Occupation requires an eye for art
Ocular specialists paint eyes for patients in need
Kathy Hetzler wanted to be an orthodontist but things just didn’t work out that way, not on paper at least.
She was working as a technician for an Indianapolis orthodontist and studying business management at school when she and her husband met an Atlanta-based oculoplastic surgeon while on vacation in Florida. He asked Hetzler if she’d be interested in helping him start an Indiana-based practice; his wife’s family was from the area.
Hetzler agreed. It would be her first exposure to ophthalmology.
Hetzler was no stranger to medical terminology or procedures, and there was little that made her queasy.
Hetzler had promised the doctor six months of her time to help get his practice started. When that time was nearly up, the doctor had an idea. He said he needed an ocularist to make artificial eyes for his patients.
At that time, there weren’t college courses to take; the trade was passed down through family or by apprenticeship. Most ocularists in the field were men. Hetzler found it difficult to break into training circles, and trade secrets were hard to come by.
“I developed friendships with the younger generation ocularists,” she said. “And I kind of won them over.”
A family business
Hetzler was 27 when she began her career as an ocularist. She said she cried every day for two years straight. The mix of the client pressure and her perfectionist nature caused her many late nights in the office. But over time, she began to build a name for herself.
William Nunery, her mentor and the doctor who had urged her into ocularistry, would bring her on stage to speak in front of hundreds of doctors during lectures. Hetzler would eventually become the first female president of the American Society of Ocularists and assisted in starting a college for ocularistry.
Early in her career, she said, glass eyes made way for big box stores massproducing artificial eyes. Now, customers prefer customized artificial eyes. Her husband J.R. too became a board-certified ocularist and would give the field 40 years before retiring in 2020.
Today, the Hetzlers’ son Zach is nearing his 14th year as an ocularist. Hetzler said she wasn’t always sure he’d want or be artistically able to follow in his parents footsteps. He still can’t color in the lines, she said, but once Zach decided that he’d pursue ocularistry, he never looked back.
While confident in her son’s abilities, Hetzler said the thought of retirement wasn’t something she was taking lightly. She would need to train another ocularist to help run the business – and that would be no easy task.
The art
Patients seek the help of an ocularist four weeks after an eye removal surgery.
A conformer, made of medical-grade acrylic, is placed in the eye socket to help match the contour, depth, and perimeter of the opposite eye. Weeks later, a custom piece is made with further adjustments as the socket heals.
“The whole thing is a puzzle,” Hetzler said. “We’re hand-sculpting designs trying to manipulate the curve of eyelids.”
Pupil placement is next, then iris buttons are hand-painted to match the patient’s sighted eye. Color pigment is added by a tiny paintbrush, starting with a background color and then additional layers on top. Veins are added by fraying red silk string and then painting the frays onto the eye and covering them with clear acrylic.
When painting, ocularists sit faceto-face with patients. Most wear magnifiers to see the fine details of their eyes.
Sanding allows ocularists to enlarge an iris, and polishing makes the piece smooth and lifelike. All of which happens before a curing process in the lab.
By week eight, a patient will receive their hand-painted artificial eye. Most eyes last about five years and can be worn for a month before needing to be removed and cleaned.
Seeing opportunities
Eyes have always been the window into Kelley May’s soul.
For 23 years, May fitted and manufactured eyeglasses, made prescription lenses and worked with customers on troubleshooting vision difficulties.
During that time she earned a biology degree, married and had two children. Her work hours allowed her to navigate life without paying for childcare. “I loved my job for those reasons,” May said.
As her company started shutting down their 1-hour service manufacturing labs, it was time for May to pursue a new future. “I’m like, OK, it’s time to find what I was meant to do. Which at the time I had no idea what that was.”
One day a patient of J.R.’s walked into the store in Indianapolis. The woman was between surgeries and needed glasses for her sighted eye.
“She shared her story and I found it fascinating,” May said. She had worked in optics for years but had never heard a patient talk about an artificial eye.
“That night I looked up the Hetzlers and what all is involved in becoming an ocularist and found out it was an internship,” she said. “I was like, that would be too good to be true.”
With a science degree and an extensive optics background, May had the foundation. She made a couple of drawings of eyes and walked into Hetzler’s office. It was the answer Hetzler had been looking for, and May was quickly brought on board.
Months later, May saw the name of her patient pop up on the Hetzlers’ schedule. She greeted her at her appointment.
“I said, ‘I don’t know if you remember me or not, but you came in to get glasses and you shared your story with me,’ ” May said. “‘Because of that conversation, you completely changed my life.’ She cried and I cried, and it was just awesome for me to be able to say thank you.”
Eighty-five residents and their pets were placed in temporary shelter with the assistance of the Salvation Army, American Red Cross, the Winnebago County Emergency Management Agency, and the Forest City Church.