Don Davis (Donald E. Davis), born October 21st, 1952, is an animator and painter who focuses on space related subjects. Don grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and has always been interested in space ever since Sputnik 1 (first man-made satellite) entered orbit in 1957. Chesley Bonestell, considered by many to be the father of modern space art, critiqued Davis’ early worked and urged him to continue his artistic career.

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     In the 1960’s, Davis had an interview with the U.S. Geological Survey's branch of Astrogeologic Studies for a position in hand coloring copies of geologic maps. Davis brought his recently completed painting of the moon to the interview. Upon seeing his painting, geologist Don Wilhelms hired Davis on the spot. Davis has been painting and animating space related subjects ever since.

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     As stated before, Davis’ focus is in space related art. His work includes paintings and animations of galaxies, planets, impact events, surfaces of planets and moons, and space probes. His work shows his renditions of different astrological objects. Davis’ work can be seen in books, magazines, articles and documentaries on cosmic subjects. Davis’ received an Emmy Award for his work on the PBS series Cosmos.

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     The work of Don Davis fits perfectly into the gallery. The work he produces shows the viewer the wonders that exists beyond our world which is one of the reasons we created this gallery. His rendition of the surface of Venus gives the viewer an idea on how the surface might look based upon the facts that is known about the planet. Another one of his paintings portray a region of the Milky Way filled with nebulae and light from the galaxy. A region like this is only visible with a telescope. This painting goes with our gallery as well because it shows the us a part of the galaxy that we can’t normally see. Don Davis is an influential figure in space art and his art shows the audience what lies outside our world.