When famed, pioneering space artist Chesley Bonestell began painting his wildly imaginative space artwork in 1905, imagination was really all he had to draw upon. When the Space Age arrived in the 1960s, some of his work was instantly dated—the lunar surface as seen by the Apollo astronauts looked nothing like Bonestell’s vision, for example—yet the sense of wonder, scale, and sheer beauty of that artwork has inspired countless artists to enter the field. Even in an age when we use our phone to view millions of digital photos of everything from rocket launches to distant galaxies, space artists take us places and show us visions that photographs never can.
Artist Depiction is a look at a number of the best in the trade from the past few decades. Lovingly directed, produced, and edited by Brett Bonowicz, along with a host of other producers and video professionals, the series looks at many of the finest space artists of our time. Pamela Lee, William Hartmann, Pat Rawlings, Don Davis, Charles Lindsay, and Rick Guidice have all been profiled (National Space Society members will know, in particular, Davis and Guidice for their images from the 1970s depicting O’Neill cylinders). All are masters of the craft and each has a unique story on how they work, what their inspirations are, and what got them interested in space art. Coming up later this year are Steve Dodd, Star Trek illustrator Rick Sternbach, and planetary scientist and artist Pascal Lee.