Art exhibition is out of this world
Chance airport meeting leads to astronomical opportunity
Among the many people wowed by a stunning art exhibition in Munich’s ESO Supernova Planetarium and Visitor Centre is Dr Andrew Rakich.
Dr Rakich, from Paraparaumu, has helped promote the exhibition, which features astronomical artworks by his friend Natalia Chuiko.
Chuiko is a native of the industrial city of Dnipropetrovsk, lying on the banks of the Dnieper River, in Ukraine.
About eight years ago she began developing her talent in art, concentrating on oil painting. She was inspired by her grandfather, who was also an artist.
Dr Rakich, who works in the field of astronomical optics, and is a former European Southern Observatory (ESO) employee, met Chuiko in the course of learning Slavonic languages, which had interested him because of his Croatian roots.
She became inspired by this friendship to produce a painting with an astronomical theme.
Her interest grew as she explored the theme, taking inspiration from the many beautiful images of the universe produced by modern astronomical telescopes and instruments.
Over the years her work has found many admirers, and she has sold paintings to scientists and engineers in Australia, the United States and New Zealand.
She painted, on commission, a series of pictures that were displayed for several years in the Giant Magellan Telescope project (GMTO) conference rooms in Pasadena, Los Angeles.
When Dr Rakich was in Munich late last year for work (also his son, former Kāpiti College student Joseph Rakich, is finishing a physics degree there), he caught up with Chuiko, who is studying for a master’s degree in psychology at the Ukrainian University in Munich.
“I had said goodbye to Nata the night before, and was thinking about how to get her artwork noticed, and thinking about ESO, which is the largest land-based astronomy organisation in the world.
“I was standing in line at a British Airways counter at Munich Airport, when this woman standing in front of me recognised me, a former colleague from ESO, and the outreach manager for their Space Museum, one of the biggest in Europe.
“Also, then, our plane was delayed, so I had a chance to show all of Nata’s work to Martine.
“This exhibition is the result of that. “Getting this exhibition going might be the boost Nata needs to become a professional artist. She’s working both in study and in a fulltime job to support her life, but with this talent it would be great if she could make a living from it.
“Coming from Ukraine, it’s a hard economy, the GDP per capita of Ukraine, before the war, was only one-third that of Thailand, for example, so I really admire people who lift themselves to succeed from such difficult starts.
“It resonates with me because I had not the easiest start to things myself.”
Dr Rakich’s career has also been an interesting story.
He left Auckland’s Glenfield College when he was 14, and it wasn’t until he was 19 that his interest in astronomy was sparked.
“I was working on a hay truck one night with the last load to get into the barn and was looking up at the stars, and thought I would really like a telescope.”
He went to the Auckland Observatory and inquired about making his own telescope.
After getting some tuition about making telescope mirrors, he created a small one (200mm diameter) over three months, and then many more, including a 550mm diameter one.
But it was when he met renowned scientist Norman Rumsey, who was head of optics at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) from 1949 to his retirement, that his interest led to a stellar career.
Rumsey decided Rakich wanted to be his apprentice and learn about optical aberration theory, a branch of physics, and Rakich, who was studying physics, went along with it.
Today, Dr Rakich has worked for many of the world’s largest astronomical research institutions, managed optics on several of the world’s largest telescopes and is currently a sought-after consultant as well as chief technical officer for KiwiStar Optics.