A moon full of stars and astral cars

When I first saw the incredible hi-res photo of the freshly opened OSIRIS-REx sample container, I fell in love—you’re looking at actual! asteroid! material! Dust from another (tiny) world! I loved the crisp starkness of it, the shapes and textures. I immediately wanted to paint it.

But then I had this crazy idea to combine the shape and contents of the vessel with ancient Egyptian design elements and ornamentation, to honor the naming of the mission. (It was named, incidentally, by a scientist with a penchant for Egyptian mythology.) It was the style/content juxtaposition of the century.

I’ve always had a penchant for ancient Egypt (all ancient cultures, truthfully.) I was a little girl looking at cat mummies with my parents in the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California. The mythology is so foreign, yet so fascinating. I find myself revisiting the design motifs, especially Egyptian Revival in the 1920s, as they appear in architecture, in jewelry1, in art.

I went all-in. I studied photos of the treasures of King Tutankhamun, ordered books on Egyptian motifs and mythology. I lost myself in the inkwork—so many little lines—and I drew until my hands ached. The scan doesn’t show it, but all the golds are very metallic. I even used paint containing lapis lazuli and turquoise to replicate the decorative stones used in so much ornamentation of that period.2

My crazy idea took a month to complete, and was the first time I’d ever burned through multiple Micron pens on one piece, but the result is one of my best works to date. I’m truly proud of it, and I can’t wait to get it framed and hung on the wall. (I like to find quotes or poetry to write on the back of framed pieces, especially ones I’m giving as gifts. I’ve had the following in mind for OSIRIS since I first had the idea.)3

Honestly, after I finished DUST OF OSIRIS, I gave myself a week off because it was exhausting. And since then, it’s hard to work on anything. I poured so much of myself into that piece, I used up the entire gas tank. (Hey, sometimes you gotta USE THE ENTIRE TANK. Spend it all.) I find myself slowly getting back into the swing of things by consuming more visual inspiration, and reading more. (You can’t have output without input.) I’m also working on catching up my travel paintings (I have years-plural of backlog now, argh. With new adventures adding to it.)

In other space art news, I’m about halfway done with my Starship IFT3 piece, to go with the first two. Thinking about releasing a print of all three—they will fit nicely on a 12x18”. If this print idea interests you, or if you’re interested in a very limited print run of OSIRIS, please let me know—comment here, reply to the email, message me on socials, send me a carrier pigeon. Whatever works.

Spring is springing here in southern Oregon, so I’m spending more time outside working on our back yard. We may yet get the greenhouse kit built (we bought it in February, and then it rained for a month, and then proceeded to rain every weekend we were home and had time. If we were busy or out of town, it was perfect weather.)

Thanks for reading! I’m not sure I’ve done a deep dive into one specific piece before, so let me know if you’d like to see more.

—Danielle, still the nerdiest person you know.

PS: Bonus nerd-points if you know what song I quoted in the title of this post. Without Googling.