Art Loft: Space Station Artwork on Display in New York City [Slide Show]

More than two dozen works of art ferried to and from (as well as created on) the International Space Station went on exhibit to benefit learning centers inspired by space shuttle Challenger

WINGMAN BLUE: Crissie Murphy's mixed-media giclée on cotton paper was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's drawings. It blends cogs and gears from a Model T with sails from a ship. These elements are arranged into layers that form wings echoing the structure of kites and the feathers of a hawk, according to the artist. Courtesy of Collective[i]
DOWN TO EARTH: Ann Hunt Currier's digital C print "Outside of Quellcanka, Peru" features the image of a Quechuan woman in her native Andean Mountains. Currier wanted to emphasize the stark contrast between the woman's traditional, handmade tools and the advanced technology required to travel to and live in space. Courtesy of Collective[i]
UP!: Silicon Valley artist Drue Kataoka [left], pictured here with Ulrika Talling-Smith of Charles Bank Gallery, where the exhibit was held, created this conceptual Japanese brush painting. The center "celestial" piece, which Garriott took to the ISS, was reunited with the "terrestrial" background painting when he returned. The work portrays a rocket in the initial stages of liftoff, Kataoka says. "Up!" illustrates the story of son and father astronauts using the Japanese ink painting technique known as sumi-e. Courtesy of Collective[i]
DIRTY MARTINI: Joshua Ellingson's Kodak digital print is titled, "Dirty Martini and the Birth of the Space Program." It is a portrait of modern burlesque performer Dirty Martini posed in front of a Mercury–Atlas rocket at liftoff. Courtesy of Joshua Ellingson
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CORNISH COW: Photographer Melinda Fager took this picture while she and her mother were driving through her mother's hometown of Cornish, N.H. "Cornish Cow" was chosen as part of the ISS art exhibit because of its "homey" feel, Richard Garriott says. Courtesy of Collective[i]
TWO WINDOWS: Lauren Orchowski's watercolor depicts two windows in space, one providing the view of hovering over the moon and the other offering a view of infinity. Courtesy of Collective[i]
WATER COLOR: The ISS art exhibit featured five watercolors by artist Matthew Riva. Pictured here are [left] "The Great Barrier Reef" and "River Envira." Each of Riva's pieces are interpretations of photos taken from low Earth orbit. Courtesy of Collective[i]
SKY(LAB) KING: In this image, Owen Garriott is seen engaged in extravehicular activity (a spacewalk) at the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) of the orbiting Skylab space station. Owen, father of Richard Garriott, had just deployed the Skylab Particle Collection S149 Experiment to collect material from interplanetary dust particles on prepared surfaces suitable for studying their impact phenomena. Courtesy of NASA
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ASTRONAUT ARTIST: Richard Garriott took advantage of the ISS's microgravity environment, building a paint box that allowed droplets of paint to form spheres that would float over and stick to the paper inside the box. One of Garriott's pieces [right]. Courtesy of RichardInSpace.com
GALLERY OF STARS: Artists and astronauts pose in front of artwork displayed on the International Space Station in 2008. From left: Lauren Orchowski, Ann Hunt Currier, Melinda Fager, Greg Mort, Richard Garriott, Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Joshua Ellingson, Crissie Murphy and Drue Kataoka. Courtesy of Collective[i]
LOW EARTH ORBIT VENUE: In October 2008 ISS astronauts were treated to an art exhibit that infused a little culture into an otherwise bland living environment. Courtesy of Joshua Ellingson
ART IN SPACE: In 2008 civilian astronaut and video game entrepreneur Richard Garriott brought with him to the International Space Station (ISS) an art exhibit intended to lift a little bit of Earth into orbit. This image of the ISS was photographed by an STS 134 crew member on the Endeavour after the station and shuttle began their post-undocking relative separation on May 29, 2011. Courtesy of NASA
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