Psyche Building Blocks
Katherine Page
Major: Biology
Genre/Medium: Basswood, wood carving tools, acrylic paint
About the work: “Psyche Building Blocks” is a set of six basswood forms carved and painted by hand to mimic the nostalgic style of classic children’s building blocks. Each block face is a different color of the rainbow and boldly depicts a letter, number or symbol pertaining to the Psyche mission. Letters spell out “PSYCHE” and “WONDER” to represent the value of wonder and curiosity in the mission, and the blocks can be arranged like puzzle pieces to form a picture of the spacecraft orbiting the asteroid, with the phrase “Journey to a metal world” floating inside the image. These blocks are designed to promote hands-on learning; they have to be held, shuffled and arranged to reveal each word or pattern. To invoke the colorful chaos of elementary school art sessions, the blocks are strewn about with spilled glitter, rubber bands, Legos, and a paint palette.
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