BRATTLEBORO — On Earth Day 1990, the United Nations invited 40 astronauts and cosmonauts to the General Assembly. Represented were the United States, France, Russia, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Spain.
Six of these, all from different countries, were selected to address the audience in their native tongue, and asked to describe their strongest impression in having gazed upon the Earth from space.
One of those was American astronaut Jerry Carr.
“Although none of the speakers knew in advance what the others would say,” says Carr's wife, sculptor Pat Musick, “their words described a common vision based upon the experience of stepping outside the world and seeing a new perspective, seeing our fragile home.”
What those space travelers spoke about that day resonated with Musick. Almost 25 years later, it finally found artistic expression in “Our Fragile Home,” a new exhibition of 29 sculptures and works on paper the Manchester artist is showing at the Brattleboro Museum and Arts Center (BMAC).
The exhibit underscores what Musick calls “the timely topic of the fragile nature of our planet and the need to preserve and protect our home.”
Many of the pieces incorporate the words that Carr and his fellow astronauts and cosmonauts used when describing the Earth at the United Nations.
Musick was trained at Dartmouth College with Paul Sample and at Cornell University with Allan D'Arcangelo. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Cornell.
Over the past three decades, Musick's work has been exhibited at museums and galleries across the United States and six countries. She has also produced three enameled copper and steel murals under the Art in Public Places program administered by the Colorado Council on the Arts, and immersed herself as artist in residence at the North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park.
Musick has also taught design, art history and appreciation, enameling, and calligraphy at high school, college, and postgraduate levels.
The designs of Musick's sculptures of “Our Fragile Home” were welded and constructed by her astronaut husband.
Carr was commander of Skylab 4, the third and final manned visit to the Skylab Orbital Workshop, from Nov. 16, 1973 to Feb. 8, 1974. There, Carr and his crew successfully completed 56 experiments, 26 science demonstrations, 15 subsystem-detailed objectives, and 13 student investigations during their 1,214 orbits of the Earth.
From February 1974 until March 1978, Carr and his Skylab 4 teammates shared the world record for individual time in space: 2,017 hours, 15 minutes, 32 seconds.
Musick was delighted that she had been able to attend the Earth Day ceremony at the United Nations to hear Carr speak.
“My husband, now my working partner and engineer, was one of the astronauts chosen to represent the others,” says Musick. “I went with my daughter Cathy and granddaughters Caryn and Wendy. Out in the audience, the girls and I put on our simultaneous translation headsets and listened to the six different languages. But on stage the astronauts and cosmonauts, who did not have headsets, understood only their own language.
“American engineer and former NASA astronaut Mary Cleave said how she was struck by the fragility of the Earth and its thin layer of atmosphere. She said that we all need to be good stewards of our Earth, to protect and sustain and care for the environment.
“When the discussion was over, Jerry came down into the audience and asked, 'What did they say?' I replied, 'You're not going to believe this, but they all said the same thing.' I told him that they all used the words, 'fragile,' 'protect,' 'sustain,' 'nurture.'”
Musick confesses she was “blown away” on that day by the similarity of everyone's perceptions.
“I was so intrigued and wanted to make art about it,” she says. “But I couldn't come up with images to adequately represent what those men and women had to say.”
Almost 25 years passed, and then “very powerful images” came to Musick.
“I now understood the right materials I should use. The sculptures of 'Our Fragile Earth' include steel, wood and Lexan, a material used in space helmets to protect astronauts from ultraviolet rays. My husband did metal fabrication and could weld the pieces together.”
For his part, Carr says his wife has the vision; his role is in working out her designs. But he adds that both are equally committed to the exhibit's message.
“I discovered how precious and fragile the Earth was when I saw it from space,” says Carr. “And we all must work to protect it.”
The couple's dedication to the environment finds expression in the things they do every day.
“We recycle and compost,” says Musick, “We use our automobile as little as we can to cut down on carbon emissions. We also check in with our senator, Bernie Sanders, who is one of the few elected officials who seems dedicated to this issue.”
Both Musick and Carr say they hope that the people who view “Our Fragile Earth” at BMAC will get something similar to the epiphany those astronauts and cosmonauts felt when viewing Earth from space.