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Artist Profile 
Frank Hettick In 1947, the space age was just dawning in a serious way for mankind - and a love of aircraft and spaceships was being awakened in a 10-year-old boy. Growing up in farming country in coastal Oregon, just over the fence from the U.S. Naval Air Station, which was very active in the days of World War II, a young Frank Hettick was developing an intense interest for anything having to do with things of a mechanical or aeronautical nature. With black-and-white TV still almost a decade away, reading was one of the few activities available to fill his curious mind about the mysterious workings of these wonderful things. But, the library book-mobile allowed only so many books to be checked out at a time. Within two or three days all the books would be read and the book-mobile would not return for another four days. The boy's mother suggested that he use his spare time to draw something, maybe 'airplanes' or 'rockets'. She bought him some colored pencils, then some colored inks. On Christmas Eve, 1949, a present appeared under the tree that would surpass all others for many years to come - a copy of the book, 'Conquest of Space'. The illustrations were magnificent; landscapes of other worlds and sunsets that nobody had ever seen. The artist was Chesley Bonestell - a name that would become synonymous with space ships and space travel over the next three decades. Exposed to magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanix, Frank enrolled in high school Art class and started working with new paints and materials. He began to explore perspective, light and shadow, and color harmony. Soon the high school was displaying some of Frank's 'unusual' paintings in the main lobby for everyone to see. Shortly thereafter, Frank and two of his high school artist friends joined the local art association. In 1952, Frank sent two of his paintings, his first submissions, as possible magazine covers for Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, to the Entertaining Comics (EC) staff in New York - and they liked them. Today, many of the space art pieces created by Frank Hettick are reminiscent of a style that first came to public attention in the early 1950's. Often referred to as the Golden Age of Space Art, it was a time of brilliant work by such famous space artists as Chesley Bonestell, Lucien Rudaux, Rolf Klep, Fred Freeman, and others ahead of their time. Their pictorial expression of space travel, other planets and solar systems through seemingly photo-realistic illustrations, depicted subjects in a way that everyone could relate to. Decades and centuries will likely pass before such scenes can ever be actually photographed. For us, here and now, are the wondrous works of space art created by artists like Frank Hettick. Frank Hettick's space art has been used on book, magazine and CD covers, websites and on television science programs. His art was recently selected for the Federation of Galaxy Explorers traveling space art show, and the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA) worldwide traveling art exhibit. First Place winner in The Mars Society 2004 Art Competition, Frank also won First Place in the ESA-JPL Cassini-Huygens International Art Competition in January 2005, which drew upon 438 entries worldwide. Selections of his visionary art appear on many websites, including ESA-Hubble, X-Prize, Solar Voyager, Where The Map Ends and Starships of The Third Fleet. His art can also be viewed at selected fine art galleries in the United States.
Frank Hettick is often commissioned by clients to produce custom art. Please contact us to discuss having commissioned art produced for your next project.
With an extensive art portfolio, Frank Hettick has made a selection of his art available for licensing. To discuss possible licensing opportunities, please contact us. 
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