Students had the opportunity to meet and learn from internationally renowned artist Russell Crotty, and to create their own lunar-inspired pieces in the Baldwin and Shell Drawing Studio at the Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts on April 5. 

Crotty, an artist fascinated by astronomy, showed students images of the moon from NASA scientists and paintings of the moon from modern and classical artists, like Galileo.

“This is a great opportunity to come here during the eclipse, and that’s why we’re doing a moon workshop here. Because the moon’s going to obscure the sun, I thought it’d be cool to approach it from the moon’s vantage point,” Crotty said.

Crotty encouraged students to use the moon’s size and shape to influence their drawings.

“You use that as kind of a launching point for people,” Crotty said. 

Throughout the workshop, Crotty strolled about the room looking at students’ creations. He would then offer encouragement and applaud their colorful perspectives.

Student Michelle Hamilton relayed how she sees the upcoming eclipse. 

“I don’t think I’ve fully noticed how different it would be because last time I saw it was a partial eclipse, but then my boyfriend was like, ‘No, it would be really dark for a couple of minutes because the sun will be fully blocked,” said Hamilton. 

Student Madison Roy spoke of the eclipse’s potential impacts on nature.

“I remember that, leading up to it, there will be a lot of strange things happening,” Roy said.

The attendees spent time fleshing out their various designs. 

Hamilton commented on her picture, a full, orange moon with the face of a carved pumpkin. “This one, particularly, was the harvest moon. I remember seeing it a lot because I live in a very small town. I drive at night a lot because it’s a good distance, like 35 minutes to go to Walmart, and I would look up and actually, the moon, it would be a harvest moon. Every single time it would have its face on the moon. To me, it looked like a carved pumpkin face,” Hamilton said. 

Crotty wants students to take advantage of the upcoming phenomena.

“Not a lot of people look through their telescopes anymore. They’re more looking at the screen, collecting data, stacking hundreds of really fast shots so we can come up with something sharp. But of course, drawing has been around for a long time and it’s never gonna go away,” Crotty said.

Crotty’s lunar-inspired art is on display at the Windgate Center’s art gallery until April 26. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.