ABOUT DON HERSHMAN
Painter Don Hershman balances dual careers as an accomplished podiatric surgeon and artist, driven by a deep need for creative expression. He finds the same sense of flow in painting as in surgery, transforming subjects into vibrant, reimagined spaces infused with passion and humor.
As a child, Don Hershman was profoundly influenced by his field trips to the world-class museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He fantasized about becoming an artist, drawing incessantly, creating sketchbooks, and experimenting with color well into high school. When it came time to choose a career, he felt compelled to lock in a secure path that pointed toward medicine.
Don went on to receive his BA in premed with psychology from State University of New York at Buffalo and trained in podiatry at California college of Podiatric Medicine in San Francisco before establishing his own private practice there in the early 1980s. During medical school and surgical residency, he continued to draw, enabling him to better conceptualize the intricate spatial relationships between anatomical structures. As with a scalpel, he began to perfect his command of the pencil and paintbrush.
As he was building his medical practice, Don was also evolving a body of artwork, exploring various media in the form of drawings and paintings, and finding his voice as an artist. While hosting a party in 1992, with many of his new artworks hanging in his home, Donald was invited by a guest, a curator at the Spectrum Gallery, to participate in a group show she was organizing. To his surprise, all of his pieces in that show sold, giving Don the confidence and inspiration he needed to push on more seriously with his art.
Hershman’s work has been collected nationally and internationally. His paintings have been jury-selected for the de Young Open (2020, 2023) and exhibited in solo shows, including Donald and Victor: Under the Influence (2021) and The Art of Code Switching (2023) at Salomon Arts Gallery in New York. His I AM A BARN series, exploring resilience through aging structures, was exhibited at Radian Gallery in San Francisco and featured on the cover of San Francisco Arts Monthly magazine (2024). In 2025, Hershman’s work was on view at 45 Fremont and One Front Street in San Francisco, and featured at Sea Ranch Lodge (Sonoma County), with solo exhibitions at Firehouse Arts Center (Pleasanton, CA), MAG Galleries (San Francisco), and Artifact Gallery (New York).