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KU docs exhibit love of outdoors in drawings and photographs

The two are friends, colleagues, and each chairs an academic department at the KU School of Medicine-Wichita. They are exhibiting their work this month in a joint show in the Dr. William J. Reals Gallery, located just outside the school's library. The show’s title -- "Fins and Feathers by Two Chairs" – reflects Pate’s position as head of the Department of Pediatrics, and Baade’s leadership of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Dr. Brian Pate was discussing his pastel drawings with a visitor when Dr. Lyle Baade snuck up with his own view: "He's just telling fish tales," Baade said.

It's true. Pate draws fish. But then Baade has no room to talk, since he features birds in his photography.  

The two are friends, colleagues, and each chairs an academic department at the KU School of Medicine-Wichita. They are currently exhibiting their work in a joint show in the Dr. William J. Reals Gallery of Art, located just outside the school's library.  

The show's title -- "Two Chairs: Fins and Feathers" - reflects Pate's position as head of the Department of Pediatrics, and Baade's leadership of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.  

Fins 

Pate works in dry pastels, a soft chalk-like medium. He's a self-taught artist who has enjoyed drawing for most of his life, but didn't do much of it until a piece he'd given to a favorite fly-fishing shop in Kansas City caught some attention.  

"The shop called me and said a couple people wanted to buy something like that," he said. Since then, he added, "I usually have a couple in the fly shop and a couple on the easel."  

Pate works from photographs he takes on fly-fishing trips. The titles of his pieces are usually drawn from the names of artificial fly designs (such as the "San Juan Worm") rather than the fish they're used to catch. Look closely and you'll see that the fish in each drawing usually has a fly in its mouth. Pate typically portrays only part of the fish, as if it's coming in from one side of the canvas -- or swimming into view. "To me, it just conveys movement."  

Some drawings are mounted behind acrylic, which adds a watery feel. Others are hung in frames made of driftwood to evoke nature. In his notes for the exhibit, Pate thanked his wife, Christy, for support in his "piscatorial and pictorial pursuits," and said his favorite fishing partners are his sons.  

Feathers   

Baade is a man of many interests, from hiking and genealogical research, to woodworking and restoring antique photographs. Favorite photography subjects are he and his wife Susan's six grandchildren, but wildlife - and especially birds - run a close second.  

"Most are shot right in my yard or neighborhood," he said. "If the camera's handy, I'll see something and quietly grab it. There's one of a hummingbird I shot in Arizona, and there's the Swainson's Hawk I shot in New Mexico."  

"Most of them have been shot with like a 200-meter lens, so I'm often fairly close. The hummingbird, I was climbing a mountain and sitting down to rest. I looked up and it was about eight feet from me. The hawk, I saw in a tree while taking a hike. It didn't move, it just stayed there."  

Asked if there are any particular birds he'd like to photograph, Baade said there are "still a few male hummingbirds I'd like to catch because they're so vivid in color."  

Baade often alters his photographs on a computer, using filters, brushstrokes, and other techniques to impart a painterly quality to them. "Sometimes you can brighten them up in a way that catches the eye a little more."  

The physicians say they've gotten a nice response from colleagues and students since their drawings and photographs went up.  

"It's something I do for enjoyment," Baade said. "If other people like it, that's great."  

"I'd rather be catching them," Pate said of the fish he draws. "But this sublimates my need to be out there fishing as often as I'd like."  


KU School of Medicine-Wichita