Death From the Skies! The Exhibition!

When my brother and I were just wee lads, our folks bought a telescope. On clear nights we would go out into the yard and gaze through the telescope and out into the universe. We had a simple star chart and would search the skies looking for planets and constellations, zooming in on the moon. I would pour over my copy of National Geographic’s Our Universe and my imagination ran wild.

When I started to like reading again after college, I picked up lots of popular science

books, mostly physics stuff. Light reading. Recently, with my discovery of the Bad Astronomy blog, I learned all about the wonderful world of Phil Plait. And in Phil Plait’s world, everything is like a beautiful photograph from the Hubble space telescope of a gorgeous, distant supernova… that is about to kill everything on Earth with a gamma ray burst. That’s just how Phil rolls. And that’s why I enjoy his writing so much.


Gamma Ray Bursts is performed by Es Muss Sein Quartet

So when his book, Death From the Skies! came out, I was really excited. My wife and I read the book and really enjoyed it. And this sentence really struck her: “The Earth sits in a cosmic shooting gallery, and the Universe has us dead in its crosshairs.” Since the book is filled with scenarios about the destruction of our world and the Universe, she thought it would make a great topic for an art exhibition. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand she was right. That Spring we met Phil Plait at a lecture at the Hayden Planetarium and we told him of our idea. He was very nice and very supportive during the development of our exhibition, which was last October.

So finally, I’m putting up installation pictures (and one MP3) of all the artwork from the show. Much thanks to all the artists who participated and to ABC No Rio for hosting.
And don't forget to check out each artist's link below the slide show.

Enjoy!

[Note: If the pictures in the slideshow are falling off of the left side of the box, just refresh. There appears to be something wrong with Picasa]



Links to artist websites
HC Noel - Asteriod Impact
Jacob Hashimoto - Solar Flares & CME's
William Stamos - Supernova
Es Muss Sein Quartet - Gamma Ray Bursts
Mike Estabrook - Black Hole
B-Cat & C-Town - Alien Attack!
Kevin Pyle - The Death of the Sun
Kelly Savage - Galaxies Collide
Brian George - The End of Everything

Origin Story

One of the most fundamental purposes of art (if art can be said to have a purpose) is communication.

First, some background.

Cut to the distant past (somewhere in the 1990’s):

I have been trying to figure out my place in the "art world" for a while now. 

When I was in high school, I believed that any art that was not Realism was garbage. When I got to college, I was going to learn the techniques of the Masters™. Salvador Dali and his hyperrealist manner were what I idolized. This is what I wanted. I was going to train to become an illustrator. Millions would see my amazing art! I was going to single-handedly SAVE ART!!!

And as with all things that teenagers believe, it was bullshit and I was horribly, horribly wrong.

I did go to art school and in addition to learning classical realism, I also learned about, well, all of the other things that make art so wonderful; the beauty of abstraction, the pure vibrancy of color-field paintings and I think there was something about sculpture as well.

I learned to appreciate the conversation and translation that occurs between concept and execution. “Why is this particular idea best executed through photography and not a drawing? Oh, that’s why! I get it now!”

And I did achieve my goal to become as technically proficient as possible. Even though I figured out that it was not the-be-all-end-all of artistic expression, it was still something I wanted to learn. The problem was that I sacrificed all content in my art to the whims of my technical ability. If I couldn't accurately represent an idea I had, I didn't bother. “Hey wouldn’t it be a great idea to draw a hand dressed up as a sailor for this assignment? Oh wait, I can’t draw hands. Never mind.” *Draws another picture of the back of someone’s head*

Over time, with much practice, my work finally became technically good. But since I had for so long limited the content of my art to what I felt I could reasonably represent, my art lacked any interesting content. And if you are keeping score, that makes for some boring art.


Cut to the distant future (2008):

One afternoon my wife sent me a text message telling me about a radio show on WNYC that she thought I’d really like. That show was Radiolab. It’s a show about science that is very creatively produced. The hosts of the show are genuinely curious about all the topics that they cover and they have great experts on to explain those topics in detail.

I was at work at the time, so I went over to one of the computers and downloaded the most recent episode and I immediately fell in love. I devoured all of the episodes available for download. But I wanted more. I wanted more science! I went into iTunes and looked at the Science and Medicine podcasts that were available. I downloaded a few random shows and went back to work. That was the day I found The Skeptics Guide to the Universe. It was episode #147 with special guest Martin Rundkvist.

They made fun of Postmodernism.

*Love*

I had really liked science as a kid. I did well in all of my science classes throughout school and I even took a molecular biology class in college that I really enjoyed. It wasn’t until I began listening to all of these new found science podcasts that my love for the subject had been rekindled. And the more I listened to these shows, the more I became acquainted with the communities that surround these podcasts. The good folks who make up these communities are the science promoters, the skeptics, doctors, teachers, scientists and the uncounted amateurs and enthusiasts. The focus of their collective attention is the promotion of science and rational thought.

This, I have decided, is what I want to do and where I want to be.

I had struggled for years to find the balance in my artwork; what do I want to say and do I have the capability to say it?

Now I can answer ‘Yes’ to both of these questions.

And that is why I started this blog. I want to use my art to aid in the promotion of science and critical thinking. It’s a small thing I know, but it’s something that I can do.

Darwin Day Awesomeness

So yesterday was Darwin Day, which celebrates the birth of the British naturalist, Charles Darwin.
Old Chuck D would have been 201 years young.
In honor of that date, the good folks over at Skepchick had a fantastic exhibition of artwork on the theme of "Darwin's Beard" and I was thrilled to be invited to participate.
All of the artwork was really good and I'm not just saying that. Go see for yourself!
And make sure you play with D.C. Turner's Flash-based artwork. I never knew that Chuck Norris could fit inside of a beard, but then there's a lot that Chuck Norris can do, apparently.

Go Science!

Prolouge

So!

It's the blog you've been waiting for, an art and science blog!

Wait, wait, WAIT! Come back!

Fine, I will seduce you with some art first, and then drop the science

on you at some future point.

Here, have some of these drawings from my "Hands" series: