In 1981 a group of independent astronomical artists met at Planetfest, the Planetary Society sponsored space convention, during the live transmission of close-up photos of Saturn by Voyager 2. A mixture of art styles was exhibited, from science fiction to representational realism. The artists all got along famously, and for the first time were able to “talk shop” with others who understood their art. It was here that a trial balloon was first floated with the idea for a space art workshop.
A year later, Dr. William K. (Bill) Hartmann organized the first space art workshop held on the island of Hawaii in 1982. This group had a common sympathetic appreciation for the accuracy of science in their artwork. The volcanic landscapes of the Big Island were perfect analogs for the planetary geologies found on the Moon, Mars, and Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io. Experiencing the harsh landscape together enabled the artists to create more believable landscapes of the distant Jovian satellites as well as the newly discovered Saturnian worlds.
In 1983, Michael Carroll organized a second, larger workshop in Death Valley, California. Again, the primary focus of the workshop was to travel together to remote sites to draw and to paint the landscapes with the hope of inspiring a feeling of being explorers of the new worlds of the solar system. Nineteen artists attended and discovered their common passion for visions of the universe. The large body of works generated from these first two workshops toured the US and Canada for the next three years as “The Other Worlds” show and appeared in many natural science museums in North America.
The Death Valley workshop brought about the initial spark to form a space art guild and launch a newsletter to formalize and perpetuate the group. With a mandate voiced for such an organization, Michael Carroll, Don Dixon, Joel Hagen, Kim Poor and Rick Sternbach set the wheels in motion to create the International Association of Astronomical Artists. After this declaration each attendee began to spread the word of the new genre based on the art of James Nasmyth, Lucien Rudaux, Chesley Bonestell, and Robert McCall.
At the end of 1984, Kim Poor organized a smaller workshop in the southwest American Canyonlands. The focus was to establish a continuance of the previous workshop themes of joint intellectual and emotional exploration of solar system geological analogs. The third official IAAA workshop returned to Big Island in Hawaii in the spring of 1986. Coupled with an exhibition at the Volcano Art Center, the workshop’s primary concern was to paint geological analogues of the Moon, Mars, and Venus as well as the ice worlds of the gaseous giants during the Comet Halley flyby. During this session, the proposal was made to conduct workshops at Johnson Space Center in Houston in 1987 and Iceland in 1988.
With the successes of the previous workshops and the rapidly growing membership, the IAAA was formally registered as an association in 1986. The steering committee moved to elect its first president - Kim Poor. The Pulsar was launched to keep the membership informed about what was happening at the organizational level. The Parallax, the initial newsletter, was to be reserved for publication of technical knowledge essential for the guild to render space art landscapes. NASA received the IAAA at Johnson Space Center for the fourth workshop in the summer of 1987, with the theme of space hardware. The participants were treated to special tours of the facility, including a space station mockup and shuttle orbiter simulator, by none other than astronaut Alan Bean, and were allowed to try on actual space suits and space station equipment.
In the Autumn of 1987, seven space artists, Michael Carroll, Don Davis, Pamela Lee, Jon Lomberg, Robert McCall, Ron Miller and Kim Poor, were invited to attend the Space Future Forum in Moscow at the USSR Academy of Sciences along with a contingent of astronauts and scientists. The artists
brought some of their artwork to participate in a joint exhibition with their Soviet counterparts in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Sputnik. During their stay, the Planetary Society initiated the concept of an artistic collaboration between American and Soviet astronomical artists by inviting the Cosmic Group of the Soviet Union of Artists to attend an IAAA workshop in Iceland in the summer of 1988. A joint venture in the exotic landscape of fire and ice, the volcanic and glacial ice fields of Iceland, certainly appealed to all astronomical artists rendering the planets and the moons of the solar system.
Iceland, the fifth IAAA workshop, was billed as the first International Space Art Workshop. Thirty artists from the USA, the USSR, Canada, and Great Britain gathered in 1988 to launch a joint five-year project. An agreement was signed between the Planetary Society, the IAAA and the Soviet Cosmic Group to have reciprocal workshops in Senezh, Moscow (Spring 1989), Utah (Summer 1989), and Gurzuf-Crimea (Fall 1990). These workshops would also be associated with exhibitions. Beginning in Moscow during the USSR Mars Phobos Mission, the workshops and related art shows traveled to Pasadena in 1989 during Planetfest and the Voyager 2 encounter with Neptune, followed by San Diego’s Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater in Fall 1989, before arriving for a yearlong sojourn at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in 1991. The intent of the project was to demonstrate the common ideal of international cooperation and dialogue for the better understanding of ourselves.
In Iceland, Kara Szathmary, a Canadian artist, was elected as the first international President of the IAAA along with a newly created Board of Trustees. Their mandate was to incorporate the IAAA as an educational, public benefit, non-profit corporation.
By the end of 1988, the IAAA was incorporated and the five-year project “Dialogues: Communication through the Art of the Cosmos” was secured, positioning astronomical art as an international genre. The attraction of international artists to the IAAA helped bloom vital links to parallel organizations of related art shows in Europe with the OURS Foundation, created by Arthur Woods, and contacts with the MIR Space Station, Case for Mars, and NASA affiliates.
To better gauge the aspirations of all astronomical artists around the globe, the IAAA produced a manifesto and engaged in a period of reflection through a dialogue with the membership. The purpose was to define astronomical art and to establish the direction our collective interest in space art in general at the threshold of the 21st century. The primary tenant of the genre then was to produce artworks having a solid basis in scientific fact or theory that would depict realistic landscapes of other worlds, planets, space scenes and the human exploration of space settings in whatever style or medium the artist chooses, yet, the genre is distinct from fantasy, science and science fiction illustration. It is an art form that renders the aesthetic beauty of space, inspired by the astronomical sciences and space exploration.
In 1992, the tenth anniversary of the IAAA, Dennis Davidson, Hayden Planetarium artist in New York City, was elected President. The dialogue and discussions continued in the refinement of the definition of astronomical and space art in general. IAAA workshops continued to flourish at sites rich in exotic terrain and Earth analogs of the moons and planets of the solar system, particularly Mars. A return to Hawaii in summer of 1991 for the solar eclipse was followed by Ghost Ranch in New Mexico in Fall 1992, a technical workshop at Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center in San Diego in Winter 1993, Mt. Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles in late Summer 1993, and in Arches National Park, Utah in Fall 1995.
Beth Avary, IAAA Director of Exhibitions navigated “The Art of the Cosmos” exhibition throughout the USA with stops at the Hayden Planetarium in late 1991, Discovery Museum in Bridgeport Connecticut in Summer 1992, Alabama Rocket and Space Center in Fall 1992, Arts and Science Center in Statesville North Carolina in January 1993, Bergen Museum in New Jersey in May 1993, and Maryland Science Center in Baltimore in February 1994.
In 1994, the Board initiated the process to bring an easier mode of communication to the membership by going to e-mail and the Internet. This culminated with the creation of the IAAA’s website at http://www.iaaa.org in 1998 and creation of our Listserver in Spring of 2000.
The IAAA flair for great workshop locations continued in 1996. The White Mountain workshop in early Summer took place at a 13,000-foot altitude on the east slope of California’s Owens Valley. The landscape is similar to Iceland in Mars analogues and is surrounded by the highest human habitation and the oldest living things. The 15th IAAA workshop took place in September 1996 on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, bringing together astronomical artists from the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and France. Coupled with an exhibition, the workshop included presentations by members on the American historical roots of space art, previous IAAA workshops, European space art, space art techniques, and new techniques in computer generated space art. The scenery ranged from dry coastal deserts to pine forests at 2000 meters, to a barren volcanic summit and lava flows in a national park above the tree line at 3000 to 4000 meters. Near the summit cone the stunning Mars-like landscapes of orange sand and scattered boulders cried out for more time to paint. David A. Hardy was elected President at Tenerife to become the first European head of the IAAA.
Meanwhile, IAAA artists continued to participate with parallel space art groups in Europe. The OURS Foundation invited astronomical artists to participate in the historic 1995 EuroMIR “The 1st Art Exhibition in Earth Orbit” on the MIR Space Station and subsequent world tour. In 1997, the IAAA participated with several Ars Astronautica forums in concert with the Leonardo Journal of the International Society of Art Sciences and Technology and the International Academy of Astronautics. Several IAAA members also found themselves participating in rendering astronomical art scenes for the movie Contact, based on Carl Sagan’s book depicting our civilization being contacted by advanced alien intelligence.
