Completing the mission: Documentary bookends local painter's place in Ohio's outer space history

When Bill Hinsch set out to paint a 9-by-12 foot painting of Ohio’s most famous astronauts commissioned for the statehouse rotunda in 2023, he wasn’t sure if he could complete the job.

He was 69 years old. He had just had two hip replacements. The painting would require him to stand on a scaffold for hours a day, working at a scale much larger than he had worked before.

Yet one year, and some 1,000 hours of work later, Bill Hinsch, a Perrysburg resident, finished Ohioans in Space . The painting now hangs in the statehouse, in homage to Ohio’s remarkable astronaut legacy.

Now, Bill Hinsch’s son, Alex Hinsch, has directed a documentary about his father’s painting. The documentary, titled Cradle of Astronauts , will highlight Bill Hinsch’s work on the painting and also tell the story of Ohio’s role in the history of NASA – bringing focus to the state’s “small-town heroes” who left their mark on U.S. space history.

Alex Hinsch is the founder of LoudKid Films, the Perrysburg production company that produced the short film. The documentary in its current form runs around thirty minutes.

Alex Hinsch says the film draws parallels between his father’s upbringings and many of the astronauts’ backgrounds.

“You have my dad’s story — he’s from a small town in Ohio, like a lot of the astronauts were,” said Alex Hinsch.

On Friday, the documentary will be shown at the Wapa Theatre in Wapakoneta, Ohio — the small town in Auglaize County around 85 miles south of Toledo known as famed astronaut Neil Armstrong’s hometown and the site of the Armstrong Air and Space Museum.

The short film will be paired on a double bill with One Small Visit . One Small Visit tells the story of a family who immigrated to the United States from India, and their encounter with Neil Armstrong’s family in Wapakoneta. Set in the context of Armstrong’s 1969 moonwalk and the civil rights movement, the movie deals with themes of belonging and connection in the United States.

After the screenings, there will be a discussion with Bill Hinsch, Alex Hinsch, and Nirmala and OC Abraham, the couple whose story inspired One Small Visit.

Ohioans in Space ’s evolution from an idea, to a painting, to now a film, began over a year ago.

The painting was commissioned by the state in early 2023 to fill a large empty wall in the rotunda area of the downtown Columbus capitol building. After the Capitol Square Foundation, the private fund-raising group that funded the painting, decided they wanted to put an original piece of artwork on the empty wall, the foundation spent time deliberating on a topic for the painting worthy for the large space.

“We came to the conclusion that the stories of Ohio’s astronauts is something remarkable, and really distinguishes Ohio,” said Charley Moses, chairman of the Capitol Square Foundation.

Ohio has a rich history in aviation and space exploration, dating back to the Wright brothers. NASA counts 25 astronauts as native to the state, and Ohio natives collectively have spent more than 22,000 hours in space.

A committee tasked with selecting an artist named Bill Hinsch out of more than three dozen other artists.

While working on his proposal to the committee, Bill Hinsch says he kept four ideas in mind: mankind, the missions, the machines, and the danger.

The artist’s design highlights four astronauts: John Glenn, first American to orbit the earth; Neil Armstrong, first person to walk on the moon; Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13; and Judith Resnik, who was the second American woman in space.

Portraits of the four astronauts are placed in a cosmic landscape featuring the earth, the moon, and the milky way. The paths of the two space shuttles, Discovery and Friendship Seven, form a parabola encompassing the four astronauts.

Bill Hinsch’s journey to the statehouse rotunda began during his childhood in the rural village of Hicksville, Ohio in Defiance County.

“From age three on I started drawing,” Bill Hinsch said. “I’m talking every day. Drawing was just inherent to who I was.”

Less than a year after graduating high school, Bill Hinsch took a job at The Blade, where he worked in advertising design, layout, and then as art director of the Toledo Magazine. He has also painted projects commissioned by his Air Force – experience, he says, which helped him depict the cosmic scene depicted in Ohioans in Space .

Bill Hinsch now paints out of his Perrysburg studio. He usually works on pieces around 3-by-5 feet long — meaning the nine-by-twelve foot painting commissioned for the statehouse posed a challenge of scale.

The process pushed Bill Hinsch to his physical limits after two hip surgeries and also forcing him to adapt his painting skills.

“Let’s say you’re painting John Glenn’s nose,” Bill Hinsch said. “If you don’t have a handle on those spatial relationships at quite a different scale, then you can get things wrong.”

The documentary Cradle of Astronauts will depict the painting process, intertwining Bill Hinsch’s story with the stories of the astronauts he paints.

After Friday’s screening, Alex Hinsch has plans to expand the film, adding interviews with family members of the featured astronauts. He said that the documentary will show at film festivals starting in October, with plans to release the film to the public in about a year.

Alex Hinsch said he hopes the film not only educates viewers about NASA history, but also showcases the richness of Ohio.

“There’s not too many films on Ohio,” said Alex Hinsch. “There can be a stigma — people think that we’re kind of boring here, and we don’t have a lot going on, and it’s not as interesting as it is in the coastal areas.

“But I don’t think people realize we have so many astronauts.”

Before the 7 p.m. screening, guests can gather for an “Eat and Meet” event at Riverside Art Center, 3 W. Auglaize St. in Wapakoneta, at 5:30 p.m.