Barbara Brotherton works in her studio near her home in Ione. Brotherton has sold her sculptures to the likes of President Bill Clinton, Hilton Hotels and the U.S. Embassy in Cyprus. Brotherton's piece, "Tranquility," is an example of the mixed-media style she uses in her collection, "The Healing Symbols of the Tao." Photo by: Scott Thomas Anderson Barbara Brotherton's piece, "Tranquility," is a example of the mixed-media style she uses in her collection, "The Healing Symbols of the Tao." Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch

Right now in America, more than 33 million people suffer from long-term, life-threatening illnesses - many engaged in day-to-day struggles that demand a level of courage. For those facing such hardships, strength of spirit becomes its own battlefront.

It's this delicate challenge local artist Barbara Brotherton has turned her attention to, bringing the inspired tranquility of an eastern garden to people in need of hope and healing.

When Brotherton moved to Ione in 2002, she was an artist searching for a new landscape. "My husband was aware of Ione, but I had never heard of it before," Brotherton said. "When I saw this curious little western town with a castle looming over it, I thought it would be a good place to quiet my mind." Modest, even a bit shy, few locals would have guessed that Brotherton had already sold her sculptures to the likes of President Bill Clinton, Hilton Hotels and the U.S. Embassy in Cyprus. Yet, for all her commercial success Brotherton was still troubled by a feeling that her art should be doing something more in the world - a feeling that the glamorous, high-profile commissions weren't enough to satisfy her energies.

One day Brotherton stood in her yard watching birds flutter in the early sunlight, when she felt a new direction suddenly reveal itself. In the past she's studied art in a small village in Japan with the renowned master, Shoji Hamada, and during this period Buddhism had come into her life. In the following years Brotherton suffered from serious health issues, not to mention a devastating bicycle accident that left her bedridden for months without end; but throughout this time she found comfort in the Buddhist idea that the health of our spirits and bodies are connected - that a dynamic spirit can sometimes reinforce a body's effort to heal. This was the mystery Brotherton now wanted to explore in her art.

She quickly went to work in her studio, chain-sawing huge pieces of copper, silver and gold plate into forms from Chinese calligraphy, and then casting them in rustic frames of distressed wood. "I was working toward something I hoped might reflect the simplicity of nature," Brotherton said. "Buddhism taught me to be mindful of the natural world, like the wild finches my husband feeds, or the little frog that pokes his head out over the lip of my hanging basil plant. For me, focusing on those things brings the kind of pure bliss that can help the body to heal itself."

Brotherton filled her new creations with poured stone and washed them in acid patinas. She added layers of pigments designed to give them an "earthy" color of beauty. The final step was conjuring names like Harmony, Patience and Forgiveness, and then writing a haiku poem to go with each. Not sure about them, she turned to Carol Beadle, head of the textile department for the California College of Arts in Oakland. Beadle, a long-time friend, assured her the work was promising. "It's difficult to imagine a more compassionate and caring person than Barbara," Beadle said, "and this is very evident in her new work. When I first saw the pieces I felt they would tell a story of hope, inspiration and peace the way Barbara personally experiences it."

Just as she'd dreamt, Brotherton soon realized her new visions of comfort had a role to play for those who were suffering. As she labored to make more pieces, hospitals and clinics around the country were beginning to rely on the soothing effects of Asian-style art to create a relaxed environment for their patients. America's largest health care provider, Kaiser Permanente, even began to put their oncology centers in separate buildings from their hospitals, with the centers now designed to look like Buddhist spas.

By the time Brotherton finished her series called "The Healing Symbols of the Tao," there was growing audience for it in the medical community. Before long Brotherton sold pieces to St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis and Kaiser Permanente in Redwood City.

In 2006, a solo exhibition for the Healing Symbols of the Tao was held at Marin General Hospital's Cancer Institute near San Francisco. Ann Brauner, the hospital's art curator, said that she and her colleagues found Brotherton's work up-lifting. "We felt the old wood and poured stone showed a unique expression of strength - it's the kind of strength that's so important to healing," Brauner said. "We were sure the art would speak to people who were going through difficult health situations. Personally, I don't think I've seen any pieces that are quite the same."

By the end of the show, Brotherton was nearly forced to tears by the poignant comments left in the guest book, many by people living with cancer. "That was so special and touching to me that I don't even have words," Brotherton said. "To know that, even for a moment, I connected with a viewer who was fighting - trying to be a survivor - then I know I'm on the right journey."