Surgeon lost sight and became a sculptor

By Margaret Foster

Dr. Matthew Kessler was working as a dental surgeon and teaching at two D.C.area universities when he noticed changes in his vision.

“It came on pretty quickly,” Kessler, now 88, said. “It looked like someone put Vaseline on everything.”

Diagnosed with macular degeneration about 25 years ago, which blurred his central vision, Kessler had no choice but to retire. Although clear eyesight never returned, the Silver Spring doctor has reinvented himself as a sculptor.

Kessler was inspired by the famed blind sculptor Michael Naranjo, about whom he learned at his appointments with doctors at the Veterans Administration. Naranjo was blinded by a grenade but went on to

Musical

From page 31 ter, Shout” (all performed engagingly within the show), were recorded at one point with Millinder and his swing orchestra. make a splash in the art world.

Millinder, somewhat like Sister Rosetta Tharpe herself, has been neglected despite his contributions to American popular music, and this musical would have been an effective opportunity to correct this unjustified obscurity.

“You’d be amazed to see what a person like that can do. So, I figured I may not have his talent, but I can see better than he can,” Kessler said.

In 1998, Kessler signed up for an introduction to art class and a sculpture class at Montgomery College’s Takoma Park campus. Despite his vision loss, he learned as much as he could.

“I was always very curious and imaginative and very, very persistent, like a dog with a bone,” he said.

Grew up poor in Brooklyn

Kessler grew up in the 1930s and 40s in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. “It was a tough place to be, and I was very lucky to be able to over-

Top-notch direction, choreography

The direction by Kenneth L. Roberson is excellent, and the choreography by William Carlos Angulo is superb, especially in the sequences with jazz, doo-wop and gospel numbers.

For the fine orchestrations, equal credit is due to arranger and orchestrator Joseph Joubert and music director Sheilah V. Walker.

Indeed, all of the ensemble performances are toe-tapping. One particularly impressive one occurs when Sister Rosetta is come a lot,” he said.

The son of working-class parents (“My father made big investments. One was in food; the other was in rent,” he joked), Kessler won full scholarships to college and dental school. At the beginning of his career as a periodontist, he worked in the Pentagon’s medical clinic.

His past work ethic persists today — but instead of maintaining a dental practice, he creates art.

Making art “is like telling a story,” Kessler said. For instance, he created a sculpture of two women side-by-side that describes the Biblical story of Ruth and Naomi. “Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay,” Ruth tells Naomi after the loss of her husband and sons.

That loyalty is present in Kessler’s family introduced to the infectious sounds of the new swing music, and joins in on a performance of the Jimmie Lunceford classic “Four or Five Times.”

We attended a matinee performance during the week, when school groups were also attending. Ford’s Theatre hands out a brochure for young audience members, asking pupils to list books, films, albums and role models that have gone into forming their identities, paralleling Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s development of identity as well. His adult children remain close to him after the death of their mother in 1991.

Kessler said he’s motivated to create art for his children and grandchildren. “I’m not against money, but this is better than money,” he said. “I want to leave behind myself, not money, for them.”

During the pandemic, Kessler kept up his artwork, thanks to an art historian and friend, Carol Hinds, who provided art therapy lessons during the lockdowns. He kept busy in the home studio that his adult daughter built for him.

Almost every room of Kessler’s ranch house — and even his yard — contain his sculptures and wall art. A concrete, lifesized sculpture of two dancers stands in See SCULPTOR, page 35 and sense of self through her musical artistry.

Perhaps this question should be considered not just by elementary, middle school and high school students, but by all who enjoy this meaningful and entertaining production.

Shout, Sister, Shout! appears at Ford’s Theatre through May 13. Senior discount available to people over 60 for matinee performances. Tickets are available at fords.org or by calling 1-888-616-0270.

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Alexander Scriabin: Piano Concerto (FRI.)

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Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel: Overture in C major Robert Schumann: K Koonzertstück for Four Horns

Felix Mendelssohn: Overture: The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave)

Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 3

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Ednah Root Foundation