WATERLOO - Some people doodle. A blank spot on a piece of paper is irresistible and it's not long before that pen or pencil is coloring in open spaces in lettering and drawing stars, boxes, stick figures, squiggles and faces in profile - all jutting jaws, big ears and bad hairdos.

Retired orthopedic surgeon Dale Phelps likes to doodle, too. For years, he sat through meetings and conferences, drawing in the margins of agendas. Then he began toting in sketch pads, letting his pen automatically flow over paper while actively engaging in the meeting. His sketches inspired the doctor, as he neared retirement, to take a few art classes at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.

In December, Phelps graduated with his bachelor of fine arts degree.

"I signed up for the degree program, not as a nontraditional student, but as a slightly irregular one," Phelps said, laughing. "One or two of the professors called me 'Doc,' and only one called me 'Dr. Phelps.' The students were great - I felt like I was one of them and that was very nice. They thought because I was older that somehow I had more knowledge than I actually did."

Phelps also displayed his work in public for the first time, as part of last month's BFA Exhibition at the UNI Gallery of Arts. "Visions from within" features a series of relief prints focused on his ongoing battle against prostate cancer. In April, the series will be exhibited at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis.

"I'm not an emotional person, so I express myself through my art. My work is figurative and not totally abstract. I draw from life, my own experiences and from my imagination - and I try to inject a little humor," he explained.

The surgeon has been living with cancer since 1993. As part of his treatment, Phelps uses meditation and guided imagery.

"A radiation therapist once told me that attitude has a lot to do with how well someone does fighting cancer, and some people do well with guided imagery and meditation. I decided 'why not try it?' I was a little less skeptical than other physicians might be. There's so much in medicine we don't understand, even though we think we know everything. There's still little emphasis on how one's mind and belief systems can impact health," Phelps said.

He views guided imagery and meditation as being complementary, not in opposition, to his ongoing medical care. The series, with prints bearing titles like "The Exterminator" and "Rallying the Forces," represent the visualizations he uses, particularly since he experienced some "activity" with the cancer last summer.

Relief prints depict cancer cells as marauding invaders and draws on his specific knowledge of the body and how it works, to tell the story. Perhaps inadvertently, viewers learn something about how the body fights the disease, such as in the print "Thymus U - Lymphocyte Academy," illustrating how lymphocytes go through the thymus and are converted to T cells which target cancer cells. Phelps shows lymphocytes as students marching into school and marching out as "graduates" or T cells.

Other prints show a colorful yellow and red dragon breathing fire to illustrate radiation therapy; a stark black-and-white battle between white cells and cancer cells, and a sinewy hunter, the natural killer white cell, seeking out cancer cells.

Imagery also requires an inner adviser. "Mine is Albert Einstein. I decided if I was going to have one, he might as well be smart. But I have trouble visualizing him, so I made a print so I can remind myself of his face," Phelps said, smiling.

He loves the unpredictability of the printmaking process, and devotes five days a week to working in his basement studio, in varying amounts of time. In addition to a small printing press, the surgeon has traded his scalpels for woodcarving knives to create wood cuts for printing.

"I've put on the brakes a little bit. When I was in practice, I'd work a 10-hour day doing surgery and treating patients, then I'd come home and farm - organic farming … did that for a long time, long hours but now we rent out the farm now," he explained. But the artist can't stop musing about new projects.

"I have some old farm equipment out in the barn I plan to use for making sculptures, and I'm thinking about getting a kiln because I'm interested in ceramics. It's all rewarding, and it's been interesting to see my colleagues' reactions. A couple of them are talking about going back to school."

Contact Melody Parker at 291-1429 or melody.parker@wcfcourier.com