MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Artist Rosemary Feit Covey followed David Welch through surgeries and cancer treatments, taking photographs that would later be carvings (such as the one shown), her primary medium.

MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Artist Rosemary Feit Covey (left) and writer Karen Sosnoski talk in the Perspective Gallery in Squires Student Center at Virginia Tech. In the background are wood engravings of the David Welch in the exhibit "Internal Medicine," which follows Welch's battle with cancer.

Not for David Welch.

Welch, a 1991 graduate of Virginia Tech, commissioned artist Rosemary Feit Covey of Alexandria to follow his treatment from 2005 until his death Jan. 7 at age 42.

Covey's work that resulted from that time, including wood carvings and photographs, are on display at the Perspective Gallery in Tech's Squires Student Center through Nov. 14. The show is called "Internal Medicine."

Welch's decision to involve Covey puzzled his family.

"I didn't like the idea, frankly, because I thought it was a private thing," said his father, Jim Welch. "But I knew it's what he wanted, so we went along with it."

Welch was diagnosed with brain cancer in December 2004 and contacted Covey in 2005 about the project.

She followed him through the surgeries and treatments, taking photographs that would later be carvings, her primary medium. Welch received more than two years of chemotherapy and had two surgeries, one of which Covey and documentarian Karen Sosnoski attended at his request.

Covey's project was originally supposed to be a year long, but it continued until Welch's death because the work felt unfinished and Welch was an intense muse, Covey said.

"He understood art is a process," she said. "He didn't want a picture to hang on the wall. He wanted to be a part of it, and he understood it would continue."

The relationship between Covey and Welch inspired other artistic efforts, including an unpublished manuscript called "When Bird Boy Calls" by Sosnoski.

Originally, Welch was supposed to be a background character in a project Sosnoski was working on about Covey. But after meeting Welch, Sosnoski said she felt she couldn't ignore his enormous, cheerful personality and the opportunity to document his struggles with cancer.

"There was something about him, a passion," she said. "It was obvious from the beginning."

But whenever Welch left the room, both women said the emotional toll of watching the cancer progress would weigh heavily on them.

"When he went away, the impact would really hit me," Covey said.

That's why she included the photos she took of Welch in "Internal Medicine," she said.

"I'm not a professional photographer, but the photos had an intensity and would show exactly what I wanted," Covey said. "They would capture a second we weren't aware of in real time."

The show "is exactly what David would have wanted," Jim Welch said at the opening last week.

The important thing, Welch said, was his son's impact on people -- the art created around him and his blog, www.38lemon.com, which focused on Welch's treatment and reflections about cancer and his life.

The name "38lemon" came from the age at which David Welch was diagnosed with cancer --38 -- and the fact that his tumor was the size and shape of a lemon.

"The Web site was his passion because it was written as a patient, for people who don't know where to start or what to do," his father said.

Before he died, David Welch wrote on 38lemon: "I love to see the world through the lens of an artist. It is also wonderful that the artistic results of our collaboration have lasting value to each of us -- and others, as well. This makes such experiences that much more fulfilling and new friendships richer."