In 1962, at the age of 44, Feynman began learning to draw, starting by taking weekly classes at the home of artist/scientist Tom Van Sant. He developed into a talented artist over the years, often working with live models in his home, or simply sketching the people around him, and eventually began signing his works under the pseudonym "Ofey." His artwork is published in The Art of Richard P. Feynman. Images by a Curious Character, the present lot." 

Feynman's famous "Ode to a Flower" was a rꦡesponse to he and his artist friend Jirayr Zorthian's friendly arguments about science vs art:

"I have a friend who's an artist and he's taken a view which I don't agree with very well. He'll hold up a flower and say 'Look how beautiful it is!' and I'll agree. And he says 'You see, I as an artist can see how beautiful this is, but you, as a scientist... oh you take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing.' And I think that he's kind of nutty! First of all, the beauty he sees is available to other people — and me too, I believe... I see much more about the flower than he sees... All kinds of interesting questions which a science knowledge only adds to the excitement and mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds.... Does it make any less of a beautiful smell of violets to know that it's molecules?" (Sykes, No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman, p. 107)