For psychiatrist and sculptor William Matzkin, M.D., art is not a fixed object that hangs inertly on a wall waiting to be appreciated. It partners with the observer. As the viewer gazes and contemplates Matzkin’s art, it twirls, shimmers, dances, changes, and, most of all, delights.

Inspired by the work of Alexander Calder, Matzkin creates mobile sculptures "for the delight of the children in us and the children we have." The movement in his sculptures, he explained, conveys "a sensual satisfaction without the need for figurative realism."

The 77-year-old Rockville, Md., resident traces his fascination with art to his grade-school years when he painted portraits of George Washington—at his teacher’s request—on the classroom windows. For his sixth birthday, Matzkin’s father gave him a Boy Scout knife, which he used to carve simple wooden toys for himself and his friends.

As an adolescent, Matzkin said he became interested in dance, accompanying his sister to dance concerts. Though he took several dance classes, he realized that he was not cut out to be a dancer. Instead, he channeled his love of graceful movement into fencing—and a couple of decades later into an art form that depends on movement that is at the same time orchestrated and unexpected.

During his undergraduate years at New York’s City College, where he was a member of the fencing team, Matzkin made jewelry to support himself.

He said he began creating mobiles about 15 years ago, when he finally had an apartment with a room he could use as a studio, though he acknowledges that ever since he saw Calder’s fish mobile in the 1940s at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, he has been fascinated by the work of that artist. It was Calder who created a new standard for movable art and coined the term "mobile."

"I fell in love with their poetry, movement, and grace," Matzkin said.

He acknowledges the complaints of some gallery owners that his work is in fact "too reminiscent of Calder," but stresses that "if they look closer, they will see my signature, my joy, and my respect for Calder. This becomes more obvious with each new commission."

Matzkin’s sculptures of sheet metal (usually aluminum), wire, and paint vary in size from as large as 8 feet wide to as tiny as under 3 inches high. The work in the photograph at right titled "Dancers," is 20 inches high and 40 inches wide.

He began selling and exhibiting his work only about two years ago when he heard about a nearby gallery that wanted local artists to exhibit there. The gallery owner originally turned him away, since she was interested only in paintings for the exhibit. He convinced her, he said, that his mobiles were really just "line drawings in space." Not only did he sell most of the eight works he displayed, but also he got commissions for three new pieces.

Some of his mobiles begin with a line drawing, he explained, others evolve when he starts putting together pieces of metal scattered around his studio. "It grows from that. Often what ends up fitting perfectly is not what I originally cut out, but what’s left behind."

He said that he derives great joy when he watches people who clearly enjoy his mobiles. "When I see smiles break out, I know I’ve been a success," he stated proudly.