What started as a hobby only 10 years ago has become a second career for this multi-talented doctor/artist.

“I’m trying to live my life like tomorrow is my last day, like I wouldn’t change anything,” the 43-year-old Seraly says. “I’m living my life right now. I didn’t want to wait until I was retired from medicine to pursue art, so that’s why I’m doing both right now.”

Art is a “great release” for a man who sees patients 12 hours a day, Monday through Thursday, just so he can take Fridays off from his medical practice to sculpt. Although the two professions seemingly have little in common, Seraly says his medical background helps with his art, and vice versa. “What I’ve learned medically allows me to be a better sculptor,” says Seraly, whose art focuses mostly on Native American people and situations. “And what I’ve learned artistically helps me when I’m doing a procedure like facial surgery. So both careers lend themselves well to each other.”

Seraly is an “additive sculptor,” creating his work from wire stick-figures and adding material until it is a complete form. This process differs from the form used by artists who work with stone or wood and chip away until they arrive at a desired result.

Each of Seraly’s pieces can take four to six months to complete and usually range in size from 18 to 36 inches, although he has done life-sized sculptures. Seraly dedicates approximately 15 hours a week to his art, including an occasional hour and 45 minute drive to Zanesville, Ohio, where his work is cast at a local mill.

Seraly spends between $1,000 to $3,000 on materials and casting for each piece. He displays some of his art in the waiting room of his McMurray medical office, but he sells his art mainly through his website at www.seraly.com. His works range in price from $2,000 to $18,000, but Seraly says he isn’t in it for the money. “I started doing this as a hobby in my basement 10 years ago, and I would have never imagined when I started that I could now say that my work is in public, corporate and private collections,” he says. “It really makes it fun.”

One of his sculptures now sits on the campus of Washington & Jefferson College, where Seraly received his bachelor’s degree in biology. (He received his medical degree at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.) Seraly also recently received a commission from the town of Hickory, PA, to sculpt a six-foot bronze statue of a farmer holding a calf. The bronze sculpture will be placed in the center of town, and Seraly hopes to start the project after funding and permits are secured from the local government.

Sandy Youngblood, a patient of Seraly, has purchased two of his pieces, including a 24-inch figure titled “Noble and Proud” for which she paid approximately $5,000. “Whatever Mark does, whatever he touches, he does well,” Youngblood says. “It’s wonderful because he loves both of his professions, and he is very good at both of his professions. And above all else, his patients love him.”

Seraly grew up in Succasunna, a town in northwestern New Jersey once inhabited by the Lenni-Lenape Indian tribe. The area’s rich history helped fuel his interest in Native American art, and a trip to Rome, Italy, when he was 10 “planted a seed” in him that eventually sprouted into his sculpting passion.

Although Seraly did his undergraduate studies in Washington, Pa., he did not intend originally to settle permanently in the Pittsburgh area. The Pittsburgh Steelers managed to change that. Seraly attended the last game the old Cleveland Browns played in Three Rivers Stadium before moving to Baltimore and becoming the Ravens. The team held a contest in honor of its 60th anniversary and Seraly’s name was picked out of 60,000 in attendance. He received 60 years of Steelers’ season tickets. “I remember calling my wife and telling her to tell her mother that we were going to be here for at least 60 years,” he says with a laugh. “That’s how fate brought me to stay out here in western Pennsylvania.” 

 

18 Pittsburgh Professional Magazine

Noble and Proud The sculptor at work