Millen said he’s found balance by practicing dentistry and creating art.
Sculpture gardens bring together art, human creativity, and nature. There are several in Connecticut, including a private one nestled in a residential neighborhood in North Haven that winds in and around the home of artist David Millen.
Millen’s award-winning sculptures celebrate the human body in motion. His figures leap, jump, dance, and spin.
Millen's work has been recognized by the Society of Connecticut Sculptors and can be found in collections including one at Yale Children’s Hospital.
WNPR’s Diane Orson recently visited David Millen, who combines his creative life with a professional life as a dentist. She asked if his training in dentistry intersects with his work as an artist.
"Part of dentistry, you learn how to construct the bridges and the dentures and you become a true technician. As it turns out the materials you use to make a gold crown [are] exactly the same as how to do a bronze sculpture," Millen said.
See Millen's sculpture garden and watch him work in his studio in WNPR's video below.
Millen said he’s found balance by practicing dentistry and creating art. And that theme of balance runs through many of his sculptures.
There are more than 40 works of art in Millen’s sculpture garden. Figures can be seen standing, hanging and sometimes hidden in the grasses. Walking through, there’s a mobile dangling from a tree branch above a small pond with five acrobatic dancers. Or figures playing on a concrete seesaw, which, over the years has taken moss, transforming it into "more of a living object," according to Millen. There are two intertwined figures that create their own unique shape.
Listen below for a walk through Millen’s sculpture garden:
Millen’s sculpture garden, and work created by a group of his adult students, will be on view this weekend in North Haven.
