Jovian Floaters Fantasy Video

Not to turn this into the Carl Sagan Fanclub Blog or anything, but the man was undeniably formulating some very Whales In Space-y ideas during his career.

Sagan and his Cornell colleague Edwin Salpeter published a paper in 1975 entitled “Particles, Environments, and Possible Ecologies in the Jovian Atmosphere.” The paper theorized about the varieties of organisms which may evolve and flourish in a volatile, gaseous atmosphere such as Jupiter's.

Basically, they look like big ol jellyfish and mantarays. Needless to say, this has far reaching implications for WIS.

Click on the post title to see a segment of Sagan's WONDERFUL AMAZING BEAUTIFUL show "Cosmos" in which he most elegantly explains the theory. The video contains, a bliss-fest of ANIMATED WIS concept fantasy art.

Mister PicassoHead and His Bucket of Art Parts!

Get your french-fried cubism on with Mr. PicassoHead! Click the post title to access the website, and or click here for my own personal "masterpiece."

The Mister Rogers of Astrophysics

I Still Love the Old World

In my eternal quest for WIS images available on the interwebs, I bear witness to what I believe to be the evolutionary progress of the art form. The golden age of WIS has clearly passed. This was an age of airbrushes, an age when evidence of the warm touch of the human hand was still felt, no matter how polished and realistic the pieces may have been. These days---though I must emphasize that it gives me infinite pleasure to see people still pursuing the genre---these days I see more photoshop job WIS than not.

Now, I majored in fine art. I mean, I am a purist. I built my own silkscreens and gleefully inhaled the aroma of linseed oil and turpentine. I wore my charcoal smudge warpaint with pride. It never crossed my mind to pursue digital photoshop whatnot, because...well, I'm a purist snob! And recently, I've reconsidered my thinking. It sure is a hellofalot easier to get what's in your head out and into existence with photoshop than struggling with the many varieties of technical difficulties involved in the old ways. Photoshop is cool, fine, yes. And worth pursuing...But...I still just like the old stuff better.