This is actually a religious picture. Entitled "The Eternal Sunrise," it depicts a space traveler gazing into a golden nebula, which looks like a sunrise. In the early 80s, I made up ideas and stories about an order of "Space Jesuits" who would travel from world to world in their sleek black ships doing God's work. You can see one of these ships here, lower center area. It looks like an X-15 because it is made for both space and atmospheric flight. There is a tiny figure standing on the asteroid looking out at the marvelous sight. Some of the space devotees were hermit monks who spent time praying alone in hollowed-out asteroids.
"The Eternal Sunrise" is 8" x 5", acrylic on illustration board, Spring 1984.
4 comments:
Oh wow, this is really nice! Sign me up, I want to see this in person. :)
This one is beautiful, and it does carry a certain feeling of lonely religious awe -- for me astronomy is as close as I get to religion these days.
I'd like to read your "space Jesuit" stories...
There is one book about what happens when some Jesuits decide to witness to the first alien race that humans encounter -- "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell. I recommend it.
This is very striking and I love it. And it is only a tiny picture? The lighting, composition etc, everything is great. Again, normally I don't like space art that much but you did a wonderful job!
Thanks people, I'm glad I have three nice readers.
Mary, I never wrote down any of my "space Jesuit" stories, I just shared them with friends talking. But I did write some of their prayers down, somewhere, if I could only find the notebook.
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