Cathrin Machin
May, 2021
Image courtesy of Cathrin Machin
1. When did you know that art was your calling?
The first time I remember looking and contemplating the stars I was 7. I stood in awe of the amazing sight. I had so many questions, and it has driven my fascination with them ever since.
What is so intriguing about the stars is that each time I observe them, I am suddenly 7 years old again, standing on the lawn at my childhood home, in the middle of England with my dad, carefully holding his heavy 70's binoculars that smelt like new books and Old Spice cologne. I was recently reminded of this beautiful moment when listening to an interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson. Who was describing when he first saw the stars come out at the planetarium at 9 years old. He thought it was a hoax. Growing up in the Bronx, he'd never seen the stars before due to light pollution.
Hearing stories such as these affirm my mission to produce images of space. Simply knowing that there are many people in the world who have never seen the stars in their full glory and have had the opportunity to contemplate and be moved by them, is a great travesty. The stars shine for everyone and with their vision, our souls may be inspired to greater things.
2. When are you the most inspired?
When I’m outside looking up at the stars or even just seeing beautiful images online. Outside of that, I get inspired when we talk about the future in the daily meetings with my team. I’m also inspired by other people’s business when I see my friends do well online, how their business has grown. Seeing other people’s success in the business space.
Image courtesy of Cathrin Machin
3. What something you struggled with early in your career and how did you overcome it?
My transition from a corporate job to being a full-time deep space artist. The transition was a bit scary. I didn't know what I would do with myself. I ended up working as a cleaner for a few months doing people's houses and so on. The hardest part was not knowing what I should do. I definitely don't recommend that. For everyone, I highly recommend developing a side hustle or working out some direction before the jump is made for sure :) But it all worked out in the end. Who knew my fascination over the stars would take me to where I am now!! Craaaazy. I just started painting, and some really cool people loved it, and here we are!
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Image courtesy of Cathrin Machin
4. What’s your current favorite piece of art that you own?
I don’t really own any artwork, move around so much so haven’t collected much art on my own. I keep the very first art I did. It represents where I started out.
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Image courtesy of Cathrin Machin
5. What is people’s first reaction when they see your art?
I usually get comments like “wow, is this a painting? It looks so real” and I’m so grateful to hear positive comments about my art. My goal is to help people see the stars. Not everybody gets to see it anymore because of the light pollution which is very sad. So when people say that my painting looks real and they feel like they’re really looking at the stars then I think I’ve done my job.
6. Besides (e.g. painting), what’s another form of art that you would like to try out?
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I would love to become a person that designs firework displays (pyro). I think it’s beautiful the way it shines.
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Learning how to airbrush, I find it very cool. I tried to learn before because I wanted to do a galaxy car.
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I tried to make ceramics and glass blowing. Amy Hill is on Twitter and she’s really good. Glass is a really beautiful medium and I’d like to try it.
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3D chandelier project and I plan to spend more time doing it soon
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Digital realm, VR painting- thinking of producing VR environments in making special effects/ virtual environments of space.
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Image courtesy of Cathrin Machin
7. What are you working towards?
My team and I are working on launching another Kickstarter project soon. The goal is to fund the milky way chandelier project. We're building a galaxy chandelier of the milky way, 3D printed in crystal clear resin and suspended from thousands of fibre optic threads. Oh and it'll be 26ft / 8m in diameter. It will be the largest physical model of our galaxy and it'll give everyone who sees it, the unique opportunity to connect with our beautiful home - the Milky Way. I calculated it'll cost around 250k to build, so I'll be funding it's production over several projects.