Celestial Bodies (working title) + IAC
Last year shortly after completing the Indiana Arts Commission (IAC) On-Ramp program, I applied for and was awarded a grant to work on a new series of work. YAY! Following the news of being awarded the grant, things went wildly off the rails. It looked like I was never going to going to be able to start work on the project. UGH! I was giving up hope that it would come to fruition when out of the blue a former instructor, from AAU, posted a new tool that made my process speed up exponentially. YAY, again!
The project is currently called "Celestial Bodies." Celestial Bodies is an exploration of what could be. It is a mix of my love for Star Trek. Yes, it is official, I am finally coming out as a Trekkie. (Although, my favorite spaceman is Captain Malcom Reynolds.)
And the musings of what might be found if we make it to Mars, or Space Force started building research facilities on the moon. What will we find when we push out into the universe? What about the show "Ancient Aliens?" What would I create if I was a costume designer or writer on Star Trek?
I created an image just before the On-Ramp Program called "Moon Head" (working title, not yet released, limited viewing) this image was a "playing with ideas" creation session. This image is a portrait shot of a humanoid being that has a moon for a head. The colors are very red and blue based. The images are lean heavily in the photorealism side of compositing.
Since the creation of "Moon Head," I've had a style change on the project. I've pushed into a more painterly style with this new series. I'm still working on whether or not I want to keep the images portrait like or if I want to keep whole bodies with backgrounds that show more context. I will have this worked out before the release of the series in or around January 2023.
UPDATE: January 2023 - While working on this project I discovered another layer to the story behind Celestial Bodies and why I wanted to create this series. I'll be making a separate post on this coming up as I finish my thoughts on it.
Celestial Bodies is made possible in part by the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.
