My project is a both a visual representation of types of galaxies and nebulas through chalk pastel, and a linguistic study using Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, through watercolor calligraphy. It is based on the book “Galaxy, Mapping the Cosmos,” by James Geach.
There are four visual illustrations of nebulas and galaxies in the cosmos: the star-burst galaxy, Orion’s nebula, barred spiral galaxy, and tarantula nebula, respectively.
STAR BURST GALAXY
ORION’s NEBULA
BARRED SPIRAL GALAXY
TARANTULA NEBULA
I used white watercolor paint and a paintbrush for the calligraphy in the chalk pastel pieces.
There is also calligraphy in Chinese, Japanese and Korean, respectively (in order of the cards to the right). So, this is a linguistic study of sorts. The cards show more information on the image it corresponds to, like their name and NGC and M numbers (classifications of deep sky objects in space).
Unlike English, where the letters themselves don’t have meaning, each character in Asian languages have their own meaning. The cards show the rough translations of the character’s meanings, and they can be compared to the English word they correspond to. It is interesting to see the contrast and comparisons on how each culture interprets different words and phrases.