Featured Artworks
The Horsehead and Flame Nebula by Scot Alsop
A long exposure image of deep sky nebula and stars within the Constellation of Orion.
Artist Statement: Astrophotography is simply capturing light that has been traveling through space and has finally reached Earth and a camera’s sensor. Some images are created from short sub one second exposures, and others require many hours of exposure in order to pull out the fine details of extremely faint and distant objects. My images typically have between 10 hours and 60 hours of exposure.
All of my images except one, were captured from my backyard near downtown Hillsboro. The one exception was an image of dark nebula that I captured at L.L. Stub Stewart State Park, a mere 20 miles from Hillsboro, but which provides much darker skies and the ability to capture much fainter interstellar dust called Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN).
One of the things that I love about this art form is the ability to capture light that has been travelling for hundreds, thousands, and millions (and more) of years. Each of my pieces tells you how far away the object is, and thus how long the light took to travel here. On my image of the Pleiades, if you look just to the left of the brightest star on the center left (Electra), you’ll see a small slash. That is a galaxy that is over 1.4 billion light years away. When that light began its journey, Earth had a 19 hour day, featured the supercontinent Nuna, and hosted only bacterial life.
Additionally, this style of art allows you to see objects in space that are just too dim for human eyes to see by visual means. By capturing light over a longer period – one of my pieces took almost 60 hours – you can see the color and fine details of these very dim objects. Usually, these objects are emission nebula where interstellar gases have been blasted by ionizing radiation from nearby massive stars causing them to emit light. Fortunately, none of those kinds of stars are near us.
To capture these images, I’ve used a multitude of telescopes over the years. From small 2-inch refractors to larger 11 inch Schmidt Cassegrain telescopes. Each telescope used was chosen for the strengths of the design. Smaller scopes allow me to capture wide swaths of the sky while the larger telescopes allow me to “zoom” in and capture smaller details of Nebula and distant objects such as galaxies
Other works on display by this artist
- North America Nebula
- Elephant Trunk Nebula
Espresso Machine by David Ball
This painting was completed is on business cards I collected while traveling. After amassing all of these cards (my favorite ones have to have a map on the back), I taped them together, I then painted an espresso machine (from a photograph I took in Italy) and then used acrylic medium to seal the painting photographed in Italy. In all of my travels there are several constants, but one of my favorites is getting a coffee (a book, a game, a sketchbook, and a conversation are great additions!).
Artist Statement:
A lot of my work is an exploration of memory, place, and the layering of personal history. Inspired by over a decade of living and teaching across the globe—from Prague and Japan to Vietnam and the Pacific Northwest—I view the canvas as a site for documenting the traces of travel and the passage of time.
My process begins with the physical artifacts of a journey. I collect materials—tickets, maps, and local fliers—and fix them to the blank canvas to create an impromptu, textured background. Then I paint an image that was taken while traveling. By layering these fragments, I aim to transform collectable objects into a dialogue between the specificities of a location and a memory (either my own, or manufactured).
In my recent work, I have expanded this interest in storytelling into the realm of sequential art and comics. Drawing from the daily encounters of being both a parent and a public school educator, I use humor and narrative to navigate the complexities of modern life. Whether through a mixed-media painting or a comic, my goal remains the same: to find new meaning in the everyday and to bridge the gap between where we have been and where we are now.
Other works on display by this artist
- Tsukiji Fish Market
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