Video & Artist Presentation

Solar Flares & Salazar: An Art/Science Collaboration

Wednesday March 23, 5:00pm

Sala Quetzal

Relox 50A, Downtown

pesos

Our Sun. It passes overhead daily. Most of the time we take it for granted, unless it’s a rainy day and we want to be outside or we need sunscreen when we go to the beach. Nevertheless life on Earth is profoundly linked to our Sun. It is the principal energy source that drives photosynthesis, generates weather and climate, and regulates our metabolism. Our food, our fuel, our very evolution on this planet depends on our Sun. For these reasons and more, the Sun literally means life.

What can cause our normally benign Sun to erupt in such fury that it can threaten the world’s power and technological infrastructure? Find out in “Solar Flares & Salazar” March 23 Wednesday at Sala Quetzal, a film using advanced visualization of the super-charged gigantic storms raging on the surface of our Sun and blasting solar gas tens of million of miles into interplanetary space. Also, learn how a U.S. artist Roland Salazar Rose interpets the Sun's relationship to the Earth, See the provocative and colorful 11 paintings from his Mexican paintings series “Solar Flares” that portrayed on the Emera planetarium dome and dissolve into bursts of solar light and panoramas of life on Earth. Our Sun is at the center of your imagination in the video for 25 minutes. It is a thrilling and soul-searching experience.

Salazar was a resident artist in Mexico in 2011 when the Sun was to reach the maximum in its eleven year cycle. He decided to paint 11 paintings to memorialize the event, as in 2011 our Sun was about to give forth an impressive burst of magnetic energy, and emit radiation across the entire “electronic spectrum.” Salazar felt it important to introduce the public to his artistic treatment of this event, and to increase public awareness on how important it is to observe and protect our “spaceship earth.”

In 2012, with regret the artist left his San Miguel studio/home, and returned to Maine. Finally, in 2017, Salazar heard from the International Planetarium Society, and was told to contact Shawn Laatsch Dir. of Emery Planetarium; further discussions resulted in an art/science project. The successful collaboration resulted in a ‘fulldome’ planetarium production for public attendance, and it aired November, 2018. “Solar Flares & Salazar” production crew was; Shawn Laatsch, Planetarium Director; Duane Shimmel, IMFA, original surround sound; NASA photos of Solar Flares\SDO; and curator-script by John Ripton, PhD, in collaboration with artist Roland Salazar Rose.

The video at Sala Quetzal March 23 will feature a discussion by the artist on how the project was successfully managed and what is planned for it in the future. Salazar will hold a Q&A session and after this, the audience is invited to meet the artist with a snack and drink at the Patio Principal; there Salazar will show his “Solar Flares” E-book, produced under an artist grant from the Maine Arts Commission.

For information on Salazar's art in Mexico see his website: www.salazargallery.com and please see his representative at Aura Galerias, D.F.