JOHN GONZALEZ

This site is a window into my little known creative side. A dentist by profession, my patients trust me with their dental care and know me to be passionate about providing outstanding, long lasting work. Some of those patients may also know of my artistic and creative pursuits, but for the many who do not, I invite you to explore this site.

As a student at the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara, before attending dental school, I was able to study, create and explore my artistic side through wood and metal sculpture, as well as jewelry design and manufacture. Combining that creative education with my postgraduate dental education is what helps me to be a unique dental care provider. In my adult life I have continued to build and create as a means of satisfying my creative impulses. In the last 20 years I have built furniture, kitchen cabinets, several large-scale remote control airplanes from scratch, and a full size, four seat power plane. I love to use my hands as well as my mind in the creation of beautiful and functional works of art. I see that dentistry is not simply a trade; it is an art that requires creativity, an eye for the aesthetic, as well as a fundamental knowledge of physics and physiology. I see the commonality of all these individual practices and combine them into one. This is much the same way that Leonardo DaVinci saw the world: art and science combined.

What is the practical illustration of this combination of art and science in dentistry? I rebuild mouths and teeth; I understand the function (physics) and anatomy (physiology) in the jaw, but I am also an artist who in addition to creating a technically sound and healthy restoration will also be ever aware of the beauty and natural look of the restoration.

Basically, it comes down to what Steve Jobs described as “connecting the dots.” In combining all of these disciplines in art and science, no matter what the creation, it will be far superior because of the care, knowledge and passion used in that creation.