Vargas-Suarez Universal

Since the Spring of 2007, my attention, daily studio practice and sleep schedule has been dictated by the manned spaceflight program missions conducted by NASA and Roscosmos (Russian Federal Space Agency). Of all the activities associated with the American and Russian space programs, Extra-vehicular Activities or E.V.A.'s, also known as "space walks", have become the primary source to create wall drawing murals and oil paintings. Live 6 to 8 hour televised video broadcasts of the spacewalks are projected onto walls or canvas. The overall compositions are a result of accumulated markings based on geometric shapes created by the architecture of the spacecraft and the shapes of outer space. These are then mapped out with "vectors", and assigned colors based on reflections of the earth as reflected on the surfaces of the spacecraft. The live video transmissions are caught from cameras aboard the ISS, the Space Shuttle, and mostly from the helmet cameras of American space suits as well as Russian Orlan space suits (worn by the space walkers). The audio dialogue, between mission controls in Koryolov (Moscow), and Houston, the constantly moving curvature of the Earth below, the complex architecture of the ISS and the work being performed, are carefully traced on the wall or canvas during the entire duration of each space walk. I am interested in the visual results acquired through live video broadcasts, and the visual relationship between the vacuum of space, aerospace architecture, and the kinetic energy of the ISS, which is moving at 17,500 miles per hour. These drawings and paintings aim to depict the visual dynamics of such an event. 

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