Space is Weird, So Are We Online Exhibition

I am a landscape astrophotographer and a moonscape photographer who loves to capture the beauty of our galaxy from our vantage point, the Earth, and capture the beauty of our own satellite, the Moon, against some of the iconic manmade and natural features.

I make mosaic guitars and ukuleles using hand-cut glass mirror and other materials. My work is rooted in repetition labor and intuition. I’m drawn to symbols that have endured across time stars hearts hamsa cacti desert scenes aliens and geometric shapes… not as decoration but as containers for meaning and memory.

The process is slow and physical. I cut place and build each piece fragment by fragment allowing irregularity and breakage to remain visible. I’m interested in transformation how broken or discarded materials can be reassembled into objects that feel intentional and alive. My instruments remain fully playable. They co-exist between sculpture and function sound and stillness.

I create work as a way to mark experience and make sense of change. The finished pieces are meant to be held used or displayed… strung spun or hung.

Lauren Young is a self-trained multi-disciplinary artist operating under Abstruse Art. She creates large-scale, disco-inspired sculptures and installations that turn everyday objects and natural forms into sparkly, larger-than-life moments. From flamingos to cacti, her work lives at the intersection of play, pop culture, and the wild landscapes inspired by the American West.

Based in Denver, Colorado, she pulls inspiration from natural landscapes of the west with a dash of retro nostalgia. This particular piece `Disco ET` was created as both an homage to childhood and the space we need to be ourselves. At the heart of her practice is a belief that art should be for everyone – spark joy, curiosity, connection, and play. This piece, while made entirely out of glass, is smooth to the touch and transforms into a light show for anyone to enjoy.

As someone how has always been fascinated by space and the cosmos, while also being an artist, it only made sense that at some point the two would collide.

Black Box is a story of victory over fear, survival against all odds, and the courage of love.

The film centers a queer character as the hero of his own story, inviting LGBTQ viewers to step out from the sidelines and into the lead. My goal was to present an authentic queer experience not just in the visible, explicit sense, but in the non-literal sense. Our hero Jo’s terrifying isolation in deep space was not an arbitrary decision, but a deliberate choice meant to reflect the internal struggles many LGBTQ individuals face over the course of a lifetime. In the end however, it is his queerness that is his very salvation, as the image of the person he loves sparks in him the determination he needs to survive. Far from being another victim of queer tragedy, Jo’s story is one of survival of hardship, victory over fear, and hope for tomorrow.

I often think of Star Trek, the 2nd series with Jean-Luc Picard where they meet an entity, depicted as an immense floating head. “Turtle Mountain Starship” was a collaboration between myself and welding students from Ignacio CO., a rural town that includes the Southern Ute Reservation. The sculpture hangs in the Durango/La Plata County Airport. The interior of the sculpture has individual planets, aliens, satellites and astronauts made by the students. My favorite is a comet in the shape of a teepee with comet tail streaming out. The idea came when we were talking about how a space capsule looks like a teepee and this was the result.

Requiem is a visual meditation on the boundary where the internal landscape meets the extraterrestrial. In this piece, I explore the concept of “space” not just as a physical vacuum of stars and silence, but as a digital and psychological frontier.The title suggests a mourning or a final rest, yet the work functions as a gateway. It questions whether the vastness of the cosmos is a mirror of the human mind, or if our internal worlds are merely simulations—virtual realities we inhabit to escape or understand our own existence. By blending organic forms with architectural, alien geometries, I aim to create a sense of “cosmic loneliness” that is both haunting and comforting.Whether viewed as a journey through a foreign world or a deep dive into the architecture of thought, Requiem invites the viewer to lose their sense of scale and direction. It is an acknowledgment of what we leave behind as we transition from the physical world into the infinite expanses of imagination and the unknown.

The pieces in this submission use space as a way to zoom out of our individual experience and consider a collective whole. To question the limits of our perspective, the consequences of individual actions, and the potential worlds apart from our own. Using the medium of collage as a grand recycling project, my pieces compile disparate elements into surreal landscapes and unfamiliar worlds, drawing attention to what seems out of place and asking: why?

Everything we touch is made of stardust. On a granular level, and even on intangible levels, we are all connected. We are connected to community, to the lands, waters and skies above us, to the planet we inhabit, to honeybees and pelicans, and to each other. We are all made of stardust. We are all interconnected.

My whimsical take on a barely but apparently theoretically possible toroid or donut-shaped planet quietly glowing near the local Rabbit Nebula. Spudnut’s fierce gravity has kept its sprinkles, bits of icing, golden deliciousness, and donut hole close even as centrifugal force has flung them away from the yeasty dworf.

VLA Pleaides: Photopolymer gravure of an enormous telescope of the Very Large Array near Socorro, NM. They constantly scan the sky searching for voices from afar. The image of the telescope is printed over another of the Pleiades star cluster from the Hubble space telescope

Swayve is a multidisciplinary artist working mostly across collage, assemblage, and digital media. His practice involves assembling inconspicuous everyday items, paper prints, organic matter, and recycled materials into works of irreplicable art. His pieces contain purposeful arrangements of balanced and intriguing designs that tie the otherwise completely unconnected elements into a cohesive artwork. Swayve takes an approach to assembling his art that creates a contemplative interpretation by often using mirrors as canvases. His eclectic discography encompasses the tension between the color theory of Impressionism, fluid abstraction of Surrealism, and symmetry of artists like MC Escher. Creating art is not just a means of expression for Swayve, but allows him to transcend the mental framework of regular life while helping serve his passion for environmentalism through his sustainable waste reclamation process.

The notion that we exist within a biological spaceship that floats through the void of space is fascinating. Humans are a paradoxical species that seeks to discover new frontiers driven out natural curiosity, while at the same time collectively destroying their home planet simply out of greed and a lack of responsible stewardship. My work is a synthesis of history, fiction, and popular culture that arrives at the crossroads of chaos and existentialism. Whether one believes that we evolved from primates, or divine creation- humans sent animals to space space first. It is for this reason, a space chimpanzee witnessed a dimension of reality first and an image that I find profound.

I make mosaic guitars and ukuleles using hand-cut glass mirror and other materials. My work is rooted in repetition labor and intuition. I’m drawn to symbols that have endured across time stars hearts hamsa cacti desert scenes aliens and geometric shapes… not as decoration but as containers for meaning and memory.

The process is slow and physical. I cut place and build each piece fragment by fragment allowing irregularity and breakage to remain visible. I’m interested in transformation how broken or discarded materials can be reassembled into objects that feel intentional and alive. My instruments remain fully playable. They co-exist between sculpture and function sound and stillness.

I create work as a way to mark experience and make sense of change. The finished pieces are meant to be held used or displayed… strung spun or hung.

The installation exteriorizes my most intimate interior landscape—the quiet mental space where my thoughts translate into speech. At the center of the room, the “leaf” sculpture, crafted from warm-toned bamboo sticks and cradling my mother’s saved floral pistachio shells, represents maternal love and cultural roots. Around it, a synthetic pond constructed from industrial acrylic and featuring applied vinyl pedestals harmonizes with the leaf. While viewers often perceive this surreal environment as a sci-fi galaxy, these synthetic materials physically manifest the complex, constructed space inside my mind where I pause to converse with my inner child before interacting with the outside world.
Driven by motors, the kinetic acrylic elements create continuous ripples around the leaf. This motion visualizes the internal delay of my bicultural translation. Because this cognitive processing takes time, I often embrace silence rather than rushing to speak.

I worked in my professional career as an animator for film and TV. As the medium became more impacted by computers I felt inspired to paint using traditional materials: watercolor and acrylic paint on paper and canvas.
As in animation I like to tell stories and have always been inspired by science fiction. I was fortunate to study at CalArts where one of my teachers, Ed Emschwiller, started out his career doing illustrations for science fiction books and magazines, then moved into making films and video.

Both of the submitted works were inspired by workshops I attended at the Monroe Insitute where deep, meditative starts of consciousness are explored using binaural beat technology.

Since 2024, my practice has explored the collapse of linear time and a space between memory and imagination, where past, present, and future coexist rather than progress sequentially. In this context, “space” becomes both psychological and environmental, shaped by instability, fragmentation, and the unknown. I create surreal collages in which figures inhabit fractured landscapes and shifting terrains that resist fixed location, suggesting realities that feel both familiar and disorienting.

