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 —Mark
Larson |
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In 1963 when I was a test pilot assigned to the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland, my interest in art grew, and I enrolled in night school at nearby St. Mary’s College. My first two courses were drawing and watercolor. I enjoyed both, but still thought of myself primarily as a pilot with painting as my hobby. When I became an astronaut assigned to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, I enrolled in weekend and night classes at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. In November 1969, as the lunar module pilot of Apollo 12, I became the fourth human to set foot on another world. During two moonwalks Pete Conrad and I explored the dusty, rocky, cratered lunar surface while our crewmate Dick Gordon orbited some 60 miles above in our command module.
Later, after a productive, successful, and fun 59 days in space aboard America’s first space station as commander of Skylab Mission II (SL-3), I returned to Earth and a chance to resume painting. Several fellow astronauts advised me to quit painting earthbound landscapes and still lifes and paint my experiences on the Moon. “You can tell stories that will be lost to history if you do not paint them. You can share the experience of being the first artist in all of human history to see a world other than our own.” I was the only one of the twelve astronauts who walked on the Moon that cared about art. My paintings would not replace the photographs, movies, or TV shots we made, but they might bring a more personal, less technical touch to this incredible adventure.
So, in 1981 at age 49, while training to fly an early Space Shuttle mission, I began to consider resigning from NASA. Eventually I did resign from the best job in the world to devote my time and energy to the creation of a new genre of art that celebrates what humans do and feel as they begin their exploration of the vast universe surrounding our tiny planet. Paintings are treasures that remind us who we are, what roads we have traveled, and where we are going.
The transition from astronaut to artist has not been without much thought and effort. Over time, my work evolved into a mixture of painting and sculpture, textured with lunar tools, sprinkled with bits of our Apollo 12 spacecraft and the emblems and flag from the spacesuit I wore. These emblems, awarded to me by NASA, even today retain a touch of moon dust from the Ocean of Storms.
Looking back I believe the best record of what it was like to travel from the Earth to the Moon was not in the scientific measurements or the rock and soil samples, but in our memories. Time has a way of refining and perfecting those thoughts and images and revealing what was truly important.
Every one of my paintings tells a story. But look closer—I want you to see the spirit of Apollo that is inside us all. It is who we are at our very best. These are the stories I tell.
These are the images I paint.
As you may have guessed, I still have the best job in the world.
VISIT THE ALAN BEAN GALLERY.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT AVAILABLE SPEECH TOPICS
AND TO SCHEDULE ALAN BEAN FOR YOUR SPECIAL EVENT, PLEASE
EMAIL
mark@marklarson.com or call (619) 579-0967.
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