Space art

Space art is a general term for art emerging from knowledge and ideas associated with outer space, both as a source of inspiration and as a means for visualizing and promoting space travel. Whatever the stylistic path, the artist is generally attempting to communicate ideas somehow related to space, often including appreciation of the infinite variety and vastness which surrounds us. In some cases, artists who consider themselves space artists use more than illustration and painting to communicate scientific discoveries or works depicting space; a new breed of space artists work directly with space flight technology and scientists as an opportunity to expand the arts, humanities and cultural expression relative to space exploration.

The Cosmos contains many sources of visual inspiration that our growing abilities to gather and propagate has spread through the mass culture. The first photographs of the entire Earth by [http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/goes/ats_colorearth.jpgsatellites] and [http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/education/miepe2.html manned] Apollo missions brought a new sense of our world as an island in empty space and [http://www.massivechange.com/2006/07/06/stewart-brand-interview-march-2-2004/ promoted ideas of the essential unity of Humanity] . Photographs taken by explorers on the Moon shared the experience of being on another world. The famous [http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1995/44/image/a/ 'Pillars Of Creation'] Hubble Space Telescope and other Hubble photos often evoke intense responses from viewers, see for example Hubble's [http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/nebula/planetary/ Planetary Nebula] . Perhaps such images provide modern audiences with fresh visions through which the religious awe invoked by the great murals in cathedrals of earlier centuries can be experienced anew.

Practitioners of the visual arts have for many decades explored space in their imaginations using traditional painting media and many are now using digital media toward similar ends. Science Fiction magazines and picture essay magazines were once a major outlet for space art, often featuring planets, space ships and dramatic alien landscapes. Chesley Bonestell, R. A. Smith, Lucian Ridaux, and Ledek pesek were some of the major artists actively involved in visualizing space exploration proposals with input from experts in the infant rocketry field anxious to spread their ideas to a wider audience. A strength of particularly Bonestell's work was the portrayal of exotic worlds with their own alien beauty, often giving a sense of destination as much as of the technological means of getting there.

The premier oganization in the world for creating space art is the International Association of Astronomical Artists. Composed of over 120 members, the IAAA strives to depict the wonders of the Universe in ways to inspire the greater human population and raise awareness of space. Members of the IAAA have been creating space art in all of its myriad forms for 25 years, from traditional painting, to digital works, and 3-D zero-gravity sculpture.

Space artists may work closely with space scientists and engineers to help them to visualize and develop their scientific and technological concepts making the dream of space exploration a reality. Other forms of pictorial space art bring the viewer to inner visions inspired directly or otherwise by the fruits of the expanding vision of Humanity. Some aspects of such art pay visual homage to outer space, popular ideas of life on other worlds including alien visitation visions, dream symbology, psychedelic imagery and other influences on contemporary visionary art.

Now that artists have experienced zero gravity conditions during many flights flown with NASA, the Russian and French Space Agencies, and with the Zero Gravity Arts Consortium as part of a hoped for migration of Humanity beyond Earth, artistic expressions unknowable today will continue to unfold with new forms of microgravity expression emerging. Although such dreams await substantial opportunity, early efforts by artists to have art pieces placed in space have already been accomplished with both holography, sculpture, painting, mircogravity mobile, floating literary works and sculpture. The first painting to be brought to Earth-orbit was a radiant study of the golden sunlight on a Soviet space station by Russian artist Andrei Sokolov, carried aboard the Soviet Mir space station in the mid 1980s. In 1984 Joseph McShane and in 1989 Lowery Burgess had their conceptual artworks flown aboard the Space Shuttle utilizing NASA's 'Get Away Special' program. The first sculpture specifically designed for a human habitat in orbit was Arthur Woods' " [http://www.cosmicdancer.com Cosmic Dancer] " which was sent to the Mir station in 1993. In 1995, [http://www.arsadastra.com Ars ad Astra - the 1st Art Exhibition in Earth orbit] consisting of 20 original artworks from 20 artists and an electronic archive also took place on the Mir as a part of ESA's EUROMIR'95 mission. In 1998, Frank Pietronigro flew Research Project Number 33: Investigating The Creative Process in a Microgravity Environment where the artist drew, created 'drift paintings' and danced in microgrvity space. In 2006, the artist returned to microgravity flight to create three new works, one in collaboration with Lowry Burgess, Moments in the Infinite Absolute, Flags in Space! and a new form of microgravity mobile.

