Psyche Inspired: Carissa Tinoco

This is a portrait of Psyche Inspired member Carissa Tinoco.

Carissa Tinoco

Institution: university of california, berkeley

Major: Molecular Environmental Biology

(Concentration in Environment & Human Health)

Psyche Inspired Class: 2018-2019

A woman in a white dress with her hand raised up to reach out is standing on a platform in outer space, about to come into contact with the big Psyche asteroid. While not to scale, it represents the fact that we humans are reaching out into outer space to investigate this asteroid. A silhouette of the Psyche spacecraft is set behind both the human and asteroid subjects, with other planet silhouettes trailing behind the asteroid to suggest that this is set in outer space.

Human Psyche

Carissa Tinoco

March 28, 2019

Major: molecular environmental biology

Genre/Medium: adobe illustrator

About the work: This ethereal piece illustrates a woman coming into contact with the Psyche asteroid. The woman represents the goddess of the soul, after whom the asteroid was named. She also represents the people that have come together to take part in the Psyche mission. While she is symbolically reaching out to touch the asteroid, we are reaching out into space to investigate this asteroid. This was a fun piece to make as I got to play around with color theory.

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This images shows the outside of the Psyche Mission Brochure, with facts about the mission that can also be found on the Psyche website.

Psyche Mission Brochure

Carissa Tinoco

April 2, 2019

Major: molecular environmental biology

Genre/Medium: digital art

About the work: For my third piece, I created a trifold brochure meant to be printed and physically handed out to people at outreach events (such as the Psyche Inspired showcase exhibit) who would like to learn more about the Psyche mission. As a tool for outreach, it is a summarized, compact, colorful, and accessible version of the information that is on the Psyche mission’s website.

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A portrait of a woman with long, dark hair is displayed, adorned by a Greek-style gold leaf headband and a gold choker with the Psyche Mission logo as the pendant. She has blue, pupil-less eyes, with ombre eyebrows and halo-style eye makeup. Floating right above her head is the Psyche Mission's spacecraft, which is surrounded by a blue glow that matches her eye color. The spacecraft appears to melt as it is floating and is meant to add a dynamic touch to the still portrait. The background is simply color gradients that I found to be an appealing addition to the portrait.

Goddess Psyche

Carissa Tinoco

January 31, 2019

Major: molecular environmental biology

Genre/Medium: digital art

About the work: This piece is my artistic rendering of the Greek goddess of the soul, Psyche, after whom the asteroid being investigated was named. Alluding to the Greek mythology aspect of the mission, I included a gold leaf headband and a gold choker necklace as symbolism for the jewelry that the ancient Greeks sometimes wore. Flying above the woman’s head is the Psyche spacecraft that will be launched in 2022. It is surrounded by a blue glow that matches the color of the woman’s pupil-less eyes (pupil-less since the eyes are the window to the soul!). The spacecraft appears to be melting and is bent in a way to suggest dynamism—this movement, in addition to the woman’s suspended hair, represents the progress we are making toward the mission, as well as the actual action of being launched. Most of the colors I used were from the Psyche mission’s official color palette.

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Image 1 shows a big asteroid on a black, space background, while Image 2 shows the Psyche spacecraft on a black space background. Radiating from the asteroid and the spacecraft are colorful yellow, purple, pink, orange concentric shapes. Towards the bottom, the text stylistically conforms to diagonal line slicing through it.

Psyche-Delic

Carissa Tinoco

November 14, 2018

Major: molecular environmental biology

Genre/Medium: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

About the work:This poster series takes a modern twist on a groovy style and is a play on words from the Psyche mission. Psyche-delic is both a pun and an adjective to describe the style of art and initial idea I had for this project. Both images consist of concentric shapes radiating from the subject (which is either the Psyche spacecraft or asteroid) and use the colors found in the Psyche mission’s color scheme. As a poster that is meant to be seen, I wanted the images to be as eye-catching and scientifically accurate as possible, so I made sure the colors took up a big part of the posters, the text had a stylistic and striking diagonal to them, and that all the details of both the asteroid and the spacecraft were captured through finely painted strokes.

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