Works such as The Drowning and Interval reflect this condition, placing figures within environments that are at once cosmic and internal. These spaces feel unstable and unfamiliar, where gravity, scale, and logic begin to dissolve, and perception itself becomes uncertain. Through ambiguity and dislocation, the work approaches space not as a fixed place, but as an unstable field shaped by memory, perception, and imagination.

I’m interested in the moment just before a conclusion is drawn—the brief pause between seeing and assigning meaning. That hesitation can reveal more about the viewer than the figure being observed. When someone points out a “difference” in my work, I often respond, What difference do you see? The question returns attention to the instant judgment formed, exposing how quickly assumptions take hold and how easily perception hardens into classification.

As children, we accept what we see before deciding whether it belongs. Over time, that openness is replaced by systems of division—familiar or unfamiliar, acceptable or questionable. Difference becomes something to justify or fear, even when nothing is being disrupted.

“Classification Pending” reflects this idea. The work places unfamiliar forms within calm, recognizable spaces, inviting viewers to sit with ambiguity. Meaning is not declared; it accumulates slowly—classification still pending.

I worked in my professional career as an animator for film and TV. As the medium became more impacted by computers I felt inspired to paint using traditional materials: watercolor and acrylic paint on paper and canvas.
As in animation I like to tell stories and have always been inspired by science fiction. I was fortunate to study at CalArts where one of my teachers, Ed Emschwiller, started out his career doing illustrations for science fiction books and magazines, then moved into making films and video.

Both of the submitted works were inspired by workshops I attended at the Monroe Insitute where deep, meditative starts of consciousness are explored using binaural beat technology.

Hope Remains explores space as both a vast physical expanse and a fragile emotional distance between humanity and the natural world. A lone astronaut cradles a sapling against the infinite cosmos, suggesting a future where life-sustaining elements like trees have become rare, precious, and displaced. This juxtaposition of the organic and the cosmic reflects the strange tension between technological advancement and ecological loss. Inspired by speculative worlds where nature is sacred and scarce, the mural frames space as both warning and possibility, an unfamiliar territory shaped by our choices. In this quiet, surreal moment, the act of holding a tree becomes an act of preservation, responsibility, and hope. Even in the unknown, life endures, if we choose to protect it.

“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now…Come further up, come further in!” ― C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle. Space–vast, beautiful, and strange–calls out of us that longing for connection with that which is bigger than ourselves. We come to a place where we stand alone in the face of such, and once there the choice is ours–to linger in our ‘no,’ or to take the step of ‘yes,’ moving “further up…further in.

As a photographer and digital artist, my work ordinarily ranges from night skies and landscapes to city streets and architecture, to moments of flight in aviation and space launch. I like to explore themes of our relationship with nature, the cosmos, and ourselves, seeking beauty in both natural scenes and human creations in compositions and perspectives that evoke contemplation, curiosity, wonder, and emotion. One might call it eclectic visual expression driven by creative and worldly curiosity. Lately I’ve been creating more abstract art assembled from elements of my astrophotography and nightscapes—not accurate depictions of celestial objects, but created images featuring bits and pieces of layered texture, vibrant color, and movement. Otherworldly. Timeless. Sometimes even a bit weird. Selections of my work have appeared in various Southern California and online venues, including a 1st Place win, Space Category, in Aviation Week & Space Technology Magazine’s Photo Contest 2025.

My artwork is about the concept of how everyone takes selfies. If an astronaut was able to take a phone out into space with them, they might take a selfie. I think one of the craziest things in space that, despite being famous, really isn’t paid a ton of attention, is Black holes. They swallow up everything including light, and I think it’d be funny for someone to be in front of a black hole and just not care. So I wanted to depict how when humans become used to things, even if they are a little crazy, that they fade into the background of life. Thats why I drew an astronaut taking a selfie in front of Earth, ignoring the blackhole right in front of them.

We are stardust. In one way or another, we are all connected. Across universes and galaxies, each and every one of us is a part of the greater whole. As space softly wraps it’s undying arms around you, you are cradled in comfort. The next minute you could be falling into a never ending pit of of solemn silence, ever etched to the world below. Then there’s the in-between. Drifting quietly, untouched by the world, as a shiver runs through you to the ends of every limb. As space and time dance around each other, we are thrown into their vast expanse for not even a second of their lifetimes. Yet somehow…you can still leave a mark.

I wish to be dancing with the stars and planets to become one with the universe through color, light and sound. I try to show the contentment, peace and joy of transcending time and place.

My work explores space as both environment and perception. In this piece, a familiar mountain structure is transformed through layered digital processes, heightened color, and altered atmosphere into a place that feels both recognizable and strange. The exaggerated sky, intense palette, and shifting sense of scale create an in-between world—part landscape, part psychological space, part imagined territory. I am interested in how visual distortion can open ordinary places into something more expansive, uncanny, and emotionally charged, where space becomes less about location and more about experience.

My piece is entitled “Space Crab-Man of the Future” and it explores the idea of humanity and how inevitably we will evolve or change to fit the changing world and universe. I think it is natural to identify very strongly with what the idea of being human is, and often the greatest expression and art is an exploration of this, but if humanity survives into the distant future, what humanity is will change.

I seek to expand our consciousness by focusing on space across time, connecting day to night, near to far, and reality to imagination.

In “The Traveler”, I see the ancient creature “Rock O’Saurus”, rooted to this time and place, wistfully gazing into the heavens in search of a portal through which to transport back to its place in time, because Rock O’Saurus was a time traveler, now stuck in our present, much to its displeasure. May the journey renew in earnest.

Appearances can be deceiving. Seeing is believing. Pictures don’t lie. Things are not always what they seem. The paradoxes of our dominant sense—sight—and visual representations are at the heart of my work. As an interdisciplinary artist, I explore the relationships between appearance and reality, between the seer and the seen in multiple forms. The work may exploit or emphasize deception with the intention of challenging our ready acceptance of the “truth” of what we see. It may challenge or expand on our experience of the commonplace or everyday objects. While the questions are serious, much of my work is playful and humorous. The thread that runs through my work is a fascination with the ways that humans see.
Recently, I became fascinated by medical illustrations and charts. Those with heads that showed the brains exposed seemed to invite me to replace those brains with “thoughts”.

After Decades of Waiting, Animals Launch the Aerospace Interspecies Alliance (AIA) to Save Earthly Life

After decades of waiting, the animals lost all hope that humankind would cease destroying the planet. An all-animal task force was formed, Aerospace Interspecies Alliance or AIA. Their only mission was to find a suitable new home for all earthly life forms. Through cooperation and instinct, the animals repaired aged space equipment and assembled enough pieces to launch into the unknown. In a stunning evolutionary leap, some species adapted so quickly that breathing equipment was no longer required to survive in a vacuum. Meanwhile, most Earth’s animals remain behind, clinging to the slim chance of AIA’s success.

The Aerospace Interspecies Alliance is a cooperative, cross-species initiative formed in response to planetary collapse. AIA does not promise salvation. It promises the refusal to quietly disappear.

Every culture has myths of how the stars appeared in the sky. When we look into space, we can’t help but wonder. Was it a big bang? Was it a god? Was it coyote? Who put them there? I offer an alternative myth.

I’ve spent my career as a graphic artist, designer, and musician. I’ve recently come full circle back to where I began, drawing. I am moving forward by drawing the creatures that fascinate me, putting them in puzzling circumstances, even scary ones.
I’m a life long astronomy and science fiction enthusiast. This delighted guinea pig is literally in space (Good Heavens), possibly floating near the Butterfly Nebula — but only she knows for sure.

Fungiverse is an alternative universe where the more you look the weirder it gets

My artwork bridges the cosmic and the personal, using the profound, inexplicable nature of the universe as a metaphor for our own complex inner landscapes. These paintings explore the threshold of reality, a place I call the “liminal cosmos,” where paths lead not just into space, but through it.

Space, for me, is the meeting point between perception and imagination—a place where distance becomes emotion and the familiar turns slightly strange. My work often begins in those in‑between zones, where a face can feel like a landscape and a landscape can feel like a memory.

I’m drawn to the quiet distortions that make an image hum: the subtle shifts that blur inner and outer worlds, or the moments when something ordinary becomes uncanny. Through structure, color, and character, I explore space as both a physical expanse and an emotional terrain—cosmic, intimate, and a little offbeat.

What excites me about Space is Weird, So Are We is the chance to join a global constellation of artists who are stretching the idea of what space can mean. My work aligns with that spirit of curiosity and creative strangeness, and I’m honored to contribute a perspective shaped by discovery, imagination, and the pull of the unknown.

Laika is a work on paper about the dog that was sent into space as a test. She didn’t choose to go there and sadly died. This piece is about how humans want to conquer space but are not willing to looks after their own planet.

Installed across multiple levels of a residential stairwell, this mural, titled “Robot girl in myco-Land”, explores ‘Space’ as an interdimensional frontier where organic life and synthetic intelligence converge. I utilize bold, high-contrast imagery to juxtapose an expanded, neon-spotted mushroom—a symbol of ancient earth systems and psychedelic experience—against a cybernetic entity. This entity’s intricate fiber-optic (yarn and under paint) ponytail, which activates under UV light to reveal a constellation of fluorescent fibers, acts as a bridge between the physical ground and a cosmic consciousness.

By bringing these elements into a mundane, functional space (the stairwell), the work aims to make the quiet unknown experienced daily. It is a surreal territory that is intentionally weird, bold, and subtle. The unexpected fluorescent reveal captures the feeling of discovering hidden dimensions and the bizarre distance between the familiar and the alien.

Space is weird because people are weird. A lot of my work deals with strange inner worlds, emotions, humor, isolation, and trying to make sense of things that probably can’t fully be understood. I tend to approach surrealism as a mix of psychological landscapes and visual experimentation, where figures, symbols, and environments feel familiar but slightly off. The theme made sense to me because outer space feels a lot like the human experience. Vast, confusing, beautiful, lonely, absurd, and occasionally inspiring.

I love painting consciousness astronauts and strange and wonderful cosmic characters and concepts i feel like my style fits the bill so well.

“There, But Not”: Space is often defined by what fills it; here I explore it through what is missing. The shadow of a woman seated becomes an image of what might be lost and what remains. The half-lit chair stands as a silent keeper of memory, a juxtaposition between the physical and the ethereal. I want the viewer to look beyond the visible to the unseen. It is a study of space as a feeling—the quiet realization that what is gone still lingers, forming our ongoing memories.

An astronaut holds a burger at the edge of the universe.
There is nothing strange about it — that is the point.
In a space where transformation is expected, the most ordinary desire persists. As we travel into space, we explore the unknown, yet remain the same.
And any vision can become hyperreal.
“Space Is Weird, So Are We” is not about the cosmos, but about a human carrying their habits into infinity.

In a world within our own, the weirdest of spaces exist within our reach yet just out of sight. The universe of microscopic beings is as bizarre as any galaxy far away. These life forms carry on in their own world oblivious to the giants around them. Superstars of this arena, The Mighty Tardigrades are the first known animals to survive in the vacuum of space and can survive extreme temperatures and radiation making them some of the toughest beings known to man. Despite their awesome capabilities, these guys are surprisingly chill.

My collection of works comes from a space of dreaminess and nostalgia. Not only do these feelings indicate a longing for a place that is not reality, they also send a rush of gratitude into the place that IS reality. For this work, I showcase myself on the moon, miles away from my home on Earth. I am featured with a TV playing The Notebook movie, as well as an adaptation of a character who represents a lonely romantic. Being on the moon, I create a disconnect from others like myself and I long for a human connection. The alien-like creatures blend take on some of my facial features, acting as a reflection of how I see myself and relate to an alien-like being, as well as the lonely romantic aspect of it. I gaze longingly behind, as though I am searching for a connection. This piece is an interpretation on this exhibition’s theme, as well as a portrayal of my relationship with others around me, and the metaphorical space that I feel between others during lonely times of my life.

The selected works depict different possible unusual places across space and time. The darker seascape depicts the intrigue of unexpected architecture and technology, which simultaneously clash against the natural environment and bring life to it. The sunset scene illustrates the beauty of both geometric and organic patterns in reimagined landscapes. While seascapes are familiar Earth environments, the unnatural elements in both pieces remind the audience that Earth, too, is part of the weirdness of space.

After Decades of Waiting, Animals Launch the Aerospace Interspecies Alliance (AIA) to Save Earthly Life After decades of waiting, the animals lost all hope that humankind would cease destroying the planet. An all-animal task force was formed, Aerospace Interspecies Alliance or AIA. Their only mission was to find a suitable new home for all earthly life forms. Through cooperation and instinct, the animals repaired aged space equipment and assembled enough pieces to launch into the unknown. In a stunning evolutionary leap, some species adapted so quickly that breathing equipment was no longer required to survive in a vacuum. Meanwhile, most Earth’s animals remain behind, clinging to the slim chance of AIA’s success. The Aerospace Interspecies Alliance is a cooperative, cross-species initiative formed in response to planetary collapse. AIA does not promise salvation. It promises the refusal to quietly disappear.

After Decades of Waiting, Animals Launch the Aerospace Interspecies Alliance (AIA) to Save Earthly Life

After decades of waiting, the animals lost all hope that humankind would cease destroying the planet. An all-animal task force was formed, Aerospace Interspecies Alliance or AIA. Their only mission was to find a suitable new home for all earthly life forms. Through cooperation and instinct, the animals repaired aged space equipment and assembled enough pieces to launch into the unknown. In a stunning evolutionary leap, some species adapted so quickly that breathing equipment was no longer required to survive in a vacuum. Meanwhile, most Earth’s animals remain behind, clinging to the slim chance of AIA’s success.

The Aerospace Interspecies Alliance is a cooperative, cross-species initiative formed in response to planetary collapse. AIA does not promise salvation. It promises the refusal to quietly disappear.

This piece explores space as both vast and deeply personal. An astronaut flots beside a familiar object- a cup of coffee- suggesting that even in the unknown, we carry pieces of everyday life with us. The exaggerated scale of creates a quiet sense of disorientation, where the ordinary becomes monumental and the human figure feels small and reflective. The steam from the cup blends into the surrounding cosmos, blurring the line between intimate and infinite. The eye-like planet introduces a subtle tension hinting that space is not empty, but aware in ways we don’t fully understand. Through this work, I am to capture stillness, strangeness, and quiet wonder of space.

Divine Negligence/Evening Diligence imagines a dark future where 3 god-like beings inhabit the space between the Earth and the Moon. They diligently watch the moon while neglecting humanity and the Earth. The work literally has space as a representation of mans’ solitary existence, devoid from outside intervention or inclusion. No one is coming to save us. We must save ourselves.

This gouache painting (“Star Mother”) is a personification of the universe as a loving force which wraps its galaxies around you to connect you and your grief to the rest of the Universe and remind you you’re not alone in these feelings.

I look through my telescope almost every night, pondering the beauty and immensity of
Space. This inspired me to do a series of drawings of what I see and also some drawings illustrating the physics that make it all possible.

Patrick Shields is a California based artist that has been painting in the Entertainment Industry for the past 35 years. His personal art reflects a desire to be free of constraints and the notion of FREEDOM is a recurring theme in his work, which has been shown in numerous galleries and Public Art awards throughout California. He primarily paints in oils on canvas or boards and creates whatever he feels like without regard for protocol or style. His work reflects an admiration for artists that defy convention while still paying homage to the craft of fine art painting. The quest for FREEDOM allows for improvisation in his work even though it appears to be meticulously crafted. Most of his paintings are a calculated rendering of a deep and abiding inner vision, but some are a spin of the wheel, and the thrill of discovering these is a constant joy. And the future is truly wide open.

“Stranger in a Strange Land” is a painting that evokes alienation and separation. The figure is in a spacesuit in what appears to be a swampy environment. Is the figure so alienated from his environment that it no longer sustains him or is this a strangely familiar alien land?

My work responds to the exhibition’s theme both conceptually and emotionally, rooted in transformation through adversity. I create from lived experience, turning criticism, pain, and pressure into something intentional and expressive. Influenced by classical techniques and surrealism, I build layers that reflect both control and chaos, reality and distortion.

This piece is not just a visual response, but a personal one. It explores the tension between who we are shaped to be and who we choose to become. Through composition, color, and form, I aim to capture a moment of becoming where struggle is no longer hidden, but instead integrated into something powerful and self defined.

My work does not separate beauty from discomfort. It brings them together, reflecting the idea that growth is not clean or linear, but layered, complex, and ultimately transformative.

My work responds to the exhibition’s theme by examining how human behavior persists across time and place. In New World, Old Habits, I imagine a speculative future where humanity encounters a new planet, only to repeat the same systems of colonization, control, and exploitation. Rather than presenting progress as transformation, the work suggests that expansion often reproduces existing hierarchies in new environments.

