Interview with Dr. Ruta Yardi Andress
Neurologist and Epileptologist | Acrylic Impressionist Painter
“I do see medicine as a kind of art.” -Dr. Ruta Yardi Andress
I had the great pleasure of interviewing my good friend and colleague, Dr. Ruta Yardi Andress. We connected instantly over art during our neurology residency and we were lucky enough to fit in an art class together in our residency schedule sketching in the galleries at the local museum, catching the sessions after work (as seen in the image below). As our clinical practices evolved over time, so has our art!
Gallery of Ruta Yardi Andress’ work:
Interview
Thoughts on Medicine:
L: Can you paint a picture of what you do as a doctor and how you spend your professional time?
Ruta Yardi Andress:
I’m a neurologist. I’ve studied the brain and its dysfunctions and specialized in epilepsy, which involves treating people who suffer from seizures. My current practice is almost entirely epilepsy-based, focusing on patients whose seizures have been difficult to treat.
L: What initially sparked your interest in medicine?
Ruta Yardi Andress:
I come from a family of doctors. Since preschool, I’ve been immersed in that world. My dad would pick me up and take me straight to the hospital, where he’d put me in a clinic room with crayons, paper, and a mango drink and I would draw there until he finished with his patients.
Dinner table conversations were always about medicine and patient stories. In India, medicine often spills into personal life—patients call at odd hours or even show up at your doorstep. There was not a great distinction between my parents’ work and home; that blending of work and home shaped my life.
So when the time came to choose a career, I naturally gravitated toward medicine because I knew nothing else and I gradually realized I loved nothing else, and that’s how I ended up in medicine.
L: Do you feel that exposure informs how you practice medicine today?
Ruta Yardi Andress:
Absolutely. My practice combines my mom’s compassionate and friendly approach in her practice with my dad’s academic and focused style. I’ve found a balance between empathy and professional detachment that reflects both their influences.
L: What do you love most about your practice?
Ruta Yardi Andress:
I love what I do. I feel that thrill every time I see a patient even on days when I don’t feel like going to work, the moment I’m with a patient, I’m a hundred present engaged in each patient and their story. I don’t think there’s a greater joy than to love what you do.
Reflections on Art:
L: You’re an accomplished artist as well. I remember your painting of the bicycle with the yellow wash—it’s impressionistic and abstract. It left a lasting impression on me. How do you define art?
Ruta Yardi Andress:
I have two definitions. First, art is an expression of yourself—it’s present in everything: fashion, your home, relationships. It doesn’t have to be traditional “creative” art.
Second, art is the emotion it evokes in the viewer. The artist’s work triggers feelings, whether positive or negative, and that emotional impact makes art memorable.
The two definitions are connected with the artist’s window that you are looking through and the emotion that is triggered in the viewer.
L: Why do you create art?
Ruta Yardi Andress:
Like medicine, art has always been part of my life. My grandfather, a retired military man, was passionate about painting. He spent his time in his studio working in oils with a number of ongoing pieces of art on view. As kids, he’d give us paper or small canvases to experiment with his paints. He was self-taught and gradually taught us how he does his art. There was not much theory, but a natural way to express what you see by using colors that make you feel good.
I learned from him alongside my sibling and cousins, but interestingly I was the only one that continued to do art and maybe there was something naturally within me that attracted me to art. I owe a lot of my art to my grandfather. He was very critical in reviewing my pieces; if he said something was “okay,” it felt like the highest compliment. His feedback shaped how I view and critique my own work today.
L: Your grandfather was very influential in your artistic exposure and growth. Can you describe what his art work looked like?
His personal art style was impressionistic which I derive my current personal style. His most famous art piece was a copy of the Ingress naked lady. It was a massive piece hanging in their bedroom and it was a source of embarrassment, intrigue, and a conversation-starter among friends and visitors. He liked to bring everybody over to see how he had painted a nude.
L: How does your art practice look now?
Ruta Yardi Andress:
Finding time for art has always been challenging. After college, I didn’t touch a paintbrush or pencil until residency, when I joined an art course at a museum.* I was nervous—I thought I’d lost whatever skill I ever had. I doubted that I could do anything anymore because it had been a very long time. It was also the first time I had painted without my grandfather around and that brought anxiety because I did not have the direction and critique to make my art.
That’s when I painted the bicycle for my living room. When I think back, I did it to fill a space in my living room. I didn’t want to buy it when I could just do it. To this day, even though I don’t like the painting, everyone else does. It’s always finding its way in a prominent space in each of my apartments and it always sparks conversations. It falls in my second definition of art where it’s not my favorite piece, but the emotion it invokes in everyone that sees it is phenomenal.
L: For me, it’s always been my vision of you as an artist. It’s an iconic piece.
Ruta Yardi Andress:
I don’t know why I have red splotches on there; this was me holding a paintbrush after a very long time. I can’t tell you how many people remember those red splotches because everyone has their own interpretation of what those colors represent. It’s always been something that people remember me by. It’s the strangest painting and I will always “hate” it. That piece was a rebirth and restarted my painting practice.
L: It’s interesting how art takes on a life of its own. What fuels your creativity now?
Ruta Yardi Andress:
Creating art propagates itself. When I paint, I start adapting the painter’s lens and I notice the beauty in the world—places, emotions, moments. It inspires me to capture those experiences in my work. When the painting turns out to be a good piece, then I want to repeat the experience.
L: Who do you share your art with?
Ruta Yardi Andress:
Close family and friends, like you, my husband, and my in-laws. My mother and father-in-law give honest and critical feedback, and I value their unbiased viewer’s opinions. When they visit, I ask them to rank my new pieces and it always surprises me when they love a painting I don’t love. I show my art to a lot of people, but the people who I take criticism from have been constant.
Medicine and Art
L: How do you balance being a doctor and an artist? Are these practices intertwined?
Ruta Yardi Andress:
They’re very separate. My artwork has nothing to do with my profession. I went through a transient phase where I wanted my work to influence my art and I had a concept for a series to display the left and right brain with specific elements such as clarity and realism for the left side and impressionism, abstraction, and fluidity of the right. For me, it seemed artificial to create a unique identity by being a neurologist who does artwork. I do art for myself and so I questioned why I would appease an external viewer; I gave up that concept and prefer the separation. I think of myself as Peter Parker and Spider-Man—wearing different hats for different roles whether as mom, physician, or artist. I don’t like these world’s to collide because each bring satisfaction to different parts of my brain and keeps me balanced.
L: Do you see any intersections between medicine and art?
Ruta Yardi Andress:
Personally, no. But broadly, art can complement and be used in medicine. It promotes mindfulness, alleviates anxiety, and enhances well-being. Medicine, however, is rigid for good reason. That structure is necessary.
Art is also rigid in its own way; it’s just perceived as being free and evolving.
That said, I do see medicine as a kind of art. The best of the doctors are artists, not painters, but artists at what they do because if you naturally have a sense for your specialty, it goes a long way. For example, a great neurosurgeon has an introspective, innate, and special sense of the brain—it’s what sets them apart.
Conclusion
L: Thank you so much for sharing your journey. Let’s wrap up with a fun question: If you could prescribe something to foster creativity and balance for someone in medicine and the arts, what would it be?
Ruta Yardi Andress:
Time. That’s all you need to start creating anything in life.
Note: This conversation has been edited to improve readability while maintaining the integrity of the discussion.
Stay tuned for upcoming episodes of where we “dissect” personal artwork revealing back stories, struggles, and sparks behind each creation.
Know a physician-artist? I’d love to connect—reach out for a feature!