Featured Artist Robert Heller

Artist and physician Robert Heller has a passion for both sculpting and medicine. His contemporary sculptural forms convey movement and energy, blurring the lines between anatomy and the abstract. See more by visiting his website.

 

 

I had no inkling that I had a sculptor hiding inside of me.

 

 

I have two passions in my life. As a physician, I am grateful to have been able to help people heal themselves. However, over time, I was feeling that something inside of me wasn’t being fulfilled. I considered leaving medicine but didn’t know what I would do as an alternative.

 

 

My kids had an amazing idea. They had seen my doodles over the years, thought I had artistic talent, and gave me a gift–a sculpture workshop.

 

 

Although I had no previous art training, I found a new way of self-expression that made a profound difference in my life. The freedom to create what was inside of me was a huge contrast to the precise and disciplined practice of medicine.

 

 

In my sixties, I found my second passion in life—sculpting.

I began to explore the human form, translating my visions from medicine into abstract creations. I value the miraculous nature of the human body and capture it in stylistic symmetrical shapes and forms, which embody energy, motion and beauty.

 

 

My work combines the freedom of abstract images, the perfection of symmetry, the use of curved (female) and linear (male) lines. This eliminates the boundaries that are blurred between anatomical reality and abstract freedom.

 

 

I start with a block of clay and begin carving, molding and smoothing. I intuitively create an abstract image from a preconceived image that changes many times during the evolution of the work. Getting messy with my hands—this is one of the most exciting and gratifying times.

 

 

Working intuitively distracts the doctor inside of me who thinks he needs answers. I value not knowing what the final sculpture work will look like. It doesn’t need to be understood, it just needs to be felt, touched and expressed. Eventually the sculpture takes form and it tells me when it’s done.

 

 

My sculptures express movement and energy. The sensations and emotions that are experienced are unique to each viewer.

 

 

I’ve found a balance between my sense of artistic freedom of expression and my scientific training as a physician. This balance continues today by fulfilling my two passions—working in medical research and sculpting.

 

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