Christine Neill is best known for art about the heart. Drawing from her experiences in procuring hearts from donors, Christine developed what she calls “transplant art” or “suture art.” These Avant-garde anatomical portrayals of the heart harness movement with the process of organ recovery and transplanting. She paints on two different canvases using acrylics, brushes, palette knives and her hands. Then, she removes the heart from one canvas and sutures it into the recipient canvas using typical instruments for procurement and implanting — scalpel, forceps, and a suture needle.
Intercostal auscultation is another method Christine uses for her work as an interactive process — listening to someone’s heart with a stethoscope to create. This sensory information inspires an abstract portrayal of the chambers and valves inside the heart. She listens and imagines the journey, expressing this in her brush and palette strokes for each heart. Pets are one of her favorite patients. A loved technique is her portrayal of the heartbeat. This heart wave art is a contemporary innovation of the heart’s electrical system that keeps each rate and rhythm of our heart expressed on canvas. She typically uses a palette knife and the pour-painting method for these pieces.