Beyond the Sculptures: Healing Hands

Emily Baffa

November 11, 2022

Located in the courtyard of the East Peoria Illinois Central College (ICC) campus, the bronze sculpture “Healing Hands” by Wayne Forbes serves as a tribute to those who have given the “gift of life.”

The sculpture was commissioned by the Peoria Area Transplant Society with funds raised to venerate organ donors. The fund originated to honor Sean Scholl, who was an organ and tissue donor. It was unveiled at ICC upon its arrival in September 2000.

The bronze healing hands sculpture is shaped like a fountain with a narrow base and blooming, broad top. The stem of the sculpture is formed by entangled arms reaching to the sky. The hands stretch outward and elevate a face centered in the palms that looks upward.

Katie Kennelly, a social work major at ICC, commented on the piece.

“I like the look from the top; it looks like the person surrounded by flower petals is the main character, but when you look below you see that he couldn’t look as majestic by himself, but is instead depending on the unseen supports, shown by the hands, to hold him up,” Kennelly said.

Wayne Forbes was born in 1945. Growing up in Pittsburgh, PA, Forbes attended art classes at Carnegie Museum of Art and the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He also carved many miniature wooden sculptures with his grandfather’s knife and used this hobby to comfort himself during stress and pain. Forbes was an art and sculpture instructor at ICC and was part of the faculty committee for the Percent for Art program. Diagnosed with kidney failure, Forbes was inspired to use his artistic gifts and incorporate anatomical elements into his work. He began to work on a wooden sculpture depicting an “awakening kidney,” as he put it, while he looked forward to a kidney transplant. Becoming too sick to continue his work, he took a break from the piece until he received his long awaited kidney transplant on February 15, 1997, over four years after his diagnosis. He continued to pour his time and talent into soulful sculptures until his death in 2013.

Along with Healing Hands, another one of Forbes’ art pieces are on display at ICC. It is a wooden sculpture of tangled octopus-like arms and a distorted human face. This crude piece is chained to the fence outside the Dirksen Hall and has morphed into an element of the natural scenery as it has aged and weathered over time.

While Healing Hands exists to honor organ donors and the gift of life they offer to others, Kennelly takes it a step further and discusses how it also inspires onlookers.