Psyche Inspired: Kyra Correa

Psyche Magnets

Kyra Correa

November 16th, 2023

Major: Illustration

Genre/Medium: Travel/souvenir magnets. Laser cut and engraved cast acrylic, paint pens, neodymium magnets

About the work: When my family travels, we always bring back a magnet to remember our trip by. So, for my first project, I fabricated three magnets depicting the major stops on Psyche’s journey for us on Earth to remember it by! The first magnet shows Psyche blasting off from Earth aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, with the ocean and sky behind Kennedy Space Center visible in the background as the rocket passes above the clouds and into the stars, forming the “T” in “blast off.” The second shows the spacecraft using Mars as a gravity assist, with Curiosity the Mars rover waving hello as Psyche “swings by.” In the third magnet, the spacecraft arrives at and begins its “dance” around the asteroid 16 Psyche. The four stages of the spacecraft’s orbit are represented by four blue rings. To make sure all the magnets worked as a series, I used some similar visual elements between the three. They all use the same oval as their base shape and have the same stars in the background. The shape of the stars reference those on the NASA “meatball” insignia, and the font I used is a callback to the NASA “worm” logotype. The three are meant to be displayed with the cross-shaped stars pointing straight up-and-down and side-to-side. Each is made out of different colors of cast acrylic thermoplastic that I also painted to include more colors and details. Most of the colors of acrylic I chose have a matte finish, except for the silver and blue used on the Psyche spacecraft and 16 Psyche, which are shiny and metallic. To make the magnets, I drew out the designs and traced them into vector lines and solid fills. When run through a laser cutter, the vector lines are cut out and the fills are engraved. Then, before I laser cut them, I made every separate piece’s vector line ever so slightly larger to make the pieces fit snugly together. Once everything was cut and engraved, I colored the engraved spaces with paint pens and adhered everything together with solvent cement. Finally, I attached neodymium magnets to the back of each.

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Psyche and the lamp

Kyra Correa

March 25th, 2024

Major: Illustration

Genre/Medium: Edge-lit lamp. Laser cut & engraved acrylic, LED lights, and 3D printed PLA.

About the work: “Psyche and the Lamp” depicts a reimagining of the story of Psyche and Eros. The story goes that Eros, the god of love, accidentally falls in love with Psyche, a mortal woman, after being sent by his mother Aphrodite to make Psyche fall in love with something hideous. The two meet with each other often, but only under cover of night, as Eros doesn’t want Psyche to see that he’s a god. Of course, the curious Psyche eventually betrays Eros and looks upon him by the light of her lamp, unleashing a chain of events and trials that eventually lead to her becoming the goddess of the soul, united eternally with her lover Eros. Here, Eros is replaced with a spinning 16 Psyche, and instead of an act of betrayal, the soon-to-be goddess Psyche is engaging in an act of self-discovery. Psyche’s curiosity reflects the curiosity of humanity as a whole as we attempt to discover our own planet’s core—its soul, if you will—by exploring 16 Psyche, the possible core of a planetesimal.

“Psyche and the Lamp” references a wide variety of ancient Greek and Greek-inspired art. I 3D printed 16 Psyche with white filament to evoke the marble statuary of ancient Greece. The goddess Psyche’s pose is derived from Archaic and Classical-period vase paintings and from the pose of Psyche in John Wood’s Neoclassical painting “Psyche Enamored of Cupid.” She wears a short mantle called a himation and a shawl called an epiblēma over her chiton dress, which are garments found on many Archaic-period korai (female votive statues). Her cap, earring, and wavy hair are also elements found on some korai from the Athenian Acropolis. The rendering of her facial features is inspired by statuary from the Classical period. Finally, the folds on the bottom of her dress evoke the wings of a butterfly, her iconographic symbol.

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