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Matthew
Scholnick's
Celestial Event Turtle has landed outside the Computer and Space
Sciences building on campus.
For the 32-year-old painter and sculptor from Columbia, Md., the university's involvement in
NASA's Deep
Impact space exploration project became the inspiration for his sculpture.
In 2005, a university astronomy professor worked with NASA to
design a spacecraft that would intentionally collide with a comet the size of Manhattan
so that the comet's properties could be studied.
"I think Maryland can go anywhere. All the students, they
create the future," Scholnick says. "We've pretty much explored everything on Earth, so
why not go out into space and try and find what else is out there?".
Scholnick says he used
$200 worth of clay to make the spacesuit. He used various other materials,
including carbon fiber for the base, a computer printer and two fire
extinguishers for the back pack, and knobs from an old washing machine from his neighbor's yard
for the helmet.
Scholnick collects all sorts of objects to use in his art. "My basement is
ridiculous; it's got all kinds of odds and ends," he says.
As for his experience creating Testudo, Scholnick says, "It's a lot more fun.
It's not as serious as I think a lot of my other work is."Related Story
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