Small art objects have been carried on several Apollo missions, such as gold emblems and a small "Fallen Astronaut" figurine that was left on the Moon during the Apollo 15 mission. Visual observations have been recorded in drawings and commentary by earlier Cosmonauts and Astronauts of difficult to photograph phenomena such as the airglow, [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-45/ch19.htm orbital twilight colors] , and [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n13_v145/ai_14990742 outer details] of the Solar corona. An able and observant artist can record aspects of the surroundings beyond the design limitations of any particular camera system.

Astronomical art, the direct inheritor of the artistic standards of Bonestell, is an aspect of space art whose primary emphasis is in giving the viewer visual impressions of alien and exotic places in the Cosmos. As an Astronomical artist one should have a sense of why the lighting, sky color, even your chosen landscape surroundings appear as they do, and how a drastic change in a specific condition as on other worlds could alter the scene dramatically. One should have a reasonable 'grounding' in science, the nature of the sky and weather, and geology for knowing the Earth, as well as Astronomy for knowing the heavens. Such artists share with every other conceivable creative expression the vast arena containing what can be called Space Art.

pace Art related books

"Space Art" Ron Miller Starlog Magazine

"Space Art: How to draw and paint planets, moons and landscapes of alien worlds" Michael Carroll, Watson Guptill publishers 2007

"Infinite Worlds" Vincent Di Fate

"Eyewitness to Space, from the Art Program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration" (1963 to 1969).' Foreword by J. Carter Brown. Preface by Thomas O. Paine. New York: H.N. Abrams

"Fire and Ice A History Of Comets in Art" Roberta J. M. Olsen Walker and Company New York

"Visions of Space" David A. Hardy Paper Tiger 1989

"Worlds Beyond: The Art of Chesley Bonestell" Ron Miller & Frederick C. Durant, III

"In the Stream of Stars: The Soviet-American Space Art Book" Sokolov, Miller, ,Myagkov, Hartmann, International Association for the Astronomical Arts

"Blueprint for Space" Frederick I. Ordway, III & Randy Liebermann, eds

"Visions of Spaceflight Images from the Ordway collection" Frederick I. Ordway III Four Walls Eight Windows, New York 2000

"Celestial Visitations The Art of Gilbert Williams" 1979 Pomegranate artbooks

"Cosmic Art" Ramond & Lila Piper Hawthorne Books 1975

"Universe" Don Dixon Houghton Mifflin 1981

"Imagining Space Achievements*Predictions*Possibilities 1950-2050" Chronicle Books 2001

"Star Struck: One Thousand Years of the art of Science and Astronomy" Ronald Brashear Daniel Lewis 2001 Univ. of Washington Press

"Futures: 50 Years in Space" David A. Hardy & Patrick Moore AAPPL 2004

Space artists

*Chesley Bonestell
*Michael Carroll
*Don Davis
*Don Dixon
*David A. Hardy
*William K. Hartmann
*Jon Lomberg
*Ron Miller
*Rick Sternbach

Space Art Organizations

*Association of Autonomous Astronauts
*El Club de los Astronautas
*International Association of Astronomical Artists
*Zero Gravity Arts Consortium

External links

* [http://www.artscatalyst.org Arts Catalyst]
* [http://www.elclubdelosastronautas.com El Club de los Astronautas]
* [http://www.art.eonworks.com/gallery/space/space_gallery_1.html Space art of Dawid Michalczyk]
* [http://www.dreamsofspace.com Dreams of Space (Space art in children's books 1949-1974)]
* [http://www.olats.org/space/space.php Olats]
* [http://www.solarvoyager.com/ Solar Voyager]
* [http://www.spacearts.info SpaceArts Database Project]
* [http://www.arsastronautica.com ars astronautica]
* [http://www.pietronigro.com/space Frank Pietronigro 'Drift Painting' in Microgravity]
* [http://www.pietronigro.com/zgac Zero Gravity Arts Consortium]
* [http://www.stock-space-images.com Michael Carroll space art]
* [http://www.cosmicimagination.com Drew Taylor's space art]