides roses where the heart should be and is about takotsubo syndrome, first described in Japan in 1990; it was shown in Paris on 26 September 2026. Systolic Sea raises a red and blue heart out of a rough sea.
Two of these hearts are originals, 80 × 80 cm oils on canvas at €2,600: Heart Attack, and Systolic Sea, which I paint to order. The other three are signed, numbered art prints, limited to 20 copies per size, at €300 in 40 × 40 cm and €450 in 60 × 60 cm. For a cardiology practice, Cor Vitreum and Nidus Cordis suit a waiting room. Heart Attack, the more violent image, belongs in the doctor’s own office.
systole
A red and blue human heart rises out of a rough sea, the aorta and arteries jutting from the foam like reefs while the waves break all around without carrying it away. I was thinking of the rhythm nobody chooses: a systole that comes round about a hundred thousand times a day. It is an 80 × 80 cm original that I paint to order, for a cardiologist or a cardiac surgeon, and the lead time is confirmed by email.
myocardial infarction
A heart is struck mid-beat by a long taiko drumstick, and the blow bursts it into black spray. This is the moment of a myocardial infarction, the attack that gives no warning. I painted it in a single night. A one-off 80 × 80 cm original, it belongs in a cardiologist’s or an emergency doctor’s office rather than in a waiting room.
ectopic heartbeats
This one began with a word I heard at a cardiologist’s: extrasystole, a beat that fires too early and then a silence that lasts a little too long. The heart is made of glass, full of lotus flowers and koi, and one carp leaps out of the top like that runaway beat. It is a gift for a cardiologist, or for a student who has just learnt to read an ECG.
heart transplantation
A ribcage overgrown with ivy and white flowers shelters a nest, where a robin feeds its chick beside three blue eggs. It is about organ donation and heart transplantation: where one heart stopped, something carries on growing. I picture it with a cardiac surgeon, or on the wall of a transplant unit.
broken heart syndrome
A young woman seen from behind, her hair crowned with red roses, shows her ribcage and spine through a white dress, and roses grow between her ribs where the heart should be. It is about broken heart syndrome, takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Shown in Paris on 26 September 2026 at “La Vie en Rose”, it suits a cardiologist, or a student who means to become one.
One about a situation they know: Cor Vitreum for ectopic beats, Heart Attack for infarction, Nidus Cordis for transplantation, Chou’s Spine for broken heart syndrome. For a cardiac surgeon, Systolic Sea is an original I paint to order.
No. Medsan prints are signed and numbered by hand, and each size is limited to 20 copies. Heart Attack and Systolic Sea are originals: 80 × 80 cm oils on canvas, one-off pieces with a certificate of authenticity.
A 40 × 40 cm print costs €300, or €380 in its black floater frame; the 60 × 60 cm costs €450. The two originals are €2,600 each.
In Japanese tradition the koi swims upstream, and the one that clears the waterfall becomes a dragon. In Cor Vitreum it leaps out of the heart like a beat that fires too early: the pond seems to hang still for a moment, then everything comes back.
On med-san.art, the Medsan shop. Heart Attack is a one-off piece, available until it sells; Systolic Sea is made to order, and I paint it once you have ordered.