The stunning Mt St. Helens volcano in Washington State was the site of the IAAA workshop held in the fall of 1997. Host Joy Day guided the group in exploring the enormous lava tubes, lava forests, wondrous lava flows and the eerie blast zone. Miles of land incinerated and buried in ash created an other-worldly landscape on Earth unlike any other, and served to fire the imaginations of all who attended. Some of the members chartered a helicopter to fly into the caldera for a first-hand look at planetary creation. At night, the glorious clear mountain sky put on display of the heavens at the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower.
In May 1999, IAAA artists from the USA, UK and Canada converged for a workshop at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, hosted by member Jon Ramer. Whenever possible, the artists photographed, drew and painted on location, while touring the facilities, including the International Space Station Complex.
During the week, the workshop participants were invited to display their works beneath the Saturn V Moon Rocket in the Visitor’s Center while thousands of visitors streamed by. The exhibition attracted many curious observers wanting to learn more about the IAAA, view the art work, talk to the artists, or just marvel at the creativity unfolding before their eyes.
In July 2000, Kara Szathmary was elected to serve as President of the IAAA for a second term of office, along with a new Board of Trustees, and preparations were set into motion for the 18th workshop of the organization. Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming was chosen as the destination for the artists to visit, paint and retrace the footsteps of our “spiritual fathers,” The Hudson River School of Artists. More than two dozen artists spent a wonderful week hiking and painting “en plein aire” all over the park, viewing massive canyons, giant waterfalls, and gushing geysers.
In the Winter of 2000, the IAAA created a ‘Hall of Fame’ to which celebrated masters of the genre of space art would be inducted. Selecting a name to represent this distinguished and prestigious honor in recognition and in acknowledgment for lifetime contributions to astronomical art, the IAAA instituted the Lucien Rudaux Memorial Award. Presented initially, and posthumously, to Lucien Rudaux himself, Chesley Bonestell and Ludek Pesek, the IAAA added living legends Jack Coggins, Frederick C. Durant III and Robert McCall to complete the initial inductees.
In September 2001, the 20th IAAA workshop “Astrium” was organized by Jackie Burns and convened in the UK. What grabbed the imagination of the workshop artists was the opportunity to visit Stonehenge. They actually walked amongst, explored around, and sketched the ancient monolithic stones. Then marveled at what might have inspired an ancient people to build such a site and move those enormous stones! A second UK workshop was held in March 2002 in Dorset, UK, hosted by Richard Bizley. Even while exploring the rugged coastline and interesting rock formations there, IAAA business continued and the IAAA European Vice President Jackie Burns presented the first 2001 Lucien Rudaux Memorial Award to David A. Hardy, recognizing him as a Grand Master of the genre. The next year the 2002 Rudaux Memorial Award was present to two artists, Dr. William K. Hartmann and Andrei Sokolov, the Dean of Cosmic Group Russian Space Artists, for their many contributions to the genre of space art.
News of space art exhibitions were also featured in the Pulsar. While members were drawing and photographing Stonehenge, five thousand miles away in Tucson, AZ, Bill Hartmann and Kim Poor accepted the chance to curate an astronomical art exhibition for the Museum of Contemporary Art. Fifty pieces of space art were chosen for the six-week exhibit that ramped up our astronomical art appreciation in the urban art community of Tucson.
The 22nd IAAA workshop, held in February 2005, gathered in Death Valley, CA with a total of twenty-eight IAAA members in attendance. Rick Sternbach, workshop coordinator, planned the event for over a year. The artist delegation explored the canyons, salt flats, Mars Hill, and the Ubehebe Crater to draw, paint and photograph as well as poke about for fossils or seek out a hidden petroglyph on some remote rock wall. It was truly “Nature in Technicolor” for our adventurous band of exploring artists.
