Cosmic art on display at Lick Observatory through September (Forwarded)
Andrew Yee
Contact: Tim Stephens, (831) 459-2495; step...@cats.ucsc.edu
For Immediate Release: July 3, 2000
Cosmic art on display at Lick Observatory through September
MT. HAMILTON, CA -- A cosmic art exhibit of paintings and prints by
astronomical artist Lynette R. Cook will be on display at the Visitor Center
at the University of California's Lick Observatory through September 30.
Lick Observatory, located atop Mt. Hamilton about 20 miles east of San
Jose, is open to the public Monday through Friday from 12:30 to 5 p.m. and
Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors who attend special
summer programs in the evenings will also be able to view the exhibit.
Highlighting the exhibit are portraits of extrasolar planets discovered by
the Marcy/Butler Planet Search Project. The project's planet hunters, who
include UC Santa Cruz astronomer Steven Vogt and UCSC alumni Geoffrey
Marcy and Debra Fischer, made many of their discoveries at Lick Observatory.
Since 1995, Cook has been working with Marcy and Fischer, both now at
UC Berkeley, to create images of these extrasolar planets as they might
actually appear. Since the planets cannot be imaged directly, Cook blends
the scientific data with her own creative expression to depict these
far-off worlds accurately and realistically. This, in fact, is the role of
an astronomical artist: to blend art and science into a unified whole for
the purpose of educating others about astronomy and science.
The 27 paintings and prints in the exhibition include realistic and conceptual
works of other astronomical subjects in addition to extrasolar planets.
Among the subjects Cook explores in her work are the Search for
Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and the cosmic puzzle of dark matter
and missing mass in the universe.
Most of Cook's works are traditional paintings: mixed-media combinations
of acrylic, colored pencil, and gouache on illustration board. She also
occasionally uses acrylic gouache, graphite, ink, pastel, and watercolor.
In the past year, Cook has been working with digital methods as well and
has included one digital print in the exhibit. Visitors may recognize some
of Cook's images of extrasolar planets, which have been widely published.
They have appeared in planetarium shows, in television documentaries
airing on BBC, CNN, PBS, the Discovery Channel, and the Learning Channel,
and in books, newspapers, and magazines, including the periodicals
Astronomy, Eos (Belgium), Pacific Discovery, Science et Vie (France),
Science News, and Sky & Telescope.
About the Artist
Interested in both art and science since childhood, Lynette Cook double-
majored in biology/drawing and painting at the Mississippi University for
Women. She completed a Bachelor of Science degree in 1981 and received
a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree a year later. Cook then moved west to attend
the California College of Arts and Crafts, specializing in scientific
illustration through the Drawing Department. An internship at the
California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco eventually led to the
staff job of artist/photographer for the Morrison Planetarium, a position
she still holds.
Since 1984, Cook has maintained a freelance career, providing natural
science illustrations for clients including Final Frontier, Fine Cooking,
Food For Thought, Houghton Mifflin, Omni, RN, The Nature Company, and
Time-Life Books. Cook initially focused on botanical and biological
subjects, but now specializes in astronomical imagery.
Cook is a fellow of the International Association of Astronomical Artists
and a member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and the San
Francisco Society of Illustrators. She has exhibited her award-winning art
across the country at major museums, research centers, and universities,
including the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian
Institution. Since 1994, Cook has been associated with the Science Photo
Library, which makes her illustrations available to publications throughout
the world.
Cook's work can be seen on her web site at http://www.spaceart.org/lcook/ .
To learn more about space art, visit the web site of the International
Association of Astronomical Artists at http://www.iaaa.org . Information
about visiting the Lick Observatory is available at
http://www.ucolick.org/public/visitors.html.
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Images (examples of works in the current exhibit) are available for use only
with stories about this exhibit.
The images (copyright Lynette Cook) can be downloaded from the web at
http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/download/ .
--
Andrew Yee
ay...@nova.astro.utoronto.ca