[a flute plays softly] (Fawzia Khan) I created "The Other," which was the black boxes that you look into.

You see this bronze face of another person, but with your eyes in their face, so the viewer is meant to put themselves in the place of that person.

Each face was from a different race, a different gender, a different age group, all things that we might discriminate against, and yet on the outside, they're all the same.

When I was working as a physician, I saw a lot of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, different races, different religions.

I think when you see people inside and out, you realize that most people are the same.

And I think that the same feelings in me that led me to medicine in the first place, a desire to help other people and to make their lives better or make the world a better place, are the same things that drive me in my art.

I had never thought of myself as being particularly artistic, and went to medical school.

After that, I start a residency in obstetrics and gynecology, which is where I met my husband.

I practiced for 3 years, and then my son was born.

After my son was born, my, my whole world view shifted.

I had been a very goal-directed person up to that point, was sure that once he was born, I was going to go back to working full time, and that wasn't the case.

And so, I decided at that point to quit practicing.

I finished at the University of Minnesota with a BFA in sculpture.

The minute I took sculpture, something clicked, and I thought oh, I can do this!

This is fun, and I understand it, I understand the way things are structured.

And I think that that relates back to being a surgeon, because you know, OB-GYNs perform surgery, and having the kind of mind that can sort of see in 3 dimensions.

If you know the anatomy underneath, the kind of mind that can sort of see in 3 dimensions.

that really helps to create the illusion of reality.

I've done woodworking, stone carving, metalwork, forging, welding, casting.

I love working in wood because I love the texture of wood and I love the appearance of wood and the natural feeling of wood.

But I love hot metal!

I love watching it go from just glowing red-hot, yellow liquid into a solid form that takes whatever shape you want to give it.

The theme I've been working with lately is the existence of plastic in the world and how much of it there is, and how it is affecting us, and in particular, affecting the oceans.

There's large garbage patches of plastic in the ocean and fish and the turtles and other sea animals eat the plastic and starve to death basically, because they think they've eaten food.

Also, the plastic leaches chemicals into the fish then we eat the fish, so we're absorbing those chemicals.

I mean, as a physician and as a person, that concerns me.

So I have been knitting fish forms out of plastic bags and crocheting jellyfish out of plastic bags.

You know, plastic is a wonderful substance.

We invented it, but I don't think that we use it wisely, and I think that we could say that for a lot of things that we do as a society.

I would say that I use the medium that's appropriate to the message, and that my work has a social justice message to it a lot of times.

I want to feel like I've moved people, that I've made a difference, because I have to make things.

I can't stop, all my life I have made things and I can't stop making things.

♪ ♪ [drums & percussion play in bright rhythm]