May 26 through September 8, 2012
Main Gallery Starry, Starry Night: The Paintings of Serena Supplee
Mezzanine Gallery Starry, Starry Night, National Parks through the Lens of Wally Pacholka with Art Conversation on August 16th at 7pm (3rd Thursday Art Conversation Series)
Legacy Gallery Great Basin Exteriors: A Photographic Survey (Nevada Arts Council exhibit-opens June 20th)
This summer you can relive those sweet lovely evenings lying on your back looking in wonder at the heavens overhead. You can view the night sky, especially focusing on the national parks after dark, during the day by visiting the St. George Art Museum where we will be showing the last American frontier and space, the final frontier.
When Wally Pacholka was nine years old, his parents kept wondering what in the world he was doing up on the roof for all hours of the night. When questioned on the subject, he replied, “I just love looking at the stars, don’t you???” He soon found out that not only his family, but most of his friends, didn’t have this same interest and fascination with the night sky as he did. He soon set out to change that, by buying a used camera & tripod at a pawn shop with paper route money, to show them some of the fascinating things he was seeing in the night sky night after night. They and everyone who saw his images were impressed. That was 40 years ago, yet today he is still at it with basically the same type of equipment, a 35mm camera and tripod, however rather than just fascinating close friends, he has fascinated millions with his landscape astrophotography that has graced some of the most prestigious magazines and books in the world.
In 1997 when great comet Hale-Bopp made its 13 month naked eye visit to Earth most astronomers and photographers used their longest telephoto lenses and telescopes to capture its beauty in stunning detail. Pacholka took a different approach and used his standard 35mm lens with tripod, yet included terrestrial landscape in each shot with the comet skyscapes above. That technique made Pacholka an instant celebrity with images in major newspapers and magazines worldwide, including National Geographic, Encyclopedia Britannia, and the coveted TIME Magazine Picture of the Year.
In 2003, with the 60,000 year close encounter of Mars event, Pacholka set out to achieve the TIME Picture of Year award for that event to prove to himself that the 1997 accomplishment was no fluke. He not only made TIME Picture of Year again, but also LIFE Picture of year with a second outstanding image of Mars over landscape scenery.
Currently Pacholka is focused on his photographic series project titled “America the Beautiful at Night” where he is photographing the fascinating night skies over America’s key national parks and landmarks. This multi year project, has earned him 39 NASA, 15 National Geographic, 7 LIFE, and 5 TIME magazine publications. All this achieved using a 35mm camera on a basic photographic tripod but with a determination to hike the national parks at night to enable folk to see what he sees, the fascinating night skies that are there night after night. Whether he has given his slide presentations to crowds on the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii or to folk in Death Valley, he has inspired thousands with the beauty of the night sky and how relatively easy it is to record it using some basic equipment and landscape astrophotography techniques. His work is currently sold in over 40 national parks.
Art Conversation with Wally will take place on August 16th, 2012 at 7pm
www.AstroPics.com
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