On Physics and Art

I am currently studying at Middlebury Language Schools. This post (not including this paragraph or the title) is excerpted from a writing sprint during my Creative Nonfiction class on Thursday, April 27th, 2017 at 5:55pm. It was originally titled "Painting." Spelling and grammatical mistakes omitted. 

There was a time in my life when I thought I might try my hand at being an artist. Then again, there was a time in my life when I thought I would be a physics major, so there's that. Currently I do neither, but that's okay. The thing of it is, that I believe physics and art to not be that different. Show me a physics textbook and ask me to solve an example problem and I will be only slightly more confused than if you showed me a book of famous paintings and asked me to name the artist.  

I just don't get art you know? I understand that it is moving and it is powerful, but I'm not quite sure how. I admire artists for their skill, and to me it seems like magic. Then again I also think the same thing about physics. The enormity of the tasks people can accomplish with mathematics and manipulation of the world around us is astonishing, and Neil Degrasse Tyson can move me just as much as Leonardo da Vinci.