Pasadena's Solar System
Scale Model

PlanetTrek's Sculptors and Project Director

The winning design was submitted by a team including lead artists Barbara McCarren and Jud Fine, with team members Ken Price and Ned Kahn, all based in California. MIT Astrophysics Professor Emeritus Dr. Philip Morrison is scientific advisor to the chosen design team. Their design proposal edged out a talented field of internationally acclaimed artists that included finalists Carl Cheng of Santa Monica and mathematical sculptor Helaman Ferguson of Laurel, Maryland. Charles Kohlhase, of Pasadena, directs the PlanetTrek effort for The Planetary Society.

Barbara McCarren

Barbara McCarren is an artist who exhibits site-specific works at alternative spaces including in the public realm. Her work is in the permanent collection of the L.A. County Museum of Art. Projects in public spaces include Pershing Square in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Zoo and the Modesto Civic Center.

McCarren and Fine in front of The Planetary Society Headquarters

Her work focuses on unusual facts and presents itself through a physical and visual clarity that disseminates into complexity upon viewer consideration. The image shows McCarren and Fine in front of The Planetary Society Headquarters.

Jud Fine

Jud Fine is a nationally and internationally recognized artist whose work is represented in numerous museums and public collections. He has been working in the public sphere for the last ten years. Examples of his efforts in this area include the Los Angeles Central Library, Carnation Co. Headquarters, Glendale, Sony Pictures, Culver City, Los Altos Market Center, Long Beach, and the Ventura River Trail. He is a Professor of Art at the University of Southern California.

Ken Price

Ken Price is one of the most remarkable artists in world. For almost 40 years his work has been characterized by its surface lushness, the heightened membrane between inside and outside and its merging of material and form into a pragmatic materialism conditioning a "window of fantasy". His work has been called, "the inextricable mix of complex structure and intense improvisation . . . and his remarkable grasp of color and surface have fueled his invention of singular and intriguing forms." He is a Professor of Art at the University of Southern California. Visit http://www.kenprice.com

Ned Kahn

Ned Kahn has been creating interactive artworks for museums and public art venues for eighteen years. Much of his recent work has been inspired by astronomical phenomena. He recently installed a series of kinetic sculptures at the new Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. These artworks let viewers interact with fluid models of convection on the sun, a spiral galaxy and bipolar jets. He has just completed an exhibition, funded by the National Science Foundation, of 17 kinetic artworks suggestive of active planetary landscapes which will open at the new Cabot Observatory in Oakland. In 1999, he installed a model of a black hole at the Albuquerque Museum of Natural History and a viewer-activated volcanic landscape at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

PlanetTrek Project Director Charles Kohlhase

Charley Kohlhase is a planetary mission designer, author, artist, teacher, environmentalist, and public outreach specialist. In his four-decade JPL career, he led the mission design activities for robotic missions to most of the planets, including the Cassini Mission now en route to Saturn, and the epic Voyager Grand Tour, receiving three NASA special achievement medals. He teaches 3D Modeling & Animation, produces fine art for galleries, plays a leading role in many joint art and science educational projects, consults for NASA/JPL, and is a member of The Planetary Society Advisory Council. Visit http://www.artshow.com/kohlhase/bio.html and http://mmp.planetary.org.

The Planetary Society

Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman founded The Planetary Society in 1980 to advance the exploration of the solar system and to continue the search for extraterrestrial life. With 100,000 members in over 140 countries, the Society is the largest space interest group in the world.

Pasadena's Solar System Scale Model