Medicine helps student brush life onto paintings

Winning first place from AMSA contest

By Camille Webb

Studying medicine moves Sher-Lu Pai"s paintings to a realistic, yet still imaginative, height.

"I think medicine helps me to see details that I had never seen before," says Pai, who is a fourth-year Medical School student and an artist. "It"s always interesting to see how everything works at every single level. I feel like I understand my subject a little bit more."

Right now, Pai"s subjects are the eyes of people and animals. In her series "The World of Eyes," she blends delicate brushstrokes with vivid watercolors to tell a deeper story in her subjects. "Whenever I see human beings or animals, the eyes tell you the spirit of them," she says. "It just fascinates me."

Even something as violent as a crocodile has beauty in Pai"s world. In her painting, "Looking in the Eye of Death," a crocodile"s eye is washed in a sea of blue-green and dipped with hints of bright yellow and red.

"That"s one of my favorite pieces in ‘The World of Eyes" series," Pai says. "I think it really captures the crocodile"s eye. I feel like it"s always looking at the viewer, no matter what direction you"re looking at this piece."

"Looking in the Eye of Death" also caught the eyes of judges, and Pai received the first place award for painting and other visual art in The New Physician"s 11th Annual Creative Arts Contest of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA).

Although medical school does not leave her much time to submit art to contests and galleries, Pai did enter her work in the Medical School"s Art Wall exhibit, which debuted in February. Two pieces from "The World of Eyes" series, "Sunflower Anatomy," "The Pipeline of Life," and "Windmill Sunset" were accepted for exhibit and were in the spring Art Wall show.

In "Sunflower Anatomy," a sliced sunflower bleeds brilliant shades of saffron, gold, and tomato red. Pai says the watercolor was inspired by her mother"s sunflower garden.

"It"s almost like a little dissection of the flower, and I thought, ‘Once I cut it in half, it"s still beautiful,"" she says.

Pai"s fascination with art began when she was a child. When she reached high school and studied broader subjects, science sparked her interest. "I realized I really liked science and at the same time, art," she says. "I think that"s how it all started."

Pai took art classes alongside her pre-med classes at The University of Texas at Austin and graduated with degrees in both studio art and biology. She says she never thought about choosing one area of study over the other. "I never really look at it like I have to pick one or the other," she says.

Pai graduates in May and is planning to specialize in surgery.