Mount Hekla (Somnium Series) 2009 digital print, acrylic, ink on paper 8.25" x 8.25"

The Voyage (Somnium Series) 2009 digital print, acrylic, ink on paper 8.25" x 8.25"

Tycho Brahe (Somnium Series) 2009 digital print, acrylic, ink on paper 8.25" x 8.25"

Calling the Daemon (Somnium Series) 2009 digital print, acrylic, ink on paper 8.25" x 8.25"

Levania / Eclipse (Somnium Series)
2009
digital print, acrylic, ink on paper
8.25" x 8.25"

Moonfish (Somnium Series) 2009 digital print, acrylic, ink on paper 8.25" x 8.25"

Tycho Brahe (Somnium Series) 2010 acrylic on canvas, 48" x 48"

Oceans o Levania (Somnium Series) 2010, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 48"

Somnium – The Dream

Who wrote the first fiction book? Is it Isaac Asimov? H. G. Wells? Jules Verne?
Actually, the first ever science fiction book is titled Somnium (The Dream) and was written 400 years ago by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler. It describes a fantastic voyage to the Moon, its inhabitants, its landscape, and the solar system’s celestial motion. The Somnium is loosely based on Kepler's student thesis, written in 1593, though he never actually submitted the paper. His thesis described the motion of the planets as seen from the surface of the Moon, serving as an illustration of the Copernican heliocentric model of the solar system. At the time this was a dangerous position to take, and in an effort to escape religious persecution (and dismissal from Tübingen University) Kepler rewrote his paper as a fiction. Over the course of his lifetime Kepler added about 100 pages of footnotes to the 22-page document, adding the new ideas and insights he gained while researching his laws of planetary motion. He died before he could see his book in printed form; it was his son, and eventually his son-in-law, who published the work in 1634. The Somnium has never been illustrated, so Bettina decided to develop a series of artworks inspired by this text, to increase awareness about this under-appreciated but significant book.

After researching the book, Bettina set up a databank of images which reflect the key elements of the storyline. She then printed these images on top of each other with an inkjet printer, creating accidental, dreamlike compositions. As a final step she blocked out and over-painted chosen areas of the prints with inks and acrylic paints, pulling the composition together. Each print is a unique artwork, sitting on the cusp of chaos and control. These prints then served as jumping off-points for large-format paintings.