ROOM
106
Space Lounge
Nicole Stott
Artist, Astronaut and
SciArt Advocate
R
OOM’s ‘Space for Art’ column is
dedicated to the inspiration that comes
from the interaction between space and
art. One of the things I still find so
interesting about this is how surprised many
people are by the idea of space and art interacting
at all - and most especially when they discover
people working in the space industry that are also
blessed with some form of artistic talent.
I am pleased to be one of those people that
has always found a balance between the space,
engineering and artistic aspects of my life. I have
actually always found that it’s not just a balance
but more of a natural interaction and blend that
has just occurred for me versus a deliberate
distinction between them.
As a result, I have always been very interested in
discovering other engineering, space, scientist and
technical types that are also actively involved with
artistic things in their lives.
Over the years as I have been blessed to work with
our space programmes at the Kennedy Space Center
(KSC) and Johnson Space Center (JSC) as an engineer
and astronaut, I have quietly kept a list of these
people I’ve met along the way and I’m very happy to
have recently had the opportunity to showcase some
of their wonderful artwork and the interaction that
space and science and art has had on their lives.
This showcase took the form of an art exhibit called
‘Space for Art’ which was supported and hosted by
the wonderful exhibit’s team at the Space Center
Houston, and it was so much fun to ‘curate’ the art
and artists from this list I had compiled.
This show specifically focused on the Johnson
Space Center (JSC) community and on display
was artwork from JSC employees typically only
thought of as engineers, scientists or astronauts.
Their works of art included paintings, quilts,
photographs, sculptural cakes, stained glass, hand-
crafted wooden longboard skateboards, intricately
drawn doodles and musical instruments.
Some of this collection had originally been created
in space, including a portrait sketched by cosmonaut
Alexei Leonov of astronaut Tom Stafford during their
Apollo-Soyuz mission; a hand-sewn and stuffed
toy dinosaur that astronaut Karen Nyberg created
from scraps of fabric during her ISS expedition;
a watercolour painted by myself during my ISS
expedition; and musical instruments played in space,
including Ellen Ochoa’s flute she played during one
of her Space Shuttle missions and the bagpipes
played by Kjell Lindgren during his ISS expedition.
This exhibition was also an opportunity to
display as a centrepiece the HOPE and UNITY
space suits from the Space Suit Art Project - such
a beautiful example of the inspiration that comes
The ‘Space for Art’
exhibit in the central
gallery of the Space
Center Houston. It
featured artwork from
many employees.
Space for art
an element of surprise
Recently, I was
delighted to
discover the
artistic talent
of another
well-known
space figure,
Robert H.
Goddard,
known as
the ‘father of
rocketry’
