HWS News
8 October 2026 A Sculptor's Eye
Dr. Bruce Bauer ’70 returns to HWS to explore the three-dimensional thinking that connects his pioneering career in pediatric reconstructive surgery with his work as a sculptor and jewelry artist.
Dr. Bruce Bauer ’70 can look at a gemstone and see what isn’t there yet.
Sometimes it begins with the color. Sometimes it’s the alignment of inclusions within the stone. Other times, an image presents itself almost immediately — an animal, a landscape, the beginning of a story that Bauer can imagine taking shape in three dimensions.
“Many pieces are created through the images visualized in a particular gemstone,” Bauer says, describing how he translates what he sees into one-of-a-kind wearable sculptures designed to be viewed from all sides, sometimes with hidden elements or additional scenes on the reverse.
Works by Dr. Bruce Bauer '70
It’s a way of seeing Bauer developed across more than four decades as a pediatric reconstructive surgeon, visualizing complex anatomical problems in three dimensions before using his hands to reshape living tissue.
Bauer returns to Hobart and William Smith Oct. 13-16 to share the connections between those two practices — surgery and sculpture — including a community-wide talk Thursday, Oct. 15 at 6 p.m. in the Seneca Room.
He is one of three alumni from the medical profession on campus Oct. 13-16 to meet with students about the medical field.
Bauer alongside University of Washington School of Medicine Associate Clinical Professor Emeritus Dr. Arnie Cohen ’71 will host an informal conversation for pre-med students at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13 in the Seneca Room.
Cohen and Dr. Timothy Crowley, a physician and healthcare executive with 30 years experience on the business side of medicine, will host a discussion on "The Meteoric Rise in the Cost of U.S. Healthcare: Causes, History and Path to Change” at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct 14 in the Blackwell Room.
Bauer’s discussion, titled "From Sculpture to Surgery and Back," takes place the following night.
When Bauer started his medical career, he was one of few surgeons to specialize in pediatric reconstructive surgery. The focus led him to develop innovations including pediatric tissue expansion, a technique that creates new skin to repair or replace skin elsewhere on the body to treat birthmarks and other congenital conditions.
Working with pediatric dermatologists, Bauer was able to widen the application of his techniques to problematic skin lesions. Today, pediatric tissue expansion is used around the world.
BSBEE Designs, Bauer’s studio in Chicago, fuses art, science and environmental storytelling. Inspired by the intricate geometry of beehives, Asian art and the fluid elegance of Art Nouveau design, Bauer’s themes are drawn from nature’s creatures big and small, from whales and polar bears to birds and dragonflies.
His subjects are often inspired from Bauer’s own photography and travels in Antarctica, Africa, Asia and South America, as well as the work of nature photographers including Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier.
For Bauer, the pieces are not simply representations of wildlife. When possible, he uses them to call attention to the climate crisis and encourage audiences to consider how human lives affect animals “on land, sea and in the air.”
After decades of working with stone and metal, Bauer continues to add new techniques to his practice, including uchidashi, a Japanese metal-forming technique and keum-boo, which applies gold to another metal. The result, he says, is often a sense of whimsy — miniature, wearable sculptures that tell stories from every side.
