Dr. Jack Kevorkian returned to an old hobby while waiting to go on trial: painting stark, surrealistic works in oil. In War, Kevorkian created a human head oozing on a table platter, a wormy apple in its mouth. The decapitated torso sits ramrod straight _ fork and knife in hand. Mars, the god of war, peers over its bare shoulder. "It's symbolic of humanity. It's self-destructive," Kevorkian said. Fever depicts the naked torso of a man. Bones red hot from fever show through his skin like an X-ray. Heat emanates from his body. "When you look at this painting, I want you to feel fever," he said. The paintings are Kevorkian's first in 30 years. He plans to auction them off to raise money for his campaign to legalize assisted suicide in Michigan. Kevorkian began painting when he was a young pathologist in his hometown of Pontiac. He took a night school art class, with mostly housewives and nurses who painted clowns and landscapes. "Out of a mild revulsion, I thought I would rebel," he said. "So I said, "I'll paint something here that will turn everybody's stomach and I'm going to quit. Instead of walking out, I thought I'd go out with a roar, not a murmur.' " He said he doesn't like painting but enjoys watching people react to his work. "I don't want to be part of a group that conforms to what people think is proper all the time because it doesn't solve anything," Kevorkian said.