From the vibrant colors on a canvas board to words that seem to come alive and to the musical notes that jump from the musician to the listener’s heart, these are the arts. I have always had a deep appreciation for the arts and artists alike ever since I can remember. Though I chose a path in the sciences, I have felt that having a background in studio arts and music have helped me greatly in understanding scientific concepts. This may seem a bit unusual at first, but the more you think about it, the more it starts to make sense.

The arts are, in a way, about letting your creative side go free. There is no need to go in order from step one to step two to step three. If you feel like it, you can go from step one to step three with no hesitation at all. It helps you to think outside the box, or better yet, not even realize there is a box to begin with since you have been thinking outside of it for a long time now. You can freely experiment once you learn the basics of each artistic field (i.e. how to play the notes on an instrument or how to draw contour lines or shade) and discover new ways to represent an idea. These characteristics of the arts are what, in my opinion, translate to other subjects, such as the sciences, and these are the primary reasons why students should try to take at least one art course in college. But why specifically the studio arts and not music or theater or any of the other forms of art available?

When it comes to visualizing a problem, personally, I feel that concepts learned in visual arts courses help out the most. Aside from the specific theories of art that go along with visual arts course or the fact that you can draw wherever and whenever, the concepts of experimenting and representing ideas anew are more emphasized in a way that can be easily seen. It doesn’t matter if you can draw well or not (where “well” is a subjective term) as long as you are trying to put into practice the basic techniques you have learned in a creative way. You can see your thought process and how the solution to a problem looks and evolves as time goes on. It is almost a visual representation of your thought process. By recognizing these aspects of what a studio art course can give, the main idea is to start applying it to other subjects.

For example, if you are stuck on writing a computer program and cannot see where the problem is occurring, try to use the visualization skills you learned in art class! By visualizing on paper how the code is working, you can find where the issue is or even come up with a better way to solve the entire problem at hand. For those in the natural sciences, such as biology, if you are studying the anatomy of the human body, to be able to draw it out can be quite helpful in knowing how each part is related to one another. Fun fact, if approaching science through the arts is something you wish to pursue further, you can even aim at a career that integrates the two, such as being a scientific illustrator to pursuing a career in animation or game design.

So, no matter what path you end up choosing, the arts can come a long way in helping you to think creatively about challenges that arise. And, as a perk, it lets you relax as creatively as you wish after a long day’s work.