Dr. Laci Brock 🪐

@stellerarts

✨ space paintings + science communication 🎨 teaching you astrophysics through art 🔭 planetary scientist PhD 🚀 join email list & shop art ⤵️
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BEHOLD! My painting of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is finally done, 7 months later. What are the colored rectangles you might ask? I simulated ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths using data from the Hubble and Gemini telescopes! ✨🔭 ——— credit: telescope data from NASA/ESA/M. H. Wong
2,306 177
1 year ago
My most recent multi-spectral painting weaves together two infrared images taken by JWST of the Pillars of Creation, a star-forming region within the vast Eagle Nebula 🦅 The Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) excels at revealing dust and gas, shown here in eerie blues and greys. Knots of gas and dust with enough mass can undergo gravitational collapse and eventually form new stars ⭐️ But where are all the stars? Young stars wrapped in their dusty cocoons can be detected by MIRI, but we have to go to shorter wavelengths to really see the stars shine. The brighter squares that makeup the checkerboard pattern add light from JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) where thousands of stars come into view. Quite literally, because I counted all the stars I painted during this piece at 7695 😅 Now to decide on a name for the piece! Any ideas? ——— oil on @fredrixcanvas 📸: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. DePasquale, A. Pagan ——— #pillarsofcreation #jwst #spaceart #spacepainting #oiloncanvas #nebula #sciart #scienceandart #womeninstem #astronomy #myartstyle
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10 months ago
My art is about taking a moment to look up. The curiosity & wonder of what’s out there—from Jupiter’s churning atmosphere to a distant exoplanet with crystal clouds. To connect our brief existence to the larger universe and physical processes within. Painting is my medium to communicate science. What is multi-spectral art? My signature painting style merges science + art, showing how we image space objects in different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum to better understand their properties. I transform astronomical data into vivid, educational works of art. 🔭 This painting weaves together images taken by 2 different instruments on JWST in different portions of the infrared spectrum—all in light invisible to our eyes. I chose hexagons as an homage to JWST’s mirror shape, which show the Ring Nebula in mid-infrared wavelengths of light. The rest of the piece is in near-infrared light. Prints will drop at the end of April for a limited time ✨ —— #jwst #nebula #scienceandart #oilpaintingart
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10 days ago
Dropped off the Ring Nebula to be photographed today! Ordering test prints next week and hope to go live on April 24th 😌 That means it time to name this piece! Vote in the poll below to help me decide ⬇️ ——— #jwstart #nebulae #spacepainting #scienceandart #hexagons
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2 days ago
Arrakis 🏜️ Seeing Dune 2 and the stunning visuals inspired me to paint some more sci-fi minis! ——— #dune #arrakis #minipainting #scifiart
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5 days ago
Quick little process video of my Ring Nebula painting 😌 Do you like these types or videos? I don’t record a timelapse of the whole piece (anxiety + takes forever), but I film a ton of quick bursts of painting! My phone is filled with these videos after each painting. I love seeing how the astronomical objects I paint come to life over time 🤩 —— #artprocess #paintingprocessvideo #scienceart
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12 days ago
Presenting my latest multi-spectral painting! ✨ I definitely spent an entire one of these months with my tiniest brush sculpting the intricate details of the ionized gases. The original and limited edition prints will be available next month (April 2024). Have you joined my email list yet? That’s how the coolest space nerds get first dibs on my work—it goes quick! 🤩 📐: 24 x 24” oil on canvas with 208 +/-9 stars & background galaxies ——— #artreveal #oilpaintingsoncanvas #finishedpainting
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13 days ago
Growing up I was told I couldn’t do science and art. It was bad advice that I unfortunately listened to for many years because I didn’t know any better. But now I do! Finished my PhD then started a space art business last year. If your path doesn’t exist, make your own! It may not be a quick or easy journey, but it’s yours 💚 Happy International Women’s Day 💃🏻 #internationalwomensday #womensday2024
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20 days ago
Constantly dreaming of worlds beyond Earth, wishing I could book passage on the USS Enterprise 1701-D to see the crystal clouds I studied for years. I am so happy to have this time to explore my passion of astrophysics through painting and ways beyond scientific research, connecting science and art.
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22 days ago
Final resting place of Ingenuity on a Martian sand dune 🥲. I hope in the distant future a museum is built on Mars to remember the helicopter that exceeded all expectations and lasted years beyond its 30 day planned mission. I combined two reference images for this acrylic painting, which were taken by the Perseverance Rover’s SuperCam RMI instrument. This closer look shows a rotor blade completely broken off and the damaged tips on the others. Ingenuity used rocks and features of the terrain to navigate. The feature-less sandy area probably led to Ginny’s demise, causing the copter to come in at an angle and damage the blades. 📸: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/Simeon Schmauß ——— #ingenuity #mars #marsrover
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28 days ago
Science and art. It’s who I am and makes me whole.
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1 month ago
Because I’m a scientist? A nerd? Unhinged? Idk 😆 I knew my last oil painting, Spectrum of Stardust, was going to have a lot of stars. I thought it would be interesting and fun to count *exactly* how many. I ended up with 7695! Now I obviously have to keep this going for all future oil paintings. This painting of the Ring Nebula won’t have as many stars (😅 whew). After I paint a star, I mark a tally on my dry erase board. Each star is so much more than just a white dot on a canvas. Stars vary in color from blue for the hottest to more red for the coolest. This piece also has a lot of background galaxies! I’m going to count them together with the stars and am up to about 60 so far. Hope to be done in 10 days. Ahhhhh ——— #nebula #jwst #spacelovers #iamweird #dingus
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1 month ago