Astronomy
This is a Polage® artwork by Austine Wood Comarow (1942–2020), an American artist and inventor who pioneered the artistic use of polarized light. She created and trademarked the unique medium known as Polage® (Polarized Light Collage), in which colorful images appear and transform when viewed through a polarizing filter. More detail of Polage can be found in this link.
We are honored and deeply grateful that Austine's daughter, the artist Cara Wood Ginder, generously donated this artwork to the Enlighting Mind collection. The donation reflects the shared vision of using art as a powerful educational tool to inspire young people to discover the science of light and visual perception.
This panel was a commission Austine Wood Ginder did back in the early 90’s to celebrate the opening of the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. The W. M. Keck Observatory, located on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi, is home to two 10-meter telescopes with segmented mirrors made of 36 hexagonal elements each. Since achieving first light in 1993, the observatory has played a leading role in astronomical research, from the discovery of exoplanets to studies of distant galaxies, thanks in part to its advanced adaptive optics systems.
Austine made a few of these that were given to the important people who made the telescope possible. The artwork juxtaposes a picture of Galileo Galilei, that is the inventor of the first telescope with the celebration of the newest, (at the time,) Keck Telescope. Indeed, the black geometrical structures is indeed the metal scaffold-like structure of the telescope. Rotating the polarization filter the image shifts fromGalileo to the Keck telescope.
Ultimo aggiornamento
14.07.2026