It’s a common misconception that someone has to be good at math or science to have an interest in space. Art is an integral part of astronomy these days — many discoveries in the distant universe can’t be captured in a photo but must be portrayed through an illustration.
Astronomy is full of these illustrations each month, both from the hand of our own
Roen Kelly and from outside artists.
NASA celebrates the art of astronomy with its second annual
NASA Lunar Art Contest, and the results are in. The contest, sponsored by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is for college and high school students to encourage those involved in the creative arts to get excited about the U.S. space exploration program. Nearly 150 students from around the world entered in categories including 2-D artwork, 3-D art, and digital art (video, computer-generated graphics, etc.). The pieces were judged on the artist’s statement, creativity and artistic expression, and whether the art represented a valid scenario of lunar exploration.
The overall winner is "Crater Core Sample," a painting (pictured, courtesy NASA) by Zachary Madere of the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Lakewood, Colorado, that depicts an astronaut holding an icy cylinder in a darkened crater while two other astronauts look on.
Students were creative with their tools and mediums. The first-place winner for digital art in the high school age group, Matthew Bruemmer of Ronald Reagan High School in San Antonio, Texas, composed a song to reflect the feel of lunar exploration. Jesse Lenz of West Liberty State College in West Virginia used a collage motif for her piece that was one of two winners in the 2-D college division.