By Kelsi Matylewicz/ Social Media Intern, Benco Dental

Works of Dutch Golden Age painter Jan Miense Molenaer and modern day artists Gabrielle Guenther and Gia Adomavicius, portray dentists at work.

According to the blog Directions in Dentistry, Jan Miense Molenaer lived from 1610 to 1668 and created a few different pieces of artwork that depict dentists during that time period.

North Carolina Museum of Art  holds a Teens, Inspired exhibition, where two teens chose Molenaer’s painting to inspire their own works of art.

Gabrielle Guenther, Apex High School, chose Molenaer because of the humorous quality in his work. Guenther chose to modernize this into The Dirty South Dentist.

Gabrielle Guenther, The Dirty South Dentist, 2013

Gabrielle Guenther, The Dirty South Dentist, 2013

Guenther’s work comments on the expensive and painful nature of vanity procedures such as grills (jewelry worn over the teeth, made of precious metals and jewels and popularized by the Dirty South rap and mainstream hip-hop cultures).

Gia Adomavicius, Green Hope High School, also found her inspiration in Molenaer’s work and chose to explore the lack of bonding between technology and mankind. Her Robot Dentist depicts a mechanical dentist, who is showing no emotion, as she inspects a robot’s oral cavity.

Gia Adomavicius, Robot Dentist, 2013

Gia Adomavicius, Robot Dentist, 2013

Even the artist’s personal touch is missing in the clean, precise medium of digital painting. Contrasted against the exaggerated facial expressions of Molenaer’s painting, Adomavicius’s dentist looks at the robot with a detached coldness.

Read more about the student artists at: https://ncartmuseum.org/untitled/2013/08/the-dentist’s-art/

Direct your patients to participate at:
https://teens-inspired.org/FAQ