Painting the Planets: An Interview With Steve Gildea, One Of Reddit's Unlikely Celebrities

In the latest testament to Reddit's ability to turn underdogs into unlikely heroes, we turn your attention to retired professor Steve Gildea, whose painting, "Planetary Suite" was featured on the coveted front page of the site, and currently holds the fourth spot in the Space subreddit. As it reliably does, this newfound viral attention has led to the professor's fifteen minutes of fame.

Make that thirty minutes: this is his second round of Reddit fame, as "Planetary Suite" was first uploaded in February. "My second 15 minutes of fame," Gildea jokes.

The series of paintings features the nine planets of the solar system, Pluto still counted back in 1990 when Gildea painted the work. Gildea started painting around 1975 and later pursued photography and 3D graphic design. His 3D work began when Merrimack College asked him to teach classes on perspective. "They could do perspective work that could take a person weeks to do by hand and of course they can generate an image in a very short time in true perspective. And I became very fascinated with that and I love to watch the Pixar films and the like," said Gildea.

His earlier work involving space and planets was inspired by photorealism and creating images via montage, first with airbrush on canvas and later with an early 2D computer program. "Photorealism was the movement in New York at the time, Chuck Close and Richard Estes were really famous," said Gildea.

Gildea's portfolio includes a set of paintings he calls "Things I Would Miss On My Way To Mars" which combines astronauts with Earthly items. "Wine, women and song, I guess," said Gildea.

Gildea has been focusing on photography of late and has not painted in the last few years. His main focus has been Japan, having visited several times and currently learning Japanese. On his site, Gildea has created 360-degree panoramas using a series of photos.