Through this conceptual framing, I explore the idea that the desire for power and ownership is not limited to history, but embedded within human systems. By displacing colonial narratives into an unfamiliar setting, the work invites viewers to reconsider the present, questioning whether new spaces can ever escape old patterns, or if “new worlds” inevitably carry the same habits forward.

I am a career illustrator and my work has often ventured into space, from science fiction book covers to renderings of future technology for commercial clients. After all, our venturing into space has been a defining characteristic of the last 80 years. Also, what we’ve learned from physics tells us the Universe is interactive and we are made of star stuff. And the creative process often confounds me with a mystery of possible quantum interconnection. Where did that inspiration come from, in a random moment of thought? How did that strange new aspect manifest itself on my canvas, while I was busily preoccupied with technique –– only to provide entirely new meaning beyond my original intent? Weird indeed.

Astronaut of the Self. My work explores the surreal parallel between the vastness of the cosmos and the infinite depth of the human psyche. I respond to this theme conceptually, bridging the literal and the metaphorical: the “weirdness” of the external universe is mirrored in the mysterious landscape of our own consciousness.
Through “Clarity Within” and “Boundless,” I explore the “weirdness” of the infinite—where space exploration meets meditative stillness. These pieces map an Inner/Outer Space Journey, suggesting that the curiosity required to chart the stars is the same wonder needed to navigate our own hearts.
My art is a testament to curiosity and resilience, and is an invitation to personal ascension. It is a call to become an “Astronaut of the Self,” to seize joy, seek truth, and to leap into the limitless possibilities found within the beautiful “weirdness” of being alive.

Through figurative oil paintings and colored pencil art, I invite viewers into a mystical realm. Using color, form, and symbolism, I explore the profound interconnectedness of all living things in the universe. My visionary art is an attempt to capture the ethereal beauty, radiant light, and magical power of the Divine, bringing it into our earthly reality as a counterforce to darkness. As a reflection of the Creator, I create the sincere beauty in our lives, envisioning a world reborn as a vibrant, light-filled, and heart-centered world.

I create art in narrative whimsical surrealism, blending realistic technique, imaginative characters and atmospheric, nature‑infused worlds. My work serves as modern visual fairytales that blend humor, serenity and nostalgia, and explores themes of honoring the natural world, nurturing the inner world, and recognizing the inner truth in everyone’s story. The characters, environments, and emotional narrative evolve together, allowing the final scene to feel dreamlike while still echoing lived experience. I work in acrylic, pastel, and photography; yet each piece belongs in this same universe. My work is grounded in the belief that we are more whole by embracing nature, imagination, and empathy. When combined, those elements transform into lighthearted whimsy; the message is accessible without being judgmental or negative. I invite viewers into a world shaped by imagination and memory, a space for each person to discover their own reality in a world where everyone belongs.

My paintings sit at the crossroads of contemporary surrealism and fantasy, drawing from nostalgia, retro-futurism, and philosophy to create imagery layered with meaning and symbolism.

In my Celestial Reveries series, the dark matter of space reflects the vastness of the mind, memory, and imagination. The cosmos becomes a field of ideas, each star like a spark, a light bulb, a eureka moment waiting for illumination.

The cosmos is a journey where possibilities are limitless, and my paintings explore it as a psychological and symbolic territory, not just a physical expanse. They invite viewers to embrace the idea that what feels most alien is often deeply human.

My art is for the daydreamers, the ones who find the absurd in the ordinary and use fantasy to understand something deeper.

When we finally colonize the moon, will we do so as a united earth, or will we take all our fences with us? Cultural fences? Physical fence?, Racial fences? What a different world it would be without taking our current fences along.

Eduardo del Rio aka ‘PencilProne’ is a Spain-born graphic artist who has shown in galleries in San Francisco and Oakland, published illustrations, and was featured in the SF De Young Museum. Eduardo’s work explores the interconnections of our reality and transcendence of our human experience through playful representations of everything around us. He seeks to understand the frailty of the human existence and how we are all amalgamations of everything we experience.

Ancestor’s Dream reflects the strange, tender experience of carrying unseen histories. Space becomes an intimate, cosmic meeting place where memory, inheritance, and imagination converge. The universe remains largely unknown: full of wonder, discovery, and possibility. Though our bodies fade, our atoms endure, returning to the earth. We are, quite literally, made of stardust. This work invites reflection on how both our past and present shape the promises of what is still to come.