Jeff Rouse - Biography

Art and science have been driving forces behind Jeff Rouse's life since he was a small boy in Chicago. He began drawing seriously at the age of five and continued studies in ceramics and pottery throughout adolescence. In high school, he considered pursuing a career in the arts, but bowed instead to his parents' wishes that he choose a profession in the sciences. In 1971, he enrolled at Albion College in Michigan, to study for an undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry, with ceramics and drawing as his elective subjects. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1975.

Rouse continued his artistic training by taking courses in sculpture and pottery at the University of Indianapolis, while studying for a degree in dentistry at Indiana University. His artistic skills served him well in his dental classes, where he displayed such a high level of dexterity that it was suggested he pursue post-graduate studies in the dental specialty of maxillofacial prosthodontics (the creation of artificial prostheses for patients needing face and/or neck reconstruction as a result of birth defects, accidents, or the ravages of disease). "It was a specialty that would allow me to sculpt…" Rouse explains, "and I knew that's where I needed to be". He opened his own practice in 1983, but continued with his studies at the Herron School of Art, where he began to take an interest in casting figures in bronze. In 1993, he produced his first monumental bronze work, Footprints. Rouse's medical background makes him very sensitive to the details of the human form, on whatever scale, but technical excellence is only part of what he seeks to achieve. "The form is not enough," he says, "there has to be a story, a narrative, and idea…" His earlier works concentrated on personal issues. Lovers' Dance, for instance, examines marital relationships in contemporary society. A man and a woman are joined in a heart-shaped dance. Their heads nestle together intimately, but their hands betray the subliminal struggle, as they seek to find the balance between their union and their individuality. A year later, Rouse unveiled Male ≥ Male, an examination of homosexuality and the battle between two men, trained to be competitors, yet striving to be companions, partners, and friends.

A commission in 1995 took Rouse in a different direction, when he decided to take the opportunity to create a piece that dealt with a contemporary issue through the use of classical myth. The result - Myths, Platitudes, Sound Bites - offers the legend of Leda and the Swan as a metaphor for modern-day date rape. The violence of the act and the agony of the victim speak for themselves, but underlying the image is a challenge to all who suggest that nice girls "just say no".

Since then, the sculptor has continues to explore contemporary problems through classical themes, dealing with everything from our environment, Crouching Mother Nature, to man's ultimate powerlessness in the face of God, The Dream of Gerontius.

Jeff Rouse's sculptures can be found in a number of private collections, including those of Leo de Rothschild; The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra; Maestro Raymond Leppard; the Museum for Sir Edward Elgar in Worchester, England; and Ms. Crystal DeHaan. He is currently at work on several large commissions and is having to curtail his dental practice as a result. However, he will continue to serve those who need him most - the recipients of the prostheses he creates. "I have been blessed with an unusual combination of skills", he says, "and with them comes the responsibility, wherever possible to relieve people's suffering."

Read an interview with the artist, published in Arts & Activities (October, 1999)
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