'Ohioans in Space' painting features Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Jim Lovell, Judith Resnik

Later this week, the likenesses of Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Jim Lovell and Judith Resnik will join those of Wilbur and Orville Wright at the Ohio Statehouse.

At an event on Wednesday night at the statehouse, a newly commissioned 9-by-12-foot painting of those Ohio-born pioneer astronauts will receive its official unveiling. It will soon be hung directly across from an identically proportioned large-scale painting of the Wright brothers that has been on display for decades.“Ohioans in Space” is the work of Perrysburg artist Bill Hinsch, who was commissioned by the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Borad to create a painting highlighting Ohioans who have broken barriers in space exploration.

“It’s a fantastic story that is so unique to Ohio,” said Charles Moses, president of the Capitol Square Foundation, which funded the project. Moses was referring to the high number of astronauts who have hailed from the Buckeye State.

“There are other states that now have had more astronauts from their state, but those four (Armstrong, Glenn, Lovell and Resnik) all had firsts,” he said

Armstrong, from Wapakoneta, was the first person to walk on the moon; Glenn, from Cambridge, the first American to orbit the Earth; Lovell, from Cleveland, the commander of Apollo 13 and a veteran of three other missions; and Resnik, from Akron, the first Jewish woman to journey to space.

Armstrong died in 2012 and Glenn died in 2016; Resnik was killed in the space shuttle Challenger accident in 1986.

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Wanting to acknowledge that legacy, the Capitol Square Foundation began a process to solicit proposals for a space-themed painting — the first painting of this size commissioned for permanent statehouse display since the earlier Wright brothers painting, which was installed in 1957.

Thirty-six artists submitted applications. From those, a committee of 10, including Moses, chose three artists to create poster-size images for evaluation. Those three artists each received $5,000; the foundation raised the private funding necessary to support the commission.

“We selected Bill Hinsch,” Moses said. “The other (artists) were good, no question about it. They had a lot of interesting stuff in there (and) many of the same themes, obviously. (Hinsch) tells a linear story, from the Earth to the moon.”

The foundation also felt that Hinsch would be willing to incorporate the wide range of feedback necessary for the creation of a painting display in a public space.

“This is a public building,” Moses said. “We had to get as much a consensus as humanly possible with all the people that work there and the people we report to.”For example, Hinsch initially painted Glenn wearing a helmet, but after Glenn’s family felt his full face should be seen, the artist made the change.

In addition to Armstrong, Glenn, Lovell and Resnik, the final painting also features a rendering of NASA flight director Gene Kranz, a native of Toledo.

Hinsch, who began painting the work about 10 months ago, will receive $150,000.

Ahead of the unveiling on Wednesday, a panel discussion about aviation and aerospace will take place at 2 p.m. and will feature, among others, former astronauts Michael Good, Don Thomas and Carl Walz. At 3:30 p.m., Hinsch will be featured in a panel that will also include Rebekah Beaulieu of the Taft Museum of Art and James Keny of Keny Galleries.

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Both panel discussions are open to the public.

From 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Hinsch will sign prints that have been made of the painting.

Starting at 5:30 p.m., a dinner and reception, featuring remarks by Gov. Mike DeWine, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Casey Swails and family members of Ohio astronauts, will precede the unveiling at 8:30 p.m. Individual tickets for the dinner and reception cost $150 and can be purchased at ohcapitolsquarefoundation.org/about-the-statehouse/ohioans-in-space/.

The approximately 100-pound painting will be housed in a 450-pound frame and hung on Thursday. A plaque accompanying the painting will pay tribute to other astronauts from, or with links to, Ohio.

“It was important for us, even though we only had a few images in the painting, to recognize the other astronauts from Ohio,” Moses said.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 'Ohioans in Space' painting features Armstrong, Glenn, Lovell, Resnik