Are they robots? ELAN-E's

These are the two electric drills which were given to me a few years back. They are both made by a company by the name of Aesculap. They are ELAN-E surgical drills.

It had become time to retire these two surgical instruments. They were about to be replaced by the new drills. The "reps", do you know who the reps in the hospital are? Their companies supply and maintain the operating room equipment and keep it "current". Apparently, it was decided that the ELAN-E drills were outdated and the service contract was allowed to expire. The company making the new drills and the reps would get a nice commission by selling the new, more "modern" drills to the hospital. And supposedly, the hospital would have a better, more state of the art tool.

It's common knowledge at the hospital that I save the drill bits to do my art and that I've done marble portraits of several of our doctors. Perhaps it's that fact that helped me to get ownership of the drills. It was work-related. Still, my supervisor had to make a choice, she is the one who made the final decision as to what would become of the "old drills".

One option, send the drills to a third world country. Many of our nurses thought that perhaps the doctors in the Phillipines could use the equipment for their operations. I know that hospitals in America often ship retired medical equipment around the world. A nurse is a person who wants to help people. That's how we are. Still, I figured that even if they were to sent the drills to some deserving country, there was no way to guarantee that the drills would definitely fall into the right hands. They might easily be shipped somewhere, with good intention, and wind up sitting in a warehouse without a team of doctors who knew what could be done with them.

I had my own mission calling - I wanted the drills for my workshop. I would rationalize my greed at the time. Maybe my art could be worthy of these tools. Perhaps with the ELAN-E drills, I could accomplish more with my marble portraits of the doctors I work with. And it was work related I thought - I would be promoting my team of doctors and nurses. I would be honoring my profession.

So I made my case to my boss. If I was given the gift of these drills, I promised, I would continue to pursue my dream. I would find away to honor the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

 

Carson Anniversary Sculpture

Dr Carson approached me with an idea for a marble sculpture. It would be an anniversary present for his wife. He drew a picture for me one day in the Operating Rooms, years ago. He had an image in his mind. Right there on the spot he drew a heart shape with a violin nestled in the middle. Across the bottom of the sculpture would be the words - Ben and Candy 25 years. This was an early commission. I was thrilled to create and present the sculpture to Dr. Carson. A dear friend once said to me, "you've endeared yourself to a lot of people".

Surgery Drill Bits?

This is a subject that must be dealt with. It makes perfect sense that an artist would want to use these tools. They basically "fell into my lap". 

They are hardened carbide steel drill bits and diamond coated burs, once used to drill through bone in neuro-surgical cases. Also, the 2 drills that I use are the, since discarded, precision instruments once used by a team of Neurosurgeons at Johns Hopkins Hospital. That's right, I own two Aesculap, ELAN-E drills.

These drills have electric motors, are foot pedal operated and have flexible shafts. I also have all the various attachments. They were replaced by a series of drills which are "high-tech" computerized. These electronic drills are the wave of the future, but are they better than the old ELAN-E's? What I like about the ELAN-E, is how it builds up speed as to place your foot on the pedal. It builds up inertia. As you press harder into the work, it slows down due to natural forces. You can feel it work. The new electronic drills simply spin at the computer controlled programmed speed.

Dr. Ben Carson has told me that he misses "the feel of his old ELAN -E drills". 

Here's the bad part. It's when people think about this for a bit. They screw up their eyes and ask" so these tools were used in brain surgery, right?". And now you use them in your garage to do marble sculpting and carve portraits of the doctors you work with in stone? Does that makes sense? So I have to explain, these tools are easily the most precise, highest quality instruments available to anyone in the world. I love using these tools. I don't want to do my art any other way. This is the kind of drill that an artist would use. I can't imagine working with stone any other way. "I drill stone." 

I don't use the drills the way you might think. I dont stick the drill bit straight into the stone like a regular drill bit. I use the drill bits the way I learned from my mentors - neurosurgeons. These are all side-cutting burs. They cut and shape bone by spinning the blades on the side of the drill bit into the bone in a very controlled manner. I would watch these doctors for hours. they are "bone sculptors". Through watching them as artists, I became inspired and empowered to pursue art in my own way. 

I've yet to actually meet a marble sculpting artist. I have met, however, some of the hardest working, most brilliant people out there. They are my teachers and mentors.

1998

After I found the marble blocks and sheets of marble dumped in the woods, I remember talking to the people that I work with. I asked them what they thought. I found marble in the woods. Isn't that valuable? I mean it's marble - that sounds valuable. Even then, the idea of being a "Marble Sculptor" struck me. I had never met a marble sculptor, but that was not going to stop me from becoming one. I liked the idea of having an "outsider" relationship to art. I didn't think I could actually fail.

The place where I worked at the time was in the Operating Rooms at Johns Hopkins hospital. I remember going to work and asking the doctors, nurses and other staff in the O.R's what they thought. "I found a bunch of marble in the woods", I would tell them. What do you think I should make? It got some interesting conversations going. Each day, there would be more questions. "How much marble is out there? " What's the biggest piece that you found, or what is the biggest piece of marble that you think you can drag out of the woods by yourself? Note: there is still more out there to be discovered where I made my original discovery.
I had already started saving neurosurgery drill bits at the time when I first found the marble. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. There was an attraction to them, that I would say is a "guy thing".

I was working as a Pediatric Operating Room nurse. Each day, it was my responsibility to help set up the operating room equipment, such as surgical drills. After each case was over, the drill bits had to be discarded. They were not to be re-sterilized. One example why that policy was created is "Mad Cow" or Jacob Kreutchfelds, (more on that perhaps, later). My plan was to take some of the very special "throw away after every case" drill bits used in brain surgery cases, and use them for "art".

I asked one doctor - Dr. Ben Carson, if he thought I might be able to put one of the surgery drill bits into my DREMEL drill and write my name in marble.

What started all this?

This is my version of how I got interested in art, namely marble sculpting. I know this story like the back of my hand, but putting it into words is difficult for even me. Some of it makes perfect sense. I can tell you what I found in the woods in Owings Mills in 1998. I can even show you a map of where there are still big blocks of marble tossed down the hillside. The why I reacted the way that I did is what I am still trying to figure out.
So I found my self on a nature hike right? Can you imagine this place? You've seen something like this before I'll bet. there's an abandoned shack you can just barely see from the country road. Down the hill you can spot an old school bus with trees growing out of the windows and through the rusted out roof. And is that an old V.W. or a French Citroen? There's junk in the woods. Are you curious like I was? Do you want to see if there's anything interesting in that pile of lumber? Is that cement, or marble?

Johns Hopkins story

Here's a link to the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. They wrote a story about me and included a youtube video. I am proud to be one of their celebrated nurses. here's the link. http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/tpl_news.aspx?id=7256

Ivor Berkowitz Portrait In Stone

I'm starting off my blog with a project that was completed on 11/1/2009. It's a portrait of an anesthesia doctor that I work with at Johns Hopkins Hospital - Dr. Ivor Berkowitz.