ATS Members: What's your job/vocation?

I'm an astro artist. I hand paint astronomically accurate night sky paintings with a special acrylic based photo luminescent paint that I make that's invisible during the day and is charged by natural or artificial light. It blends right in with the existing ceiling paint and texture and when the lights are on you can't see it. But at night or when it's dark it's like you're floating through space in your bed and you see the big dipper and how the two stars in the bucket point to Polaris. Or depending on the day and time you'd see Orion or Cygnus, Perseus, Draco, Pleiades and so on aligned exactly as they appear outside. I let people look at a star chart to see what the night sky looks like on their birthday or anniversary and then I hand paint that day and time, one star at a time and accurate down to the individual magnitudes. I use 6 applicators that represent the different star magnitudes and that's what gives the illusion of infinity and distance even though its only 8 feet above on the ceiling. It glows for at least 3 hours every night with 15 - 20 minutes of artificial light and since it's acrylic based it lasts until it's painted over, indefinitely.

I donated a painting to the Challenger Space Center auditorium of the exact moment of the Challenger disaster.

I love my job and how excited and interested it get's people in astronomy, young and old.

Except those odd moments after I've finished painting and a married couple wants me to lay with them in their bed and point out constellations to them and demonstrate how to use the free star chart inside. lol

a reply to: Astroart

Im a painter myself and would super love to see your work please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

originally posted by: Brotherman
a reply to: Astroart

I'm a painter myself and would super love to see your work please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's the biggest hurdle. Because it's invisible during the day photos don't work and I've tried for years to get a true picture that captures it at night but it just doesn't do it justice. It only captures the big boys like Sirius, Rigel, Deneb and Regulus and doesn't show the smaller ones like Mizar and Alcor. Of the 700 stars I paint maybe 10-15 show up clear in pictures.

I painted it in the back of my K5 I take camping but other than that 99% of my artwork is in private residences.

I'm still working on capturing it with a real picture though, I refuse to use CGI or special effects as I feel those are misleading, false representations of what it actually looks like.

a reply to: cuckooold
EMT- Emergency Medical Tech, ADLS Advanced Disaster Life Support, 911 Dispatcher, Volunteer/Search and Rescue FEMA/Department of Homeland Security, Citizen Corps/C.E.R.T. Community Emergency Response Team

a reply to: Astroart

I use a very powerful and suggestive form of subtility to convey a message some call that deceptive however I find it very effective

Heres a link

some of mine.

I would really love to see what your work is like =D you never know maybe I may have one of yours hanging in my place

a reply to: Brotherman

Wow! Awesome work, the shading in the facial expressions is ridiculously amazing.

My art is impossible to hang lol I scale the night sky down to the size of the ceiling and hand place 700 or so stars (just the individual stars) directly over the existing paint and texture on the ceiling one star at a time. The rooms looks the exact same as it did before except when you turn the lights out then bam, your entire ceiling is gone and you're floating in space.

I paint from corner to corner and then bring it down the walls a bit to give the allusion of a natural horizon or a mountainous one. Once it's painted it's there for good, permanently on the ceiling, scaled to size and ceiling height.

The entire ceiling is my canvas.

a reply to: Astroart

most of my work is also very large =D photographs sometimes limit this but I have a deep respect for your representations lol my first planetarium mr Dowey was the astrophysicist and damn I liked it If you get a chance post your work I and many others would really love to see it.

a reply to: Brotherman

I'm working on it. As soon as I can get the Milky Way to show up in a picture I'll call it good. It's the faintest part of the painting and the hardest to capture. I mist it onto the ceiling along its correct path and its so fine and faint it never shows up in photos and I feel it's the most awe inspiring part, seeing the great rift on your ceiling.

I'll definitely send you a link once I get it right.

And that was my favorite piece, the piece you posted. Such a powerful facial expression.

a reply to: Astroart

yeah dude I would be really into seeing that for damn sure!!!

I'll join the fun

Computer Science - Professor/Researcher (Computer Graphics is my field of expertise) ^_^

I'm a graphic artist that is scrapping by to make ends meet by being a professional driver in the field of student transportation. Just another somewhat disenfranchised creative person with a good bit of talent and technical aptitude not being put to much use. (I'd freelance, even tried it, but it's sporadic and I'm not quite good enough at the business end of it.)

You could say I love my job so much I'm slowly saving up to move a thousand miles to where the cost of living is better, provided I can find some entry level illustration or 3D work. (Nobody hiring around where I currently live without experience and long list of esoteric qualifying critera. Also the job search is somewhat compounded in difficulty by being former military thus starting college at an older age, current work schedule, and low-energy relating to some health issues.)

a reply to: Brotherman

Just took these in the garage for you. Keep in mind I was only 2 feet away when the pictures were taken, normally it's 8-10 ft high.

Lights on in the back of my K5.....

Under black light......

Lights off.............

Cass

Perseus

Ursa Major, can you see Mizar and Alcor?

a reply to: Astroart

that dude is an awesome form of art bro make a dedicated thread effin STARRRRRED

Elevator Installer / Technician, the sexiest trade guys alive

a reply to: Astroart
they nice

a reply to: Magnivea

Oh hell, I forgot my "recreational"..."job" that pays about half of what I live off of for the year. Touring drummer for a Boston based hardcore band for a couple of months at the end of the year and the beginning month or so of spring.

I was diagnosed with a particularly crap from of MS about 2 years ago so I figure I might as well do what I can/want to before I can't anymore.

originally posted by: Magnivea
a reply to: Magnivea

Oh hell, I forgot my "recreational"..."job" that pays about half of what I live off of for the year. Touring drummer for a Boston based hardcore band for a couple of months at the end of the year and the beginning month or so of spring.

I was diagnosed with a particularly crap from of MS about 2 years ago so I figure I might as well do what I can/want to before I can't anymore.

Not so nice on the MS but nice on the other part.
I grew up in the heyday of the Philly and NJ HC\sXe scene.
Hell I was just remembering stage diving to Mouthpiece, Lifetime (before they became Hipster approved) and Turning Point.

Supervisor of the Plumbing department for the local school district. I also run a small side business as a mechanical contractor. In the past, I have been a heavy equipment mechanic, auto mechanic, labor, forklift operator, backhoe operator, and a vine pruner at a vineyard.

originally posted by: Astroart
a reply to: Brotherman

Just took these in the garage for you. Keep in mind I was only 2 feet away when the pictures were taken, normally it's 8-10 ft high.

Lights on in the back of my K5.....

Under black light......

Lights off.............

Cass

Perseus

Ursa Major, can you see Mizar and Alcor?

That's awesome man

I'm with Brotherman

That form of art deserves it's own thread, u2u me if you make it

Cody

Hello,

I think most people who interact with me here know that I'm an English teacher, published writer, and a freelance avatar creator .
TGIF