Dave Baldwin is Yachats’ Renaissance Man — baseball, genetics, engineering, poetry and now big bold paintings

 

 

                                                First in a three-part series

By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews

YACHATS — Meet a former Major League Baseball player.

And a geneticist with a Ph.D. And a systems engineer who worked on secret military projects.

And an author published in scientific journals and poetry magazines. And an accomplished painter who also plays the ukelele.

All those would be Dave Baldwin of Yachats.

You’ll find him at the intersection of art, science and professional sports, happily retired and one of the three artists in a new venture — the Little Art Museums of Yachats presented by Polly Plumb Productions. The project is made possible by a $6,500 grant from the Oregon Community Foundation, and additional funding from Polly Plumb, the local nonprofit that brings cultural events to Yachats.

Along with two other artists in the exhibit — Debbie Aken and Victoria Kwasinski — Baldwin’s richly-colored, abstract work will be on display for a year beginning April 5 at the Overleaf Lodge, giving visitors an up-close look at some of the creative people who call Yachats home. Baldwin’s work will also be on display at the Drift Inn restaurant.

“The purpose is to promote Yachats as an art community and help people understand why the artists live here,” explains Meredith Howell, secretary of Polly Plumb. “It’s an exploration of why art in rural communities is important — economically, as a boost for tourism, and also for building a sense of community.”

From Satchel to secrets

Baldwin grew up in Tucson and was sure of his purpose early on. “My intention was to play major league baseball.” Period.

So he did.

The Cleveland Indians and New York Giants spent spring training in Tucson, and Baldwin would pedal his bike to their stadiums to watch. “There was a wire fence alongside the Cleveland bullpen,” he recalls. “A lot of pitchers were there, and they didn’t mind talking to kids.”

“I’d talk to the guys who were later Hall of Famers, like Satchel Paige and Bob Feller. I got to see what they did, how they cussed — you know, the important things,” he jokes. Through high school and college “Baseball was all I paid attention to,” he recalls.

It paid off.

His pitching won him slots with minor league teams and he moved up to the big leagues when the Washington Senators signed him as a relief pitcher.

For the next 16 years he pitched for the Senators, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox, until “baseball quit me. I was too old.” After being released, he went home to Tucson and earned a Ph.D.in ecological genetics at the University of Arizona.

But at age 40, faced with scant jobs in genetics, he decided to become a systems engineer. He earned a Master of Science degree and worked on secret U.S. Department of Defense projects in Arizona. Baldwin’s wife, Burgundy Featherkile, has the same degree, along with one in home economics.

More secret work followed in San Diego, where the couple worked for United Technologies. When the firm relocated and laid him off, Burgundy asked what he’d rather do.

“I said, ‘I’d rather do art’.” Period.

So he did.

Pursuing art wasn’t an out-of-the-blue impulse. In college, Baldwin took a course in scientific illustration, and the instructor suggested he think about abstract art because “You can do just about anything you want to do.”

Years later, Baldwin made it into the National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. — not for his pitching arm but for his painting skill. One of his works, “Fugue for the Pepper Players,” is in the museum’s permanent collection and it’s the only full-page piece in the book Treasures of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Along the way, his work has also been featured in Sports Illustrated, Graphic Review and Scientific American. And he has contributed articles to publications as diverse as the Harvard Business Review, American Scientist, and American Poetry Journal.

Of course he also writes poetry and plays the ukelele. Why not?

Why Yachats? “It’s beautiful here”

Like many residents, Baldwin and Featherkile discovered Yachats by chance. Driving from their San Diego home to her family’s ranch near Roseburg each summer, they’d then head north up the Oregon coast.

“Each time we passed through Yachats, we said ‘This is the place to retire. It’s beautiful here,’” Baldwin says. Period.

So they did.

They moved to Yachats in 2004 and starting playing major roles in developing Yachats’ arts scene. Baldwin was a charter member of the Yachats Arts Guild in 2010, and Featherkile was co-founder of Polly Plumb in 2015.

As he turned 87 just before the launch of LAMoY, Baldwin offered these thoughts, answering questions — and revealing a secret — for Yachats News.

Question: How does living in Yachats affect your art?

Answer: Yachats provides an artist with numerous natural beauties – the ocean, forests, sunsets, etc. — but I think my strongest local influence is from the Yachats Arts Guild. It is a large local organization that has many experienced artists who are glad to share their knowledge. I am still learning about art.

Q: What motivates you to keep creating art?

A: I create art because it is fun to explore the psychological effects of form, color, and pictorial content. Also, I enjoy the subtle collaboration of artists with art viewers. This collaboration completes the artwork.

Q: Does living and working in a rural area limit people’s exposure to your work?

A: Yachats is rural but it is also a tourist destination. Tourists have vacation mindsets. They are looking for new enjoyable experiences, such as collaborations with artists.

Q: Since tourism fuels the Yachats economy, what role do you think art plays in the city’s economic health?

A: Visitors who buy art display their art in their homes and see it every day, reminding them of fun they had in Yachats. They might return multiple times to re-experience that enjoyment.

Q: When people look at your work, what feelings would you hope to evoke?

A: When viewers look at my artwork, I hope they will experience the joy I felt when I created it.

Tell us one last thing.

When you play professional baseball, it’s mostly night games. So when I was in a city like New York or Chicago, I’d spend all day in art museums. When you have time to kill, you can watch the people looking at the paintings. You learn a lot.

• Cheryl Romano is a Yachats freelance reporter who contributes regularly to YachatsNews. She can be reached at Wordsell@gmail.com