can we all just take a moment for people who work on one thing for 2 whole months? that is exactly what Cape Town based artist Marsi van de Heuvel does. in her series Dark Matter Marsi explores space. not literally, but with her pen – at seven strokes per second.
I’ve had an interest in Space for as long as I can remember. I started collecting books on the theme, and made my first drawings of The Northern Sky and The Southern Sky about two years ago. Before I knew it, I was drawing every constellation, and the Earth, Sun, and Moon. Space consumed me.
Each pen stroke in my work is deliberately used to map out a representation of something infinitely bigger. It takes about two hours to draw a ten centimeter square, at a rate of about seven strokes per second. The largest drawing I’ve done to date in this technique, is Omega Centauri, the brightest star cluster in our galaxy. It took two months to complete.
The vastness of space helps me to put some perspective to our significance. Creating this work also showed me how extraordinary our home planet is – it is an oasis in a beautiful but hostile never-ending dessert. The idea of Space perpetually engages me as there is aways more to explore – it’s intangible and romanic, and reveals my unrequited love for a remarkable unemotional expanse of darkness.
the pieces are BIG, too! Omega Centauri (below) is 1 square meter in size. if i had one of these on my wall i would marvel at it constantly. you can purchase her work through Smith Studio.
