On July 20, 1969 we first landed on the moon, and it was televised all over the world, and it was rerun over and over all day and night, and each time they showed people from different parts of the world watching it including our enemies. I had left the TV on, but with the sound turned down, as I listened to music while I was painting.
At some point, I looked up to see our then enemy, the North Vietnamese watching the landing, as they cheered taking pride in that human beings had made such a great accomplishment, just as like the entire rest of the world.
The irony of this struck me in a most profound way, which inspired a painting I did on that day, and several others versions. It had shook something loose, an observation that I couldn’t put into words
There is a common thread that runs through human history showing our ability to create. An absolutely barbaric, and wild animal, that has both the ability to create and to destroy, and does both exceedingly well. To me it seemed most ironic, that we were killing one another in Vietnam while also landing on the moon. The human Paradox, doing our best, and our worst in the same painting.
Today, this painting seems nostalgic, as we have successfully created a number of other ways to destroy ourselves, pollution and climate change are leading pack. Considering 90% of all life that evolved here on earth has gone extinct, and science gives us about 30 years to complete the task, there is no indication we will resolve the human paradox.
View From The Sea of Tranquility
$26.00
Description
On July 20, 1969 we first landed on the moon, and it was televised all over the world, and it was rerun over and over all day and night, and each time they showed people from different parts of the world watching it including our enemies. I had left the TV on, but with the sound turned down, as I listened to music while I was painting.
At some point, I looked up to see our then enemy, the North Vietnamese watching the landing, as they cheered taking pride in that human beings had made such a great accomplishment, just as like the entire rest of the world.
The irony of this struck me in a most profound way, which inspired a painting I did on that day, and several others versions. It had shook something loose, an observation that I couldn’t put into words
There is a common thread that runs through human history showing our ability to create. An absolutely barbaric, and wild animal, that has both the ability to create and to destroy, and does both exceedingly well. To me it seemed most ironic, that we were killing one another in Vietnam while also landing on the moon. The human Paradox, doing our best, and our worst in the same painting.
Today, this painting seems nostalgic, as we have successfully created a number of other ways to destroy ourselves, pollution and climate change are leading pack. Considering 90% of all life that evolved here on earth has gone extinct, and science gives us about 30 years to complete the task, there is no indication we will resolve the human paradox.