Physician sculptor finds healing in balance of medicine and art.

Lorraine Bonner, M.D., has always marched to the beat of her own drum. A part-time physician with Alameda Inpatient Medical Inc. in Oakland, Bonner spends much of her time outside the practice creating clay and sculptures.

A physician, after all, is tasked with healing and providing relief to patients. But not all wounds can be covered with a simple Band-Aid — some run much deeper, which is where Bonner’s sculpture comes in. Her works are not simple reflections of people or nature, but rather they command the viewer to pay attention to serious subjects

Bonner grew up in New York and moved to California in 1970. A 1977 graduate of Stanford Medical School, she interned at Highland Hospital in Oakland. As she worked full time in her medical practice, she began seeing people who were suffering with chronic pain. To better treat her patients’ pain and illness, she adopted a holistic approach, taking courses in guided imagery, hypnosis and meditation.

Bonner believes that illness results from more than rampant bacteria. In her estimation, people often get sick because of traumas and the conditions around them.

“Trauma is everywhere in our society. The work we do to take care of others one at a time is extremely important — it’s noble,” she said. “But we need to do more.” She came to realize that medicine and surgery just were not enough.

“If I were really to help patients,” Bonner explained, “I realized that I had to move to a broader level. Trauma, domination and oppression are things that make people sick.”

In 1989, Bonner sold her medical practice and started doing inpatient work caring for nursing home patients who were sent to the hospital for acute illnesses. In 1995, she co-founded a group of physicians who called themselves “hospitalists” and worked with patients admitted to hospitals. Some of the patients come from nursing homes, and Bonner credits nursing homes with being the strongest supporters of hospitalist work.

“When it works well, it works really well,” Bonner said. “These doctors are at the hospital every day, so they are available when ill patients have to be admitted.”

Hospitalists build relationships with primary care doctors, hospital staff and patients’ families. They work with case managers and help with patient paperwork and planning.

“We get to know patients when they’re on a downhill slope,” Bonner explained.

Discovering a hidden talent

Busy with her children and medical practice, Bonner had no idea she had any artistic abilities. In the early 1990s, a friend gave her a bag of clay after taking a local ceramics class. Bonner played with the clay and discovered her artistic calling. “I give a big shout to community arts programs,” she smiled.

Initially, Bonner started sculpting to work through personal issues after she began to recover memories of trauma in her own life.

“At first, it was something I needed to do to help me survive. Now, my art is more a reflection of how trauma affects all of us,” she explained.

By 2000, her children had finished college, so although Bonner was making a good living as a full-time hospitalist, she decided to spend less time at the hospital and more time sculpting. She cut her hours down to part time, mostly at Summit Hospital. She started working in Alameda in 2002, and now works the graveyard shift, six nights a month. “Technically, I’m a nocturnist,” she laughed. “I love that term.”

With significantly more time on her hands, Bonner’s art became a logical extension of her medical work. Her sculpture, which ties together the personal and political, comprises a philosophy that makes her a caring physician. A major theme of her clay work is a study of the role of trauma in distorting human identity and relationships. “I believe that we must break free of denial and bear witness to our own and one another’s pain.”

But Bonner’s goal is not just to reflect pain in art. She hopes that by confronting trauma, we can “heal the world” and “have hope for a future as a species.”

Some of her early works, including “Exploring the Perpetrator” and “The Legacy of Slavery,” reflect her concern for the effects of trauma on our lives. When looking at her pieces, Bonner’s beautifully sculpted faces are striking in their reflection of pain, introspection and beauty.

Responses to her art

What do other doctors think about Bonner’s art? “The reactions are mixed,” said Bonner. “Many doctors aren’t tuned in to trauma and my work seems very political.” One colleague refers to her art as a “hobby,” even though he has never seen it.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, some physicians have purchased her pieces. “My bronze sculptures are definitely more popular than my more intense clay work,” she said.

But whether bronze or clay, Bonner’s art has irreversibly influenced her doctoring, she explained.

“Sculpting has intensified the sense of wholism that has pervaded my thinking and my work from the very beginning. When I sculpt, I am reminded of our common origins, how the clay comes from rivers, from the weathering of the mountains. When, as a physician, I touch a human body, it is not hard to remember that I am touching the same clay.”

For more on Bonner’s sculpture and philosophy, visit her Web site at www.lorrainebonner.com.

- By Lorri Ungaretti

Lorri Ungaretti is a contributing editor of the Healthcare Journal.