Applying for International Association of Astronomical Artists

This few days I've been working on something ASTRONOMICAL; I applied for International Association of Astronomical Artists! I came across the association when I was writing notes for my talk and IAU Communicating Astronomy for Public abstract. The website seemed old but it compiled a lot of stellar arts from different astronomical artists across the world. That time I thought, it would be great if I can involve myself with other like-minded space artists and exchange ideas with them.

The membership levels are divided into 4;

Level 1: Student Membership (25 USD)

Level 2: IAAA Associate Membership (41 USD)

Level 3: Journeyman Membership (46 USD)

Level 4: Artist Membership (51 USD)

Since I'm a space artist myself, I applied for the artist membership, which costed me 51 USD. Quite expensive if you convert the value into MYR but for the sake of experience, knowledge and being a space artist on international level, I'm in! I emailed the membership director of IAAA to inform my intention in joining IAAA's Artist Membership. 

My email was responded by Mr Kara Szathmary, the treasurer of IAAA. He kindly guided me on how to apply for the Artist Membership since I have to go through 2 steps to become an artist member in IAAA. The first step is, of course, to make the payment through PayPal. I asked for my husband's assistance to do the payment, as a good husband should do *wink*.

After that, I proceeded to step 2, which requires me to write a bio of myself, artist statement of intent and links to my social medias and website. This is how it looks like:

ARTIST BIO

My name is Nurul Syahirah Nazarudin and I’m a Malaysian Space Artist. I create cosmic arts to deliver the beauty of the night sky and raise universe awareness for Malaysian as well as the international public. I’m also a dark sky advocate for Dark Sky Malaysia and International Dark Sky Association (IDA) who actively involve in delivering awareness about light pollution and dark skies. I reach out to the public about the dangers of light pollution and the importance of protecting dark sky through my artworks. I was invited to virtual talks and participated in conferences to communicate astronomy and light pollution awareness through artistic works. Being a space artist is a part of my busy life as I’m a full-time educator during the day. Being a teacher who posses skills in art, I integrate arts in my teaching and always encourage my students to incorporate arts in their learning. My current goal is to build my skills and enhance my knowledge as a space artist and communicate astronomy through my arts both locally and internationally. One of my proudest achievement of being a space artist was to contribute one of my paintings to a local observatory in Malaysia during the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in 2020.

ARTIST STATEMENT OF INTENT

As an astronomical artist, I am passionate in bridging the public with astronomy through work of arts. The night sky has always captivated and inspired artists, composers, writers and poets to interpret the universe in their own creative way. Until today, humanity continued to be inspired by the wonders of the night sky and has been producing works of art to express the astronomical connection and to simulate the world beyond the sight of our telescopes and cameras. By expressing my passion for cosmos in form of arts, I inspire those who are not involved directly and formally in the field to enjoy space science as much as I do. Even though the space out there is beyond our touch(yet), I want to make it reachable through my perspective of the universe. Based on my experience, whenever people look at my arts, curiosity sparked in them and they wanted to know what are my paintings all about. I explained to them the subjects in my paintings and this connects astronomy to my audiences. Space science provide a deeper meaning to my artistic work and help the viewer to relate themselves with the universe in a more “human” way.

Besides astronomy, I also communicate light pollution and dark sky awareness through arts. Light pollution is an underrated and minimized issue which requires more attention from the public. I want to spread the awareness about light pollution to the public in a creative and eye-catching way through visual arts. Through arts, the knowledge about our universe and night sky can be carried in a creative, conspicuous, and stimulating way. Becoming an artist member in IAAA will provide me a sense of belonging among the like-minded astronomical artist members and I am enthusiastic to build my skills and knowledge in the artistic and scientific aspects. I want to learn on how to produce space arts that able to assist in further understanding of our place in the universe and preserving our heritage that is the dark sky. Since art is also an expression of our thoughts, I want people to associate themselves with the night sky and the outer space on both intellectual and emotional level.

I am curious to know what are the subjects that inspire artists to produce their space art and where do they seek for inspiration. Joining IAAA will expose me to variety of ways to look for ideas and inspiration from the artist members who are exceptionally skilful in producing different form astronomical arts. Exploring different styles in making space arts is also important to enhance my artistic skill thus joining IAAA as the artist member will bring myself to approach other artists and obtain knowledge from them. It is a huge honour to be a part of IAAA and accomplish astronomical and artistic works alongside space artists across the globe.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIAS

Website: https://syahirahstargazer.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/syahirahstargazer/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/syahirahstargazer/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AstroSyahirah

I also need to include 5 samples of my space artworks below 500kb, which I can't show here since I still need to do posting for my arts as well here in my blog. I submitted step 2 on 21 March 2021 and now I'm waiting for the great news. Wish me luck people!