Vija Celmins: Hubble is a little drawing I did for NASA. They wanted to think that artists were interested in space, which I think a lot of artists are. But I'm not interested in illustrating space or anything. I'm interested in just an image that I, myself, can very subtly manipulate and fit in this new reality, which is right in front of me.

I got to go see NASA in Florida and where they send off the rockets, which was a really fine thing to see. I made it, I gave it to Hubble, then I made it again, which I often like to do.

What was interesting was trying to make a work that was black. Very interesting, very hard. Paintings tend to be very closed off, they're all on the surface. The drawings let you in a little bit more, and I have put the charcoal on with my hands. Normal—I like very thin charcoal, real pieces of charcoal. And then, the the image has been made by erasure. Because the charcoal is just dust, you know. So it's very easy to erase.