Not all IAAA events are workshops. Members receive invitations and announcements of exhibitions and conferences that are part of the vast global network of space art and exploration. Immediately following the Death Valley workshop, IAAA President Kara Szathmary, flew to Budapest, Hungary, to represent IAAA on the cultural and educational aspects of our genre. His 25-minute presentation was an educational documentary of our artistic history delivered to space agency organizations from all over the world at the Hungarian Academy of Science. Kara explained that “Exploration began on foot at first, onl horseback later, or in tall ships crossing great oceans, and ultimately on to journeys in space crafts to unknown worlds.” His voice echoed through the expansive gathering of world-wide delegates, and he answered questions from them after rousing applause.
During the Spring of 2005, Robin Hart and Julie Jones organized a space art exhibition at the Imaginarium Science Center in Nevada City, California. In Fall, the IAAA was invited to set up a show at the Space Art Exhibition in Cambridge, UK.
Later in the Fall of 2005, Jon Ramer was invited to give a presentation in Yverdon-les-Baines, Switzerland, at the “Space Planetary Consciousness and the Arts” conference where members of the Zero Gravity Arts Consortium (ZGAC), the OURS Foundation with Arthur Woods, ESA, JPL, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Space Art ONE, Arts Catalyst, MACROCAB, and an art group called VZ attended. Each member gave a brief talk about what their organization was doing in space art. Jon gave a presentation on the history of the IAAA and what the members do at our workshops. He said that IAAA member artists paint both traditionally and digitally and are focused on inspiring their public audience about future steps in space exploration.
The 2005 Lucien Rudaux Memorial Award was bestowed on Ron Miller and Alexei Leonov, Soviet Commander of the Apollo-Soyuz project, the first linking of the Soviet and American spacecrafts in 1975. As the first traditional artist to travel in space, Leonov often transformed actual sketches done in space aboard his flights into finished paintings. He was inspired by what he actually observed in space. Leonov’s art has been displayed all over Russia and at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.
In May 2006, the National Space Society invited the IAAA to exhibit at the International Space Development Conference annual meeting held in Los Angeles, California. Thanks to Joy Day, B.E. Johnson, Jon Ramer, and Aldo Spadoni, over a hundred works of space art done by twenty-one IAAA members comprised one of the largest space art shows ever put on. The exhibit received scores of accolades and made a fabulous impression on a very visible world stage.
The 2006 Lucien Rudaux Memorial Award was presented to Michael W. Carroll. Carroll’s father was an aerospace engineer who, along with the works of IAAA artist David A. Hardy, provided influence for Michael’s passion for the cosmos and his focus on the exploration of the planets in the solar system. His interest in science fueled his imagination to pursue an active career with writing children’s books.
The 23rd IAAA workshop was held in February 2007 in Granada, Nicaragua. The ten-day workshop included a major showing of IAAA artworks brought from the artist’s studios at the Casa de los Tres Mundos to highlight the 80th anniversary of the Casa’s founding. Erik Viktor, the workshop organizer, arranged outings to the Masaya Volcano National Park including visiting the Santiago crater with its incandescent lava-filled interior, and the Somoto Canyon, an enormous geological formation that reaches 650 feet in height flanking the Rio Coco River.
In 2007 the Spacefest Convention launched successfully in Mesa, Arizona by IAAA founder and first president, Kim Poor. Held in August, astronauts from every US space flight era were present, including Buzz Aldrin and Alan Bean. Topnotch participation in Spacefest was a product of the professionalism of Sally and Kim Poor. The convention floor was arranged beautifully and covered nearly a thousand linear feet of hanging space that included a large work area where several artists painted on works throughout the conference.
Later in 2007, doors opened at the NASA Ames Research Center for the first International Conference on the exploration of Phobos and Demos and the “Destination Mars” exhibit organized by Julie Rodrigues-Jones. Bettina Forget, IAAA Director of Exhibitions, shipped 26 Mars themed artworks to the conference for the exhibit. This collection of space art gave visitors the invitation to explore past, present, and future vistas of Mars and its moons. Bill Hartmann was the keynote speaker and gave a presentation about the history of the IAAA and their interest in accurately portraying objects in space.
The 24th IAAA Workshop was held near Escalante, Utah, between Capital Reef and Bryce Canyon. Jon Ramer hosted 20 IAAA artists and other participants in luxurious accommodations at Slot Canyon Inn, a beautiful setting nestled on a gorgeous tract of land. Artists were enchanted with the colors of red, ochre, gray, and magenta that highlighted the incredible textures of the wildly shaped rocks and escarpments.
