Interview
Bruce Bauer
The skills that led Bruce to pediatric plastic and reconstructive surgery took root in a medical family that always encouraged his artistic talents. Bruce’s love of nature, Asian-inspired art, and Art Nouveau design have influenced the creation of one-of-a-kind wearable sculptural pieces. One recurring theme, bees and their hives, inspired his company name, while another theme encompasses the delicate balance of nature at the poles and the effects of climate change. Though his earliest carvings were in whales’ teeth, he transitioned to non-endangered warthog tusk when a particular design demanded organic material. He has also applied his craft to carve a range of materials including opal, chrysoprase, and jet, with designs heavily influenced by images of birds, polar bears, and a variety of sea creatures posted by Instagram followers. As his still active surgical practice leaves him limited time to attend a variety of art shows, Bruce transitioned from a standard website to regular posting of his work on Instagram, and for 5 years his work was carried by the Wells Galleray at the Sanctuary Hotel on Kiawah Island, SC as their only jeweler working with precious metals and gemstones. In addition, his work was represented by Faust Gallery in Santa Fe, NM and Scottsdale, AZ as one of their few non-Native American artists for two years.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“The skills that led me to pediatric plastic and reconstructive surgery took root in a medical family that always encouraged my artistic talents. With my artistic eye, ability to think in three dimensions, and the manual dexterity to “see one, do one,” the visual arts have been close to my heart since early childhood. While I began my jewelry “career” collecting rocks, then learning to cut stones in my teens and work in silver and gold, these skills were placed on hold for close to forty years. Learning my skills from books and occasional pearls from jewelers in Greenwich Village, NY, I began building on simple modern Scandinavian designs, then slowly incorporated my wonder of the natural world. Summers in New England led to my interest in (not and) carving whalebone which combined to my self-taught skills in metal work, gave rise to my initial fascination with carving and sculpture, on a small scale. Not surprisingly, the skills gained from carving prior to surgery training, naturally informed my decision to train in plastic surgery in general, and more specifically in pediatric plastic and reconstructive surgery. My three-dimensional sense, attention to minute detail, and medical training endowed me with a different skill set than I could have built in a traditional jewelry career, including an innovative, surgically informed approach to sculptural construction.”
What inspires you?
“My love of nature, Asian-inspired art, and Art Nouveau design have influenced the creation of one-of-a-kind wearable sculptural pieces. Thematically, each piece tells a story. Consequently, I long ago gave up carving in whales teeth and transitioned to non-endangered warthog tusks when a particular design demanded organic material. I have also applied my craft to a carve a range of materials including opal, chrysoprase, lapis, and jet, with designs heavily influenced by images of birds, polar bears, and a variety of sea creatures posted by Instagram followers.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“My art, both in jewelry and photography is heavily rooted in my love of animals, nature, and ranges from insects like dragonflies and bees, birds of prey and shore birds, to whales, and polar bears. Many of the polar themes have been inspired by the photography of Paul Nicklen and Christine Mittermeier, both renown National Geographic photographers and founders of Sea Legacy, as well as my personal experience traveling and photographing in both Antarctica and the Arctic. These themes, along with those inspired by photographs (my own and others) from Africa, Asia, and South America have led me to create pieces that tell a story, and when possible bring attention to our current climate crisis and encourage a closer look at how our lives are impacting the lives of animals on land, sea, and in the air. Not infrequently, a “picture” in a particular stone, will lend itself directly to the transition from the above theme(s) to the creation of my “mini, wearable, sculptures”.”
How would you describe your work?
“Each piece is a one of a kind. Many pieces are created through the images visualized in a particular gemstone, either its color, alignment of inclusions, or an image that I may see the second I look at it, and then try to translate that image into a three dimensional piece, that enhances the "story." The fact that I have spent so much of the four and a half decades of my pediatric reconstructive surgery visualizing complex reconstructive problems in three dimensions and taken the early fine hand skills from childhood into the inanimate realm, allows me to both fabricate three dimensional pieces, but design them to be seen from all sides, sometimes with hidden treasures within, or more frequently with additional scenes or images on the reverse. Few of my pieces are created in the manner of traditional jewelry fabrication, though I continue to “augment” my designs with newly learned skills of Ushidashi metal forming, and Keumboo application of gold highlights. Quite commonly, my designs evoke a sense of whimsy.”
Which artists influence you most?
“Without question, I have been most influenced by Lalique and the many less well known but equally creative artist of the Art Nouveau period. In addition, given the roots of Art Nouveau in Asian art, particular the Japanese arts of the Meiji Period. Again, many of my pieces or ideas derive from a whole line of National Geographic photographers like Paul Nicklen, Cristine Mittermeier, and David Doubilet. Add to this list, is the influence of my own nature photography from the poles, Africa, and Asia. From my early days of photography i was concentrating both on expansive views of nature and macro photography of insects and flowers. Instagram has provided an inexhaustible array of nature subjects.”
“Each piece is a one of a kind. Many pieces are created through the images visualized in a particular gemstone.”
What is your creative process like?
“Perhaps it is easiest to answer this by describing a collection of pieces designed around a unique stone called Marra Mamba Tigereye which is a stone native to Australian combining Tigereye, jasper, and hematite. Slices of these gems create amazing images of canyons at night, and western landscapes. My first view of one of these stones immediately called up the image of a owl in flight, lit by a lightning bolt, and I carved the owl and set it in the scene. More recently another piece almost matched an image of a night sky in Sedona, with the sky filled with stars. The piece I created, used a similar theme but reduced the multiple stars to the Big Dipper creating the constellation with inlaid diamonds, but then set the stone in a frame which has bear created by chasing in silver. The piece is titled, "On a Clear Night you can almost see the Bear," and often it is a surprise to those seeing it to have missed the bear at first look. Another large opal piece featured the colors of the deep sea, and I wanted to create a jellyfish. While I thought to make the bell of the jelly in silver, I carved it in quarts to get the translucence of a jellyfish, and then when placed on the opal surface, while lines within the opal suddenly created the tentacles of the jellyfish.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“In my view, the more we are enmeshed in the digital world and focusing more on who is doing what to whom, and caught up our frantic lives, the less we stop to see the beauty all around us, whether we are in a big city or out in the wilderness. We also, while being more connected, often become more insular in our world view, and certainly fewer and fewer people are comfortable with traveling to unique and different worlds, to experience how others live. Art can help to bridge some of this insularity as well as introduce others to new ways to visualize the world and recognize how much of art both ancient and current, is similar at widely different sides of the planet. For me, I try to take create little snapshots of animal life, or sometimes just open the viewers eyes to the beauty of unusual stones, and through this better appreciate our planet and all that it holds, and all that may be at peril if we ignore it.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“My experience with exhibitions is limited because it was not until 2009 that I was able to pick up the jewelry work that I started as a kid, and the following year get into the ACE show (American Craft Exhibition) in the Chicago suburbs as an emerging artist. I have had my work in the Wells Gallery at the Sanctuary Hotel on Kiawah Island South Carolina for 5 years, and several years in Faust Gallery in Sante Fe, but I am still working full time as a Pediatric Reconstructive Surgeon, so it was not until the pandemic and having a studio in our own condo that i have been able to produce a large collection, but not had time to sit at shows. My combined surgery (particularly my work in reconstructing ears part of which involves the carving of cartilage to create the ear framework) and my art has been featured several times over the past years in the Chicago Tribune and regional magazines. I also had an exhibition at Milan Jewelry Week in 2022.”
Website: www.bsbeedesigns.com
Instagram: @bsbeedesigns
