Allison Cheng, a dental student, poses playfully with her painting "View of Mt. Fuji" at the 2024 Health Sciences Art Show held March 6, 2024 in Meiling Hall.
In her first year as a medical student, Dheevena Bachu has discovered the accuracy of the age-old expression, “drinking from a firehose.” One thing that’s helped her cut through the stress? Photography.
“Photography fully drives my focus into the lens and I forget the outside world,” Bachu says. “Practicing medicine has always been a goal but my passion for photography has just blown up lately.”
Recently, Bachu discovered an audience with which to share her artistic side through Ohio State’s Humanism and the Arts in Medicine program. In fact, her photograph “Nature’s Beckoning” won a blue ribbon at the College of Medicine’s Health Sciences Art Show, in which students, residents and faculty show off their creativity through a variety of artistic mediums.
This year’s art show saw its most submissions ever, and select pieces such as Bachu’s will be displayed at the James Art Gallery from March 21 through April 18. The Health Sciences Art Show is one of many events through the Humanism and the Arts in Medicine program, designed to help Ohio State’s medical community reduce stress and ease mental health issues through artistic expressions.
In their own words, here's what some of the medical student artists and program leaders had to say.