If you look at the word “inspiration,” there is another hidden inside it: P-A-I-N. All the letters are there, waiting to be revealed by those who know to look for them. The desire to quell pain is a common impulse of both doctors and artists. So just as a doctor seeks to ease a patient’s suffering, an artist turns to art to ease their own. Sometimes the doctor is also an artist, or the artist is also a doctor, which is not surprising when you consider the kind of creative thinking a career in medicine requires and the emotional toll it can take.

This art, an outlet for emotion and imagination, can also propel us, provide solace, ventilation, and focus. It can be everything and it can erase everything. And maybe, sometimes, somehow, it can make it all feel a little bit better.

In this episode, new co-host Chris Luggiero talks with doctors Sarah Coates, Pan Venkatraman, and Neelaysh Vukkadala, all artists of different media about how their respective crafts fit into their medical lives and minds.

Click on their names above to view their art. And be sure to check out MST’s “Get Inspired" page for a little inspiration of your own.

*Bronchial Tree Of Lungs Art Print by Pasieka