'That's Pretty Cool': Artist's Painting Among Creative Works Headed To The Moon

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - When artist Kara Lasiewicz applied to be part of the latest exhibit at the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art in Wausau, Wisconsin, she had no idea that her work would end up at a place like the moon.

"Facing the Universe: The Cosmos Within," along with other shows from around the world, were recently chosen to be encapsulated on the moon in late July.

"There're painters from all over that got into this show, and then this was unbeknownst to anyone, that all of a sudden this show along with others was picked to be sent to the moon, so to speak, in digital form on a little SD card," Lasiewicz tells CBS affiliate WSAW.

Her painting is a chaotic mash-up of images of two sisters whose weddings she and her husband, Beau, photographed. It's titled "Beef Tuff Sisters," and the original hangs in the couple's home.

It's not the first lunar art time-capsule to be launched, but it is historic.

"This had been done once before by some of the big name people that you know today like Andy Warhol. But also to have it be the first female artists to get launched, that's pretty cool," Lasiewicz says.

Lasiewicz is one of over 1,200 artists from around the world whose creative works are part of the Peregrine Collection, which is scheduled to be sent to the moon as part of a time capsule there.

The digitized artwork and literature files are contained in two microSD cards, encapsulated in DHL MoonBox capsules. Delivery is by Astrobotic's Peregrine Lander, through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

The launch is scheduled for July 21, 2021, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the lander will touch down in the Lacus Mortis region of the Moon.

The project is the work of physicist and author Dr. Samuel Peralta.

"He's just this almost entrepreneurial man that just loves art and he wants to encapsulate it somewhere otherworldly so when you look up at the moon it's like, 'Oh my god there's going to be the digital rendition of the girls up there,'" Lasiewicz explains.

Peralta wants the project to be a message to future explorers that even in this time of war and pandemic and climate change, there is also creativity and beauty and hope.

"It's nice that there's something more and we're able to show other beings or whatever that there is good, and it's going to continue to be made no matter what," Lasiewicz says.