Kind of hard to believe we made it here after months of painting. After three years of work really! A few more shots from different sides. It's hard to capture it all in one photo!

Friends, the #SkyhorseCarousel is finally fully painted and reassembled, isn't it STUNNING?! Between the horses and scenes, the carousel celebrates the culture and cosmos of >30 different cultures worldwide! You can read all the Sky Stories and see photos here: www.skyhorsecarousel.com #SciArt

Last week we finished wiring the last of the scenery panels and today is the laborious task of moving the controls into a brand new operator’s station. It’s a huge pain! The old crate was falling apart and the bolts rusting through, so now all the wiring will be better protected. #SkyhorseCarousel

In Finnish folklore, the aurora is caused by the brush of a fox tail spraying snow up into the sky. To the indigenous Sami it is the energy of departed souls and called "the light you can hear". The fox has a symbol from a Sami drum to honor both modern and ancient stories. #SkyhorseCarousel #SciArt

The Rainbow Serpent is a water deity in Dreamtime stories from various Australian Aboriginal peoples. When the rainbow is seen stretched across the sky it is said to be bringing water from one watering hole to another. The snake pays homage to their indigenous dot art. #SkyhorseCarousel #SciArt

Gavaevodata is a primordial cow in Zoroastrian myth who died during a divine conflict. It was carried to the Moon who purified it, and from its body came the many plants and animals which flourished on Earth. The bull is created from a carving at the ruins of Persopolis. #SkyhorseCarousel #SciArt

A Mongolian story tells that long ago, seven suns appeared in the sky bringing intense heat and drought to the land. A hunter vowed to shoot them down, but a swallow flew in front of his last arrow causing it to miss and saving the seventh sun, though splitting his tail. #SkyhorseCarousel #SciArt

Magical guest at the caesalpinia today!

Home stretch getting the scenery panels painted and ready for final gloss coat this weekend. Painting to ungodly hours all week, and totally worth it. It’s been a long few months! I’ll both be glad I’m done and miss it at the same time.

The interim photos weren’t very interesting, so here’s the finished panel! I love the Cherokee basket weaving patterns and the bright colors they use. And the turtle came out pretty cute :) #SkyhorseCarousel

Finally working on my last rounding board, phew. This one has a cute turtle! It has a Cherokee theme around how the 13 scutes on a turtle’s shell represent the months of the lunar calendar. #SciArt #SkyhorseCarousel

I have acquired the tiniest megaphone. More like a kilophone really. It’s adorable 😁

Just saw a roadrunner on my patio! We used to see them all the time in Tucson but it was my first sighting here, they’re my favorite!

Behold, Te Māngōroa! The Māori name for the Milky Way and the shark that Māui placed in the sky as a celestial guardian. Painting the sky was really challenging but I'm proud of how it came out! The shark (by Karanga Ink, Aukland) is amazing--plan to send them photos soon. #SciArt #SkyhorseCarousel

Stencil!

Stars!! ✨ The photos from distance don’t really show very well, but they came out pretty nice I think! Nice enough, again, to quit while I’m ahead.

Alright I better quit while I’m ahead here. Let us dry a bit and add some stars.

I added a bit more color and I think it helped, made it a bit more dynamic. Adding in some lines for where the stencils will be peeled in the their hidden colors also helped to make sure it’ll feel color-cohesive when I do.

Solo painting today.

And finally the finished panel :) I'm really happy with how it came out, despite the stencil being challenging. one of my favorite things is how much the colors change in different lighting, to being more blue or more purple, and the metallic between either silver or lilac. #SkyhorseCarousel

The stencils are white so they're hard to see. Right now I'm working on painting the Milky Way--it's daunting! Quite a challenge for an untrained painter but it's getting...somewhere...The flood-lighting is not helping since it's after dark. Gonna fuss over it tomorrow more before adding any stars.

I’ve been working on the Māori panel. We were fortunate to find an indigenous tattoo artist to create for us a drawing of Te Māngōroa, the name for the Milky Way and the shark that Māui placed in the sky as a celestial guardian. #SkyhorseCarousel

Fable is very glad I’m home 💜

Phew, glad to be home from a long week at Johnson Space Center for an Artemis Geology Team meeting. It was amazing to meet the team in person and I learned so many things about space suits! Here’s a video from touring the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, one of the astronauts training that day humored us 🤣

The Chukchi creation myth tells that the first bird Raven flew through a great expanse and created landmasses, but the world was dark. He asked the other birds for help and only the tiny snow bunting could peck a hole in the sky large enough for the Sun to emerge. #SkyhorseCarousel

I love the nested, symmetric patterns in this piece, typically fashioned out of brown and white reindeer fur from this culture. The top border is designed to look like reindeer horns. And I find the little flower slightly anthropomorphic and charming. #SkyhorseCarousel

In the meantime, I’ve been working on this panel in parallel. The stencils went on pretty quick so I don’t have many shots midway, so you’ll have to see the scene revealed as I pull them off instead :) #SkyhorseCarousel

The stencil is quite a labor to remove, but it looks incredible! 💜 The tapir needs a little edge cleanup bc I got overexcited and tried removing the stencil too early lol.

Really happy with how the purples of the night sky came out on this! They will provide some color behind the dramatic stencil.

Quiet day painting by myself :)