Helen Glazer, Artist

Celestial Paintings

To view enlargements click on images above. Left to right: Ursa Major and Ursa Minor (1992), The Big Dipper and the Little Dipper (1993) and Three Leaps of the Gazelle (1993) The works above became the basis for the mural Two Bears and Variations (1993). The concept behind them is that the stars of Ursa Major, by virtue of being so prominent in the sky of the Northern Hemisphere, have become part of the mythology and folklore of numerous cultures, and there are dozens of different names for them around the world. The series illustrates some of these names, beginning with Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the names scientists use, and retaining the silhouette of the bears to clearly show that all of the paintings illustrate the same set of stars. View the completed mural here.