Psyche Inspired: Danielle Gu

Institution: University of Texas at Austin

Major: Business and Art History

Psyche Inspired Class: 2023-2024

Reflections on Psyche Inspired

Reflections on Project 1: On Display

On Display

Danielle Gu

November 8th, 2023

Major: Business and Art History

Genre/Medium: Colored pencil, pastel, and gel pen on drawing paper

About the work: “On Display” is a mixed media piece that examines the potential impact of future discoveries about the composition and nature of Psyche. The central focus of the piece is the Psyche asteroid, which is depicted on a display mount typically utilized for rocks or gemstones in a museum. The composition of Psyche “on display” is meant to probe the importance and innovations of the mission and invite the viewer to imagine what the most notable scientific contributions attributed to Psyche will be in years to come. In this work, the asteroid is drawn in colored pencil, and the background was created with a combination of pastels and gel pen. In drafting this piece, I opted to pursue a simple, clean composition to emphasize the asteroid and the power of recognition. Museums and their displays have the ability to influence what we take away from historical events — what will we learn from Psyche?

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Reflections on Project 2: Psyche Emerged

Psyche Emerged

Danielle Gu

January 10th, 2024

Major: Business and Art History

Genre/Medium: Acrylic Painting

About the work: “Psyche Emerged” is an acrylic painting that depicts Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul and the namesake of the asteroid Psyche. Psyche was a well-known figure in Greek and Roman mythology, and she was born as a beautiful mortal woman before she eventually became immortal. One of the most notable myths involving Psyche was the tale of her love and marriage with Eros, also known as the Roman “Cupid.” Their love was immortalized by Italian artist Antonio Canova in a marble statue named “Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss” (Amore e Psiche). I drew a lot of inspiration from the delicate, yet dynamic pose selected by the sculptor and ultimately chose to partially replicate it in my own painting. I further referenced other paintings of Psyche and Eros like “The abduction of Psyche” by William-Adolphe Bouguereau to better understand her poses, clothing, and appearance.

While working on this project, I read a lot of the original text of “The Golden Ass,” a novel which tells the tale of Psyche and Eros. The multiple trials that Psyche is required to undergo before she achieves immortality and discovers Eros again truly reminded me of the perseverance of the multiple groups who collaborated on this mission. Thus, I tried to represent the beauty of their efforts in my portrait of the stunning Psyche.

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Reflections on Project 3: Psyche Beaded

Psyche Beaded

Danielle Gu

March 14th, 2024

Major: Business and Art History

Genre/Medium: Glass beads, copper wire, wood

About the work: My project is a beaded sculpture of the Psyche spacecraft, mounted on top of a hollow wooden block. In creating this project, I wanted to challenge myself to create a sculpture out of a new medium. I have worked with beads in the past, especially in jewelry, but I knew that sculpture and 3D forms would provide a different challenge.

As I began this sculpture, I started with the 3D cube in the center, which contains the thrusters, sun sensor, X-Band High Gain antenna, and more on the real spacecraft. I used a peyote stitch technique and created two halves of the cube that I later stitched together. Then, I created two solar arrays out of chrome and silver bugle beads that I attached through the middle of the cube, creating the spacecraft. Finally, I placed the spacecraft on a wire prong on top of the wooden cube, completing the sculpture! Throughout the process, I also consulted several diagrams of the spacecraft to build accurate proportions into the final product.

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Reflections on Project 4: Psyche Stamped

Psyche Stamped

Danielle Gu

April 25th, 2024

Major: Business and Art History

Genre/Medium: Rubber, archival ink, paper, fabric

About the work: This work envisions a line of Psyche mission branded merch, from T-shirts to postcards. The print is made up of 8 separate stamps carved from rubber that are each printed one at a time. The top of the stamp reads “PSYCHE” and the bottom line of numbers refer to the date on which the Psyche spacecraft launched! The upper middle section of the stamp depicts the Psyche logo, and it draws inspiration from the previous drafts of the Psyche badge logo. Unlike the current version of the logo, the stamp does not feature different shades of colors with lines of separation in between. The bottom middle section draws from one of the other original concepts for the logo, namely the Widmanstätten pattern. The lines within the half moon shape are meant to resemble the cross section of some iron meteorites. Altogether, each part of the stamp aims to show the progression of the mission over time, from conception to launch.

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