I define imagination as the ability to be creative beyond what we’ve been taught to believe. To form ideas, images, or concepts of external objects that are simply not present to the physical senses. In other words, to dream beyond dreaming!
I remember when the first space craft circled the earth. It was October 4, which just so happened to be my birthday. I was thirteen watching on a black and white television. The picture was a crude form of animation with only a broadcaster’s voice explaining what was taking place. I laid there on the floor with my sketch book imagining what it might look like being in that space craft.
In 1969, I watched in wonderment in full color, as a man landed on the moon. The moon looked so barren and desolate compared to Earth. I couldn’t help but sketch what I was watching. I used my imagination to visualize what they must have been thinking and seeing at the time. I couldn’t help but wish that I was there; looking out upon Earth with the shadows it was casting. My sketch was the same - drawing half circles with different shading.
I was there in my imagination. That night I saw the replay of this amazing event I began to paint. I painted the whole canvas black. Then I painted those half circles. To me they represented what the glaring forms must have looked like from space. Each half circle was a different color that was stark against that black canvas; so dark and void of any color. I titled it, “Over the Moon” as I was trying to create a feeling around these forms floating in a void of space and intersecting with light and color. Talk about imagination – right!
Over but not out
- Subject Matter: abstract