The purpose of this study is to find whether artistic experience affects engineering creativity, if it does,
which characteristics of artistic experience influence engineering creativity. In order to do so, a qualitative
study is conducted for engineers who have some artistic experience. The results showed that artistic
experience affects positively engineering creativity, and that there are five characteristics of artistic
experience influencing engineering creativity. First, they had a clear self-awareness experience. Being aware
of oneself was applied to specifying directions and strategies of engineering research in which they could
manifest creativity. Second, they utilize their intuition. Their intuition was used in their engineering
research, which led them to creative problem solving by reinforcing the existing ways. Third, they have
challenged their limit and tried to overcome it. When they had some artistic experience, which made
them challenge their limit and overcome it, they were able to try a new research in engineering and
secure related knowledge and information that can actually be applied to their research. Fourth, they had
an others-oriented experience. As they adopt their appreciating experience, which puts emphasis on
empathy and understanding, into their research performance, their creativity gained positive social
recognition. Fifth, they had a cathartic experience. A cathartic experience helps to reduce negative feelings,
which could happen during an engineering tasks, and to recover that hurt feelings so the engineers could
be at the stage in which they could manifest creativity with a psychological stability. Finally, this study
suggests further directions for creativity education and future research.