Alan Bean is one of only twelve men to have walked on the Moon & one of only twenty-four men to have flown from the Earth to the Moon & back. But even within that elite fraternity, Bean stands alone: the only artist to have stood on another world. From his retirement from N.A.S.A. in 1981 'til this death in 2018, Bean chronicled Apollo, that amazing moment in time when astronauts from the United States came in peace for all mankind. Bean incorporated Moon dust into his paints & used a hammer he'd wielded on the Moon to texture his pictures to capture the rough, unfinished nature of the Moon.
The picture above is titled Conrad, Gordon, and Bean: The Fantasy, an imaginary scenario in which Commander Pete Conrad & Lunar Module Pilot Bean were somehow joined on the surface of the Moon by their good friend, Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon. The Fantasy is emblematic of Bean's approach: great effort is taken to get the details right, to make sure the spacesuits & equipment are accurate (because the Moon landings are real historical events), but because Bean is a painter & not a photographer he's most interested in capturing the sensation & emotions of walking on the Moon, meaning he adds color that wasn't actually present or depicts things that didn't happen, that couldn't have happened (Gordon never set foot on the Moon).
I reflect often by a line from Raiders of the Lost Ark, uttered by Doctor Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones Junior in his capacity as a professor at Marshall College:
"Archeology is the search for fact, not truth. If it's truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall."There are thousands of photographs of the Moon & reams of paper giving all the vital statistics of the great adventure & astonished achievement that was Project Apollo. Those give us the facts, but in his paintings Alan Bean strove to unveil the truth of Apollo, of man's peaceful conquest of the Moon.
Recently
Jimmy Akin, The Bible Is a Catholic Book
Tom Godwin, The Survivors (also published as Space Prison)
Alan Bean with Andrew Chaikin, Apollo: An Eyewitness Account
Currently
Edward Sri, No Greater Love: A Biblical Walk through Christ's Passion
Presently
Sonja Corbett, How to Pray Like Mary
Fulton J. Sheen, Life of Christ (Word on Fire Classics)
Flannery O'Connor, Flannery O'Connor Collection (Word on Fire Classics)
Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, Spiritual Handbook for Catholic Evangelists: How to Win Souls without Losing Your Own
M. K. Mace, The Frozen Lighthouse
Michael Gorn, N.A.S.A.: The Complete Illustrated History
No comments:
Post a Comment