That philosophy is revealed across the walls of Gallery of Aesthetics Medical Spa in South Jordan, where nearly 20 carefully chosen works of art surround patients long before a single procedure begins. Dr. Ayers and his wife, Julie, built the gallery around a simple belief: Beauty begins with how you feel. Their aim is for every client to leave the spa feeling renewed, confident, seen, and inspired.
Dr. Ayers spent more than 30 years in family medicine, including three years as a staff physician at a naval base in Japan and many more with Intermountain Healthcare. He is still in practice with Marathon Health in Sandy, and his focus has been preventive care, weight loss, and hormone optimization.
Roughly 20 years ago, a growing interest in aesthetics prompted him to seek additional training that led to his work with the National Institute of Medical Aesthetics, where he served as medical director for more than a decade. Maintaining a primary care practice alongside his aesthetic work, he says, keeps what he does at the spa firmly grounded in both medicine and artistry.
That grounding shapes how he talks about beauty. “Aesthetics is the art and science of skin,” he says. “A lot of people have the credentials to do this work, but not everyone has the understanding or the eye for providing an excellent result.”
For Dr. Ayers and Julie, refining someone’s appearance is a craft as much as a clinical skill. The art on the walls is an extension of that belief. The collection began with a painting gifted by an artist when the couple married nearly 40 years ago. It has since grown into a rotating gallery of about 20 pieces—some that invite reflection, some that draw a smile, and most centered on a single idea: Ordinary women, portrayed honestly, revealing their beauty regardless of appearance.
Among favorites are early works by Canadian artist Danny McBride, whose women in distinctive hats began as rustic figures and, over the years, grew statelier and more self-possessed. Dr. Ayers also commissioned a New Zealand artist to paint a bicycle resting on a cobblestone road in a quiet French village, created to mark the spa’s first anniversary.
“The art distracts from the unrealistic level of beauty seen in the media,” he says. “It reflects beauty that’s reasonable and achievable.”
Rather than chasing perfection, Dr. Ayers guides patients toward something more durable: Loving the way they look and feel, through personalized care and results that build genuine confidence.
Julie, who cofounded the spa and manages its daily operations, brings a complementary perspective. A former gospel singer from Des Moines, Iowa, she met Dr. Ayers when he was in medical school.
Her own frustrating experiences at other spas sparked her passion for building something different. Those visits, she says, never delivered a real plan behind them. Today, she is devoted to understanding exactly what each patient hopes to achieve—and to ensuring the treatment plan is built around those goals rather than a menu of services.
It’s an unusual pairing: A physician with three decades of clinical practice and a curator’s instinct for what beauty actually looks like. But at the Gallery of Aesthetics, the two are inseparable. The art on the walls is not just decorative. Rather, it’s a statement of intent, a reminder that the goal was never to make anyone into someone else—it was always to help them look and feel like themselves.