President Kennedy & President Johnson are fondly remembered for their contributions to the US Space Program; they each have a respective NASA Center named in their honor. Nobel Laureate Jimmy Carter is not similarly remembered, although as a vocal activist for global peace and democracy, he looks quite appropriate suited up and ready to forge the last frontier. Here Carter is immortalized in shades of blue and grey.

In this rendition, his blue eyes are clear and piercing. Instantaneously they reminded me of The Blue Marble shot of the Earth taken by Apollo 17 in 1972 during Carter’s Presidential term. That photograph is one of the most distributed and celebrated images in history: the Planetary Institute presented a short on the ‘Overview Effect’ on the 40th Anniversary of describing the experience of seeing Earth from Space and its profound effect on conveying the interconnection of all life on Earth.

That blue and white swirling marble is a delicate place in the vast emptiness of the universe: here we need more individuals like President Carter advocating to make it a better place.

ps. I stumbled across this space faring Carter a while back–I am unable to locate and give credit to the creator. Dear Internet, do you know who created me?

Ame72, Jaime Ame, is a self-proclaimed modern day pop artist. Taking to both the street and gallery, the graffiti artist uses his cans of spray paint to create isolated portraits of moonmen in Technicolor. The Lego man whose hair and hat can be interchanged at a moments notice to become a businessman, cowboy or space ranger are mass-produced playtoys. They are seen as symbols of abundance and consumerism. But the astronaut at least in our eyes (see Week 1-112 of TFIB’s Space of the Week) is a archetype of artistic creativity, where the bounds of creativity go well beyond the stratosphere. Repetition can only reinforce such.

I always wished that NASA sent an civilian artist into outer space, so they could tell us what its really like up there. To really know what it was like to be a civilian gazing back at that pale blue dot is a grandiose effort.

The ability to translate the experience of floating above earth takes special skill. I am currently rooting for Portland State University Professor Cameron Smith. This Professor of Anthropology in the Pacific Northwest has built a fully functional space suit in his living room. He will use it to reach the lower stratosphere via balloon, approximately 50,000 feet above our humble vantage point. With a DIY manifest destiny sort of feel to it, Smith has taken it upon himself to be part of this human experience of hovering above planet earth. Smith has constructed a fully operational space suit with salvaged materials and finds from EBay. Hopefully an anthropologist can relay back the human experience of floating above.