Dr. Paul Kolker, 82-years old, is a cardiothoracic surgeon, contemporary artist, and attorney based in New York City. Paul Kolker said “When I was finishing my sophomore year in college, I knew I wanted medicine. Which came first: the chicken or the egg, the art or the medicine- for me I think it was the art. After all, I was an artist for the first 20 years of my life and suddenly I was becoming a doctor. What I learned and studied in the arts was this empathic drive that I was able to carry into my medical career. Ultimately, because I was a hands-on person, as artists are, I went into a hands-on specialty: cardiothoracic surgery. Also he notes that even early on, he found interpreting the artwork exhibited in the halls of medical school required the same empirical and intuitive skill sets used by doctors in examining and diagnosing their patients.