The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon-Monet
Houston…Houston do you hear me? He packed an easel, some paint , brushes and a couple canvases before boarding the Apollo 12 spacecraft on a November 1969 mission in which he walked on the lunar surface of the moon. He needed a 240,000 mile trip to the earth’s moon to be driven to the edge of sanity.
Alan Bean seems to capture the lyrical drama within the Apollo and NASA narrative of a dysfunctional group of astronauts and the absurdity of ”conquest” of the moon. Radioactive painting from the NASA art circuit .Of the twelve men to walk on the moon, astronaut Alan Bean is the celestial apostle of art.
The perspective was the moon., a landscape of dunes, dirt and dust. Allan Bean’s painted canvases depict his moonwalking experience from the participant’s perspective. They are still life’s and landscapes done in a monochromatic style inspired from French impressionist painter Claude Monet. The experience of studying Monet, ”helped Mr. Bean break free of the literal thinking imposed upon him by his years of training to be an astronaut.”
The immersion of Bean in science seemed to allow him to reach a form of philosophical epiphany which then turned towards painting as a means of articulation. An expression that could be a psychological study of self importance run rampant or a visual presentation of optimism and hope. A tabula rasa of life beyond earth which seemed then as now, to be toying with self destruction.
Though not critically acclaimed, Bean’s unique niche as painter has permitted him to sell each work from upwards of $30,000 each. There is a thick acrylic paste which forms the base of each work from which he will integrate other textures including space suit patches and fragments from Apollo spacecraft and other memorabilia which provide the sub-text of sculpture to his work.
Bean is quite scientific about reproducing historical integrity. He builds a scale model of every scene he paints and uses a klieg light to simulate the sun and proportional angles of the shadows. This mathematical rigor and precision limits is output to about seven paintings per year.
Mold of original boot and hammer he used on moon lend texture
” I am probably the best dirt painter ever because I am the only guy I know of that spends all his time painting dirt and trying to make it beautiful” said Bean.
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