Armed with a physician’s knowledge of the human body, Dr. Richard Ragle creates highly inventive sculptures that speak to us in primordial tongues and yet reach into modern times to draw us back to our ancestral consciousness.  Each piece is a compelling supernatural drama, forcing the viewer to closely examine the work, to explore what is being presented conceptually, and draw our own conclusions.  The   sophisticated symbols that Ragle has developed focus on the transcendental nature of the life force within and how the human body acts as a container of this energy.  “I want to be moved by art, which is what I try to show,” Ragle explains.  “I want my art to stand out for its spiritual themes.”  Ragle’s figurative sculptures are powerful in their representations and beautifully crafted, using such disparate mediums as bronze, silver, gemstones, and wood.  Hair, flesh, and bone are expertly sculpted with a precision that belies its medium.  Muscles and veins are depicted with an attention to detail that only an experienced physician could possess.

Since early in his youth, Ragle has had an impassioned interest in sculpture.  His education and interests led him into health and medicine, first as a dental technician and later as a family practice physician.  Ragle’s medical background offered him unusual experiences for an artist.  During his college years he worked as a medical examiner; after graduating he became a board-certified physician whose duties   included delivering babies, as well as assisting terminally ill patients in their final days.

Having borne witness to both the initial and final chapters in life, Ragle’s service to humanity gives him a sagacious perspective that he feels compelled to share with us.  Rather than offer a melancholy testimony that focuses on cryptic tableaux, Ragle has chosen to celebrate the phases and mysteries of life by creating a potent art form that transcends language, culture, and time.  Dr. Ragle, now a full-time artist, lives between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico.