On Christmas Eve 1969, I had the good fortune to meet Neil Armstrong. He was touring with the Bob Hope USO Show and they performed on the hanger deck of the USS Ranger, the carrier upon which my squadron was deployed. Neil gave a brief presentation, then patiently and politely answered questions from the audience about his recent trip to the moon for what must have seemed to him like an eternity. The rest of the Bob Hope show, as performed in front of a couple of thousand sailors who had been at sea for a month, was considerably more ‘R’ rated than the version that eventually made its way to TV. Being a Naval Aviator, Neil couldn’t be aboard an aircraft carrier without stopping by the ready rooms to briefly say “Hello” to the pilots.
So how does that connect with my artwork? The connection came several decades later through Alan Bean, another Apollo Astronaut and Naval Aviator who was the 4th man to walk on the moon. He left NASA in 1981 to devote himself full time to painting. He pursued his art with the same drive and intensity that he needed to become an astronaut. He said, “I think of myself not as an astronaut who paints, but as an artist who was once an astronaut.” That resonated with me so I co-opted it and made it my own (never use an original thought when you can artfully steal one from someone else). “I‘m not an old man who took up painting. I’m an artist who painted into his old age.”
Meanwhile, In My Studio
The ”Side By Side Exhibit”, which opens at Arthouse Saturday, 12/9 from 5 to 8pm, gave me the opportunity to spend some time in the studio with granddaughter Lucy painting and just hanging out. A good time was had by all. Hope you get a chance to stop by and check out the show. My piece came from a flight that I took in October with my friend Ben Mayes from Williams Soaring Center. If you want to know where the truck came from, you’ll have to ask Lucy.
And One More Thing
While the small piece to show side by side with Lucy was fun. The large format canvas continues to hold appeal for me. I recently completed The Hills On The Border. It’s 42x54” and is the end result of the process I described in a blog post last month. The full size canvas and smaller (16”x20”) framed, limited edition giclee prints are are also available in Studio #7 at Arthouse. Come take a look.