At the year’s end, the IAAA Board of Trustees and the Fellows announced the recipient of the 2007 Lucien Rudaux Memorial award, Ralph Smith. The noted art illustrator was featured in several best-selling books during the 1950’s and recognized as producing ideas and drawings for the hardware contained in the first artificial Earth satellite.
The year 2008 ushered in the election of a new IAAA President and Board of Trustees. Dr. Dirk Terrell was elected President and the new board Dan Durda, Don Dixon, Robin Hart, B.E. Johnson, Jon Ramer, and Pat Rawlings.
Kara Szathmary organized the 2009 IAAA workshop at Kitt Peak Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. A dozen plus artists gathered at the observatory to view both the telescopic equipment and night skies through them but also make trips to interesting geology in the local area via an outreach trip to the Tohono O’odam Indian Reservation. The workshop culminated in an IAAA art show – “Visions of the Cosmos” at the Planetary Science Kuiper Atrium.
In 2010 the IAAA started working on its first book, titled “The Beauty of Space.” The book became the definitive work on the history of the genre of space art. Written in 12 chapters by members of the IAAA, it showcased over 100 works of art by IAAA artists and featured a forward written by Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean.
The next great IAAA adventure convened in 2011 in Flagstaff, Arizona, a perfect jumping off point to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, the red rock canyons of Sedona, and the Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was first discovered. Jon Ramer hosted over a dozen artists who spent a week hiking and painting all over the vast views of the great Southwestern Desert. Numerous paintings depicting the great Valles Marineris were created at the edge of the Grand Canyon. Additionally, the group got a special tour of the Barringer Meteorite Crater, being allowed to hike and paint in places the public usually isn’t allowed to go.
As per our by-laws, every four years a new President and Board are selected to lead the IAAA. In 2012 Jon Ramer was elected as President and joined by David Hardy, Robin Hart, Aldo Spadoni, Rick Sternbach, Nick Stevens, and Kara Szathmary as the latest Board of Trustees.
This new Board set about to modernize the by-laws themselves and update BE Johnson’s amazing website, bringing the IAAA’s web presence firmly into the 21st century. The Board instituted a new modular art show project and created a series of interchangeable themed space at shows that could be easily prepared and shipped in padded, wheeled containers to venues around the world. With themes of The Solar System, Mars, Pluto, Hardware, Deep Space, and Humans in Space, versions of the modular shows have been exhibited nearly two dozen times before thousands of people and brought in thousands of dollars of income to participating artists. The 2012 Board also selected Rick Sternbach as the latest recipient of the Rudaux Memorial Award.
Later in 2012, the IAAA was invited to participate in The Planetary Society’s Planetfest convention during the Mars Curiosity rover landing. Jon Ramer, Aldo Spadoni, and Rick Sternbach had a table right in the middle of the Pasadena Convention Center where they helped kids at the convention paint scenes of Mars. During the landing, the three artists had a front row seat to witness the amazing technical feat.
At the end of the convention, Jon presented an IAAA joint painting of Curiosity’s landing to Bill Nye, President of The Planetary Society.
Members Simon Kregar and Michelle Rouch hosted the 27th IAAA workshop at the amazing Biosphere II facility north of Tucson, AZ in 2014. Biosphere II is a series of isolated biomes that simulates what operating a generational space ship might be like. Habitats include rainforest, prairie, swamp, farmland, desert, and an ocean. Nearly 20 IAAAers were basically given the keys to the facility and allowed to go where the general public was not in order to paint and photograph “starship living.”
Time passes and planets orbit, and sometimes things align in near-magical ways. The Great Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 was the perfect reason for the 28th IAAA workshop. Host Jon Ramer planned the event for over two years, selected the perfect spot in Ririe, Idaho at a resort ranch almost dead center of the line of totality, booking the rooms well in advance, knowing how popular the event was going to be. The totality lasted just over two magnificent minutes, thrilling the nearly three dozen members of the IAAA there and dozens more around the country. After the eclipse, the group toured The Craters of the Moon National Park and the City of Rocks State Park, hiking, painting, and photographing amongst other-worldly scenery for a whole week.
Where will future workshops be held? Anywhere that the geology of Earth is similar to the geology of other worlds. The more important question is… will you be there to see it?
