Psyche Inspired: Brooke Flanagan

Brooke Flanagan Headshot

Institution: Plymouth State University

Major: Graphic Design

Psyche Inspired Class: 2024-2025

Connected to a clear acrylic dowel, flowing arches in a variety of shapes reach out, in order from smallest to largest, on both the right and left sides. Since the pieces are placed offset from the previous piece, the arches appear to be moving outwards from the center when spun, like ripples in water. The way the pieces flow out is to mimic the magnetic field surrounding the Psyche spacecraft.

The Flowing Fields of Psyche

Brooke Flanagan

November 13th, 2024

Major: Graphic Design

Genre/Medium: 1/8 inch acrylic sheets, acrylic dowel, iridescent film, super glue (3D multi-media art)

About the work:

The Flowing Fields of Psyche is an abstract wind spinner which mimics the lines of the Psyche spacecraft’s magnetic field. As the piece spins, arches of iridescent acrylic turn, creating an almost hypnotic pattern of asymmetric waves flowing outwards. This asymmetric pattern can be attributed to the many magnets and current loops in the spacecraft, along with the solar wings on adjacent sides. Each acrylic piece has a colorful film that mainly shifts between purple, pink, and orange, similar to those found in the Psyche logo. Through its shifting colors, flowing design, and spinning movement, the piece explores a distinct way of displaying the lines and patterns created by this magnetic field.

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The first piece displays a metal box, with spirals engraved on the outside. As the box opens, smoke rushes out, with nebulas, clouds containing gas and dust, bursting out from the smoke. The second piece shows a chalice engraved with vines and flowers. The cup is knocked over, with a liquid filled with stars spilling out. A girl floats on the top of the liquid and a butterfly hovers above her.

The Drink of the Gods/The Box of Eternal Beauty

Brooke Flanagan

February 2nd, 2025

Major: Graphic Design

Genre/Medium: Digital Illustration

About the work:

“The Box of Eternal Beauty” is an abstract, digital illustration that depicts the moment Psyche opens the box, which supposedly contains part of Persephone’s beauty. She opens the box, unleashing a cloud of black smoke that puts her in a coma. The second piece is titled The Drink of the Gods and is another abstract, digital illustration. Here the piece depicts the moment Psyche drinks Ambrosia causing her to shed her mortal form and become a goddess, allowing her to live together forever with Eros. The main symbol from the myth used throughout both pieces is the butterfly, as Psyche, the Goddess of Soul, is commonly depicted as possessing butterfly wings. A butterfly can be seen hovering over the chalice in “The Drink of the Gods” when Psyche is about to ascend to godhood. Butterfly nebulas can also be seen bursting from the dark smoke in “The Box of Eternal Beauty.” These nebulas along with star fields contained in the spilled Ambrosia were my way of adding ties to space and the beauty of the stellar objects scattered throughout the universe. Together these companion pieces depict a person’s journey and the ups and downs that they experience. Many of these challenges and obstacles can feel consuming and overwhelming. Yet it is from these trials that a person can emerge stronger than before and accomplish objectives that they may have never been able to before.

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Psyche stands dressed in a funeral gown, and holding a bouquet of flowers. She wears a blindfold, her head tilted downward, and her shoulders are slumped as an arrow pierces her heart. Overlaid on top of this image, is another version of Psyche. She stands tall and confident as she meets the gaze of a monstrous serpent. Butterfly wings sprout from her back, a symbol of her newly achieved godhood.

Transformation

Brooke Flanagan

April 7th, 2025

Major: Graphic Design

Genre/Medium: Digital Anaglyph Art

About the work:

Transformation is a digital, anaglyph piece where two images are created, one in red and the other in blue. Typically, these two images are of the same object at slightly different angles viewed together. The same is done here except with two forms of Psyche; one at the beginning of the myth and the other at the end. At the start Psyche’s father is told by an orale that Psyche would marry not a noble man but a serpentine monster. She was then brought to the summit of a mountain in black funeral attire where her future husband would take her away. All of this was dictated by the jealous Aphrodite, the goddess of love. She sent her son, Eros, to shoot Psyche with an arrow of love so she would become infatuated with a monster. Yet, as soon as he saw Psyche, he accidentally pierced himself with his own arrow and could not follow his mother’s order. Now compare this version of her at the end of the myth. By this point she has gone through several almost impossible trials created by Aphrodite, yet with a bit of divine help she overcomes each challenge sent her way. Not only that but she had transcended into a goddess, and was now married to Eros, not a terrifying monster. She had gone against a fate, curated for her by divine forces and beings. Psyche had transformed into someone not defined by what others wanted, but by what she wanted to be.

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Invisible Connections was designed on Procreate, before being embossed on silver paper by a Cricut Machine. The magnetic field surrounding both the spacecraft and asteroid form against the solar wind. The fields curve around each object, before warping and flowing with the solar wind. Their fields may even become intertwined, just as the asteroid has become connected with this mission.

Invisible Connections

Brooke Flanagan

Major: Graphic Design

Genre/Medium: Digital design & embossed silver foil paper

About the work:

Invisible Connections is an art piece designed digitally on Procreate. It was then transferred into the physical world by being embossed on silver paper using a Cricut Machine. This work is inspired by the magnetic field of the Psyche spacecraft and how it may interact with the possible magnetic field of the Psyche asteroid. While humans cannot see magnetic waves or fields with just our eyes, the spacecraft is equipped with a magnetometer that can detect this invisible force. If the instrument detects a residual magnetic field at the asteroid, the asteroid is a remnant of a planetary core. If this asteroid truly is a core of a forming planet, this would allow scientists to better understand our core deep inside Earth, and how it formed. While we have to wait for the spacecraft to reach its destination before scientists can get answers to our many questions or speculations; that does not mean it isn’t evident that this asteroid holds connections to the creation of Earth and other planets in the solar system. These are connections we have yet to fully uncover, but it is through this mission we may finally make them visible. Just as the spacecraft has the magnetometer to make it possible for us to see and study the magnetic fields of the Psyche asteroid; one day this asteroid will allow us to gain a larger insight into how Earth was formed. What may be impossible to see still has an effect on the world and universe around us, and it is through having this drive to understand more that we make these connections visible.

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The Psyche badge with no words on it.

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