Art and soul

By Laura Raines

Plus editor

When he’s not taking care of patients after heart surgery, Richard Walker, RN, BSN, MA, has the soul — and the talent — of an artist.

Walker, who works full time as a nurse clinician in the cardio-thoracic intensive care unit at Emory University Hospital, paints, sketches and creates wood-block prints. He’s also quick to set straight those who assume art is just a pastime.

“Art is not a hobby for me. I think it’s possible to have two things that you are passionate about, that you devote time and intellectual capital to. For me, it’s important to have both nursing and art in my life,” Walker said.

The inspiration for blending health care and art came from his father, Jerome Walker, a retired neurologist and nature photographer.

“He’s done numerous shows and sold more work than me,” Walker said. “Health care workers deal with a lot of sadness, and I think his life-affirming photographs of landscapes and closeups of nature were important for his sanity. Art’s like that for me, too.”

The job can be intense, and nurses need to take care of themselves, he said. Caring for some of the hospital’s sickest patients, Walker deals with death regularly.

“A lot of our stress comes from taking care of the families when a patient is dying,” he said. “That’s just as important as healing the patient. Sometimes, it’s when we work the hardest.”

Walker got serious about art in college, earning his bachelor’s degree in art from Vassar College in 1989. He’s also studied at the Yale University School of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design.

After graduation, Walker worked as an artist, taught and did renovation construction, but he kept thinking about medicine.

“I knew I didn’t want to be a doctor, but I thought nursing would offer me a flexible schedule that would mesh well with raising a family and art,” said Walker, who lives with his wife, Monica, and sons Max, 13, and Joseph, 11.

He started applying to nursing schools after the Sept. 11 attack and graduated from Georgia Baptist College of Nursing at Mercer University in 2004.

“Nursing school was rigorous, but I have to admit that art school was harder,” Walker said. “Art is difficult to do. Even abstract paintings have to have structure and composition. My teachers let you know that art wasn’t just about what you feel.”

The fire and ruins of the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill in Cabbagetown in 1999 caught his attention, and he created a series of oil paintings.

“My oils have a dark palette. I was inspired by Goya, Titian, Turner and De Chirico,” he said.

The smokestacks set against an atmospheric sky explore the theme of man’s place in nature. Walker also sees references to the burning of Atlanta during the Civil War in them.

“What I love about the best art is that it can mean so many different things to different people,” Walker said.

The simplicity of creating Japanese wood-block prints has been another inspiration. At the hospital, he manages patients on the latest ventricular-assist device (VAT). But in the studio, he has a printing press and enjoys working with centuries-old technology.

“When you’re carving your subject out of a block of wood, you can’t get too fussy. You have to think in simple graphic terms of light and dark,” he said. “I also like that it’s a more democratic art form. You can make multiple prints and they’re more affordable than paintings.”

At the moment, Walker’s best-known prints are of polar bears and scenes from Alaska, which he drew for his mother’s adventure novel, “A Place for Delta.” A college professor and author, Melissa Walker is an advocate for wilderness preservation.

A book designer saw some of Richard’s prints hanging in his mother’s office and suggested the style would be perfect for the book.

“I was resistant to the idea of book illustrations, just because I had never done anything like it. It was an unknown for me,” Walker said. “But it’s been a great experience working with my mom, and good discipline as an artist.”

Walker had been to Barrow, Alaska, where his mother writes during the summer, and is the setting for the book. His knowledge of polar bears came from college drawings he made at the Providence Zoo in Rhode Island.

“I went there to draw animals. You could see the polar bears swimming under water through a big Plexiglas window. They were enormous, but their fur looked ghostly and ethereal,” Walker said.

“A Place for Delta” won the 2010 International Book Award for Children’s Fiction. Walker enjoys promoting the book and his prints with his mother at book festivals and galleries.

While his passions seem worlds apart, Walker sees points of intersection and influence.

“A literal example is my having the ability to draw anatomy in nursing school. I don’t actually draw my patients or their families a picture, but being able to visualize what’s going on with someone’s heart valves helps me explain things better to them,” he said.

After a hard week of nursing, he’ll turn to his studio, partly for escape.

“I don’t draw patients in hospital beds, but without a doubt I find myself mulling things over as I’m working” he said. “Art is about life, and death is a natural part of that. There’s always that connection between my nursing and my art.

“I’ve noticed that the nurses who seem happiest at work are the ones who have other outside interests. For me, it seems healthy and a good thing to pursue both of my passions.”