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Last year a client asked me to "paint the Universe" for her on a 3-panel folding screen. She is fascinated by the vastness, complexity, brilliance and beauty of our Universe, especially those areas recently revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope. From images easily accessed on Hubble's website, http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/entire_collection/, I found nebulae, galaxies, planets, huge gas clouds, and every combination. We eventually settled on two Hubble images, a star-forming region called 30 Doradus, and an area of the Small Magellanic Cloud called "Universe by Hubble". In September, 2005, I started painting the 30 Doradus side by bolting three narrow panels of stretched canvas together into a 5-foot-wide square. I speculated on what it would be like if you lived on planet, with an ocean, that happened to be near the 30 Doradus nebula. The result is a view of a shallow sea from a beach, with the night sky filled with this huge mass of clouds and stars. In January, 2006 I began the "Universe by Hubble" side and finally finished it this May. I used my own colors based on the black-and-white original Hubble photograph, and changed some things slightly to enhance the swirling energy, fiery light and the many mysteries. I'm going to present the finished screen at 2 pm on Sunday May 28 at the MSAW gallery. Anyone is welcome if they want to see it. A few days later it will be shipped to the client. Rusty (Lee) Mothes |