By Tim Binnall
The legendary Bigfoot will soon go where no cryptid has gone before by way of an art archive to be housed on, of all places, the moon. Sasquatch's unlikely journey into space reportedly began when Ohio sculptor Dan Chudzinski crafted a massive bust of the beast for the Norman Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts. Tasked with creating "something in high resolution, hyper-realistic detail that when you approach it in a gallery it still makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up," the artist succeeded brilliantly with his sizeable piece "Evasive Species." which depicts the hirsute head of Bigfoot complete with a set of menacing teeth and eerie eyes.
Chudzinski's work wound up winning multiple awards in art competitions around the country and eventually caught the attention of a project known as Lunar Codex. The enterprising initiative aims to send a series of time capsules containing works from "30,000 contemporary artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers from 137 countries" to the moon over the next two years. Although chosen to be a part of the project, actually launching the massive bust into space is not quite possible just yet, so Chudzinski's piece was photographed and then that image was embossed onto nickel microfilm. The unique copy of the work will be included in a Lunar Codex that will be launched later this year and ultimately rest on the south pole of the lunar surface.
Reflecting on the unique achievement, Chudzinski mused that "you want to create something that outlasts you, something that is meaningful. Knowing now that I'll never be able to look at the moon the same way, I'll know that I did leave a mark there, a big footprint on the moon. That's pretty extraordinary." Echoing those thoughts, Scott Cunningham, who snapped the photo used for the microfilm engraving, marveled that "who knows who is going to see it in subsequent decades, years, centuries." To that end, while human astronauts may someday reach the Lunar Codex and recognize the iconic cryptid, one can only imagine what aliens might think should they stumble upon the archive and find Sasquatch snarling back at them.