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Space Debris

My inspiration for this painting is space exploration and man-made space stations and satellites orbiting the Earth. I wanted to express the technological clutter that we first create and then depend on. I also think about our stewardship of this tiny planet we call home.

This October marked the anniversary of the launch of Sputnik in 1957, 59 years ago. It got me to thinking about all the satellites that have been launched into space and are still orbiting our planet. There are about 1,100 active satellites, both government and private. Plus there are about 2,600 others that no longer work, for a total of 3700. That’s a lot of space junk circling around us at 17,000 miles per hour.

City Park

I love to create scenes of the city juxtaposed with natural elements such as trees, atmosphere, or skies. My goal for this piece was to create the feeling of a cold and wet autumn evening, broken here and there by the warm contrast of electric lights, as the bare trees arch against the overcast sky and the dark looming buildings. It’s the kind of gloomy night where your breath hangs in the frigid air and rain drips from the trees onto the sodden leaves of the deserted park. Pedestrians with umbrellas hurry along seeking shelter from the cold rain.