Artist’s Statement

Creating Hubble-image-inspired art: how I arrived at this subject matter

For over 50 years, I’ve been searching for the spark to ignite my inner artist. I experimented with many forms of expression, including theater, poetry, drawing, painting and dancing. It’s been a long journey—with time-out to raise a family and find my own truth—but eight years ago I was finally in a position to discover my creative way.

I began part-time, in the evening, but it was every evening, like a practice. I reveled in the joy of pen and ink drawing: it was an easy set up and a fast clean up, which was important when working late into the night. Images of the cosmos were just being beamed back to earth from the Hubble telescope and they fascinated me—I’d found my subject. With my early artwork, I scratched thousands of squiggles and dots into clean white paper to create these celestial art images. The process was organic and spontaneous, and to this day, when I begin a piece, I’ve got no idea of where it is going or when it will end.

In recent years, papers and pens for producing art have changed dramatically and works on paper have become more popular. I now use sophisticated gel pens that glide and flow with precision and ease onto coated-black paper that is archival and shines. The process is a hybrid: it has aspects, like layering, which are similar to painting. I’m able to generate many unique painterly effects by blending both metallic and luminous, phosphorescent inks. My technique is expanding to encompass all that my subject matter demands. This frontier—deep space—is my artistic landscape; it inspires and resonates within me.

Many people, besides me, are drawn to these Hubble photographic images. The images seem to conjure up all kinds of questions—about humanity, spirituality, the known universe, the unknown universe, and perhaps even unknowable universes. The images engage us as human beings, dreamers and visionaries. They constantly challenge the theories of our brightest scientists.

Sharing my amazement for the universe through what observers have called my spiritual art, mystical art, space art, cosmological or cosmic art—is now my life’s passion. I do it with pen, and sometimes paint, but always with heart. It’s the story that unites us all; it sheds light—literally—on how we came to be.