The paintings of the artist whose work Elon Musk sent into space

For sending to the ISS Tristan Eaton has created a series of unique super strong, almost indestructible works of gold, brass, and aluminum. On his Instagram page he wrote: “As an artist, I try to look at the world in its entirety. And no one sees our world like our brave astronauts on the ISS. When SpaceX asked me to create works that would accompany these astronauts in space, I wanted to do something inspiring. Looking down from space to the entire human race on our tiny planet reminds you of how long our history is and how much potential we have. And how much we still have to do. With that in mind, I have created a series of double-sided paintings as a symbol of the duality of the human race, our past, and the future. Through kindness, hope, and science, we have changed the world many times. And for a better future, we can do it again.

Tristan Eaton has created five such works in total – one for each astronaut on ISS. The paintings are packed in protective covers, each of which has a pocket with a welcome and a message to the astronauts from the artist. Eaton’s work should return to Earth with Crew Dragon in three or four months.

Tristan Eaton was born in 1978 in Hollywood, managed to live in London and Detroit, until at the age of 20 years, finally donated in New York. He became a street artist while still being a “difficult” teenager: Eaton painted walls, billboards, and garbage cans, several times for “vandalism” he was even detained by police. Now the artist continues to create murals on the walls of various cities in the United States. He says his goal is to bring art to those who do not have access to it. Eaton considers it unfair that the poor people are forced to content themselves with only the kind of gray walls and billboards.

In addition to street art, Eaton also develops toy designs. He created the first of them for Fisher-Price at the age of 18 years. Since then, Eaton has become a real icon in the world of designer toys. Together with the founder of the Kidrobot brand Paul Budnitz, the artist released a limited series of toys based on the works of outstanding street artists and hip-hop culture.

The famous collection toys Dunny, based on the designs of Tristan Eaton based on the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol.
Now the works of Tristan Eaton can be seen not only on the walls of different cities around the world but also in museums – in particular, in the Cooper Hewitt Museum and MOMA. In 2004 he founded his own creative agency Thunderdog Studios, which is engaged in the creation of designer toys, illustrations, graphic design, and animation.