Roddy Young
Headquarters, Washington, DC                     July 13, 1999
(Phone:  202/358-4726)

Allen Kay
Office of Congressman Lamar Smith
(Phone:  202/225-4236)

Media Advisory:  m99-141

A NEW VIEW OF THE COSMOS:  SPACE ARTIST'S WORK UNVEILED

     Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX) and NASA Administrator Daniel 
Goldin will unveil the artwork of James F. Dicke II at NASA 
Headquarters, 300 E St., SW, Washington, DC, at 10:00 a.m., 
Tuesday, July 13.

     Dicke's influences include the Hubble Space Telescope, which 
peers beyond the theoretical capability scientists had calculated 
as the edge of existing matter.  He believes that a work of art 
should engage the mind and draw the viewer into its surface, 
sharing the experience and wonder of the artist with the viewerÕs 
own experiences, curiosity and exploration of ambiguity.

     James Dicke on his art:  "Even as the Hubble Space Telescope 
sends us new and unprecedented information, we are looking through 
pixels and the flat plane of a viewing surface.  Like so much else 
in the 20th century, we are examining the cosmos through the flat 
plane of the TV screen.  Like that experience, this art is 
confined by the canvas.  However, each painting is not a universe 
enclosed by its border, but rather a snapshot of a small portion 
of a vast riddle measured in light years and questioning the 
concept of infinite borders."

     A work entitled "Space Puzzle" will be on loan to NASA 
Headquarters for temporary display.  Dicke was born in 1945 in San 
Angelo, TX, and raised in Ohio and Indiana.  He returned to Texas 
for college at Trinity University and made his career as a 
businessman in Ohio.

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