Resident Hugh Thompson Sculpts a Legacy
Against the backdrop of the Santa Catalina Mountains sits the sculpture garden at La Posada at Pusch Ridge. In the garden, serenity is defined by a very real sense of movement and precision, beautifully captured in eight original stone sculptures. The works are situated along the perimeter of a perfect rectangle of green lawn, offering residents and visitors alike a unique opportunity. An opportunity to reflect on what they see, to consider how it makes them feel and to imagine who the master is behind these unique works of art.
Some may be surprised to find the master (of at least of seven of these works) is a resident at La Posada at Pusch Ridge.
A Career Dedicated to Healing, a Retirement Dedicated to Creating
For three decades, Hugh Thompson’s hands were his greatest tools. As an orthopedic surgeon, his focus was the repair and restoration of mobility and function of the human body.
“I always loved working with my hands, and I was at the height of my career in my late fifties,” Hugh explains. “At that time, I received what I refer to as a nudge. Something else was calling me.”
That nudge, which he now describes as “Spirit” working in him, came again and again over a three-year period. Finally at age 59 and a half, he told his medical practice partners he was retiring. At first, he transitioned from performing surgery to working in the practice office. But eventually, he moved away from medicine entirely.
The nudge continued. He answered by picking up a pencil and starting to sketch.
“Yes, I started with sketching,” he says. “But I wasn’t very good, and I quit. Then I took a watercolor class and discovered blending was too hard. And I quit that. I tried clay sculpting at the Tucson Museum of Art. I tried potting, and I was too impatient to make a round pot,” he says with a laugh.
As Hugh tried to access the incredible patience he had as a surgeon, he continued considering what the nudge—Spirit—wanted him to pursue. “ I was at a loose end,” he says.
Discovery Answers the Nudge
Friend and noted Tucson sculptor, Merlon Cohen, who had retired from dentistry years earlier, invited Hugh to watch him sculpt marble in his newly built home studio. Hugh was interested but hesitated. “It was so dusty and the equipment was so loud,” he says.
But one day, his friend handed him a piece of stone and said, “Why don’t you see what you can do with this.”
Two weeks later, using his friend’s studio and equipment, Hugh had created something refined and beautiful. And he was hooked. The nudge had been satisfied, and he describes feeling at peace with Spirit.
Spirit, Hugh explains, has always been working in his life. “The key to life is to learn how Spirit is talking to you,” he says. “It’s God’s voice, and he is unconditional love. Spirit has created the Earth and everything in it and that’s God’s creative force. We’re never given a problem that we don’t already have the answer to if we just listen.”
Hugh learned to “listen” after a scary but fortuitous fall from a ladder. He (a nonpracticing Presbyterian) and his wife, Allyn (raised Mormon), had decided they would commit 30 minutes each evening to spiritual reading. He was still working at the time and soon found he was too tired in the evening to keep that commitment.
Then, while doing exterior repairs to the chimney of their home, he stumbled and fell from the roof.
“As I was falling, I experienced a persistent voice that said, ‘Get your feet under you.’ So I did.” That voice, which Hugh describes as God, saved him from a more traumatic injury but he still ended up with two broken legs. “That,” he says, “gave me lots of time for spiritual reading!”
Finding Peace in the Practice of Sculpture
After discovering a talent for stone sculpture, and at the invitation of his friend Merlon, Hugh attended two, eight-day workshops at MARBLE/marble, a stone-carving symposium in Marble, Colorado, nestled along the Crystal River in the Rocky Mountains. Under the guidance of sculptor and MARBLE/marble founder, Madeline Wiener, symposium attendees share in the art and joy of stone-carving.
Hugh nurtured his newfound interest, attending the symposium for 15 years, working alongside his friend-turned-mentor, Merlon. He experimented with shapes and balance in the same thoughtful (and patient!) way he once approached complex surgeries.
Inspired by his time in the town of Marble (Fast fact: Marble for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was quarried there.), Hugh devoted himself to his artistry. “Sculpture lets me express the beauty of structure and the beauty of Spirit,” he explains. “I look at the work that I’ve turned out and think I had to have been a sculptor in a past life,” he says simply.
A Gift to the Community
Recently, Hugh—with the help of his son—installed QR codes in front of each piece of art in the La Posada at Pusch Ridge garden. When visitors scan the codes, they are taken to a web page that explores the artist’s perspective on the piece.
“We are honored that Dr. Thompson has created so many lovely works for our sculpture garden,” says Joni Condit, president and CEO of La Posada. “It’s a gift to our residents, their families and our dedicated team.”
In addition to installations at La Posada at Pusch Ridge, Hugh’s work is displayed at the Tucson Botanical Gardens and Tucson Medical Center. He has also donated sculptures to the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona in Tucson, the Amerind Foundation in Dragoon, the Tucson Jewish Community Center and the Eckankar Center in Colorado Springs.
His contributions stand as a testament to curiosity, reinvention and the joy of finding your passion. His work enriches the community in ways that go beyond aesthetics; it sparks wonder, conversation and the belief that every chapter of life offers room for growth.
