For years, George Cooke kept a small piece of translucent white alabaster, waiting for the right time to carve it into something meaningful.
He recently transformed it into a sculpture of a molar and presented it to his dentist, Raphael Figueroa—a gift from the hands of creation to the hands of healing.
“It’s a beautiful gift, and no one would do that just for this,” said Figueroa, an associate clinical professor of diagnostic sciences at Rutgers University, who donated the sculpture to the School of Dental Medicine. “
I believe more people should appreciate it. This gift is a blessing, and we have to pass it on.”
Cooke began teaching himself wood carving as a hobby about 30 years ago while working in IT data security and disaster recovery. He later studied at the American School of Woodcarving in Wayne, New Jersey, and eventually taught there.
He got into stone carving more than a decade ago after discovering a woodcarving course in New York City and taking it for five years.
His work has been shown in galleries and exhibitions in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He was also commissioned to carve a massive 3,000-pound limestone sculpture for McGowan Park Community Park in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey.
The gift was inspired when Cook’s wife, Linda, came to visit Figueroa. The two happened to chat about Cook’s work. “She came home and told me about it and said, ‘You should carve him a tooth,’ ” Cook said.
He searched online for images of molars.
“We all know what a tooth looks like, but when you try to actually carve it, you need a model,” he said.
He started by carving a 3 1/2-inch diameter, 3-inch tall alabaster, sanding it in a bucket with different grits of sandpaper until it was smooth, then carving the roots out of wood.
“I looked it up and found out that not all teeth have four roots,” Cook said. “It’s actually quite rare. But to make it symmetrical and stand up, I made four.”
After about 15 hours of work, the sculpture was finally completed.
“You carve it to the exact anatomy,” Figueroa said as Cook described his carving process.
This wasn’t the first artwork Cook had created for Figueroa. He spent about three weeks carving a woodcut portrait of the professor’s daughter, Elizabeth Gabriella Figueroa, based on a drawing by Figueroa’s former student, Irene Kontogiannis.
Cook completed the portrait at an engraving school in Austria. There, he sought help with the face carving—a specialty he was not familiar with—although he had previously carved the faces of his father and three granddaughters.
“When I saw the wood, we all fell in love with it,” Figueroa said. “It holds a special place in my heart.”
Figueroa placed the gift next to Contogiannis’s painting. As for the sculpture, it will be on display in the dental school’s Oral Health Pavilion for the community to enjoy.
Cook was pleasantly surprised to learn that Figueroa would be donating the sculpture to the school.
“I’m very excited about it,” said Cook, a proud Rutgers parent. (His younger daughter graduated from the College of Engineering, and his oldest granddaughter earned a degree in political science from the College of Arts and Sciences. Another of his granddaughters is still working on her undergraduate degree.)
“I had no idea he taught there, and I had no idea they had a place to display something like this,” Cook said of Figueroa.
“I’m honored that he thought it was good enough to be displayed at the dental school. I had no idea what impact this gift would have.”
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