Combining Art & Design in Engineering

That's awesome that you are interested in engineering!  The obvious way to combine art and engineering is through architectural or civil engineering.  Both of those disciplines design buildings and structures that usually have to be somewhat aesthetically appealing and your background in art would fit in very well in either of those.  But the field of engineering is so diverse that art can fit in almost anywhere!
 
The most important thing that you probably have that a lot of engineers might lack is creativity.  Engineers can be taught to collect and analyze data, but when it comes down to the actual problem solving part, that usually requires creativity and a different perspective.  Especially in well-established industries, a lot of major problems have already been solved and now the focus is on improvement, so all the obvious, low-hanging fruit is gone.  I would assume the kind of thinking and problem solving you do with your art work is very different than what most engineers do, so, in my opinion, your artist’s perspective would be very valuable when it comes to solving any problems.

A couple side notes that you may not know about:  ASM International hosts a microstructure art competition in which people submit photos taken with a microscope.  Also, there are other fields like industrial design or human-machine interfaces that might interest you that also combine art and engineering.

Hi Karen,

Another great option for you would be Industrial Design which combines engineering design with human factors and aesthetics to design various products - from medical devices to toys to electronics ...basically a whole host of consumer products where ergonomics, usability, aesthetics are very important.

I'm an aerospace engineer myself but my local art college offers an Industrial Design program including evening classes. I took an intro class and loved it.

Highly recommend looking into it.