"I always said there is a part of my brain that turns on at a certain point in the painting and in the surgery. I mean the blank canvass is daunting. When you are beginning a surgery, it's the beginning of an adventure. It's a creative energy that not many people have the experience of talking about, because surgeons are surgeons and artists are artists. Not many people do both,"
"People adjust their language to fit in. I can only speak for my experience as a gay man going through medical school having to code-switch. Back in the day, being gay was completely unacceptable and you couldnt get through your surgical training if you were out. I didnt feel victimized by it, because it's just the way thigs were,"
"It doesnt matter whether a patient is a privileged patient or someone that is poor, discriminated against or marginalized. When they are in that chair, they are just a patient. Everybody is equal. Everything flattens right out. It gives you a bird's-eye view of the world in that way. Healthcare, that's the privilege of it, and it makes you more human. As an artist, it makes me a better artist,"
Dr. Don Hershman is both a board-certified surgeon and a celebrated San Francisco-based artist whose work has been shown nationally and internationally. He experiences a shared creative process in painting and surgery, where a part of his brain activates and the blank canvas or the start of an operation becomes an adventurous creative challenge. Recent paintings examine code-switching and depict changes in language, tone and behavior used to adapt to social contexts, reflecting his experience as a gay man during medical training. Clinical practice informs a belief that patients equalize in the operating chair, humanizing care and enhancing artistic insight.
Read at ABC7 Los Angeles
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