William Geis, who is Chairman of the Sculpture Department at the San Francisco Art Institute and who shows his work regularly in New York and San Francisco, believes there is a definite parallel between "pure" art and "pure" science. "I think that a true artist and a true scientist are identical. Their desires are very much the same. There is an attempt by both to explain from whence we came, where we're going, why we're here, and how it all came about."1

He further goes on to explain that, "the ability to make analogies is really what we're talking about. The creative person, whether in art or astronomy, is one who is capable of making the largest jumps-the broadest analogies." Mr. Geis believes that being able to see the relationships between various con­cepts is the mark of a creative person. Therefore, an artist who can see the relationship between himself and his total environment (both internal and external) will be the more creative artist.

As an educator, Mr. Geis believes that the role of education in art is to teach people how to think and to enable them to build up storehouses of information from which they can take whatever facts they need to solve a particular problem. Having "store­houses" in different areas-art and astronomy, art and psychology, art and biology, etc., enables the artist to draw from these various sources when he is confronted with a problem. The element of creativity comes into play here in how readily the artist can make associations between facts in his vari­ous "storehouses." However, creativity is not sufficient in itself. A basic body of knowledge is also necessary.

The Laserarium at the Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles is one enterprise which incorporates a know­ledge of art, astronomy, music, psychology, and physics, yet manages to transcend these disciplines and transport the viewer into a state of what can best be described as immense wonder. It is a totally unified exper­ience which touches all one's senses and stimulates the intellect as well. In a darkened planetarium, laser beams are imaginatively projected onto the domed ceiling to the accompaniment of electronic music. The pulsating, gaseous, colored light swirls in the air much as one would imagine the gase­ous, swirling universe to be pulsating in time to the rhythmic beat of physical and mathematical laws. For the duration of the show (one hour) the viewer and his universe are in total harmony. One can sense that the unchanging flow of energy which passes between all elements in the universe relates mankind to the stars in the same way that it relates men to each other.

The link between art and astron­omy is shown quite directly in the works of Morris Scott Dollens, a Los Angeles artist and science fiction enthusiast. His work, which is repre­sentational, stems largely from his imagination and his emotions about deep space. Dollens tries "to capture the sense of wonder of the universe" in his paintings by attempting to interpret what one would feel like if one were in a far away place and time.

Dollens is currently developing imaginative photo montages in which he tries to portray "one's relationship to the universe in this hectic world and in future worlds.”2

Sculptor Rodger Jacobsen, who lives and works in Northern California shows his inquisitiveness about th; unknown in works such as his sculp­ture depicting the naked singularity at the center of a black hole. Excited by the concept of black holes, he created this glass and chrome work which captures the mystery of this astronom­ical discovery. Several of his recent paintings using a sprayed lacquer tech­nique also show his feeling of connec­tion to the universe. Some have cosmic subject matter and many simply radi­ate a mood of timelessness, space, motion, and energy. Mr. Jacobsen is very philosophical about his motivation as an artist. "The mechanics of astronomy don't turn me on at all, but the information I get from it does. My interest is mainly a contemplation of ultimate things."3