Re: What's wrong with this picture?

From: Pat Flannery (flanner_at_daktel.com)
Date: 08/30/04 

Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 07:45:30 -0500

John Savard wrote:

>
>Thus, if objects are illuminated from different directions, one must
>ask: are multiple light sources plausible?
>

Leaving the lighting aside (though the ghost of Chesley Bonestell would
be appalled), what exactly is the other ship with the EVA'ing astronaut
doing hanging in the sky a few dozen feet up? I could see how it could
be artistic license meant to portray two different events in one
painting...but the two astronauts seem to be acknowledging each other's
proximity, which implies that it really is supposed to be that close to
the person on the surface; if it's in orbit, then this scene must be
occurring at the highest point on the lunar surface, and the crew of the
orbiting spacecraft be very confident in their understanding of lunar
topography and elevations....one has to admit that having something go
flying a few dozen feet overhead at lunar orbital velocity would be
impressive to see, provided one knew where to look so as not to miss it.
One would also hope that the EVA'ng astronaut's umbilical was kept to a
length that would allow him not to have to worry about hitting a
mountain peak if he went as far down as he could get with it.
Of course, the one thing you notice right off the bat when you look at
the picture is that knife the astronaut on the surface is equipped
with...it looks oddly incongruous in this setting, sort of like the way
a mouse would look sitting on George Washington's head in a presidential
portrait....there is no reason a mouse _couldn't_ sit on George
Washington's head; it's just that you wouldn't expect to see it in a
painting of him (unless the painting was by Grant Wood...I'm still
snickering about this little gem of surrealism:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA98/haven/wood/images/weems.jpg).
Then there is the deep mystery of why the astronaut is carrying the
oxygen mask around on the Moon's surface, knowing full well there is no
way he can put it on anyone he meets without making them raise the visor
of their spacesuit and killing them in the process of trying to give
them oxygen to save them from some crisis...probably a danger of
suffocation from their failure to learn how to breathe CO2, the way he has.
What makes the painting so interesting to me is that there is nothing
_obvious_ in what's not right with it- it's like one of those cartoons
in Junior Scholastic magazine that challenges you to find twelve things
wrong in the picture...you start with the knife, and work out from there
in an exercise in lunar logic.
Lileks.com did an investigation into the strange Art Frahm pin-up
painting celery/falling panties fetish in somewhat the same regard:
http://www.lileks.com/institute/frahm/index.html

Pat

 

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Whats wrong with this picture?
    ... what exactly is the other ship with the EVA'ing astronaut ... occurring at the highest point on the lunar surface, ... painting of him (unless the painting was by Grant Wood...I'm still ... oxygen mask around on the Moon's surface, knowing full well there is no ...
    (sci.space.shuttle)
  • Re: Whats wrong with this picture?
    ... what exactly is the other ship with the EVA'ing astronaut ... occurring at the highest point on the lunar surface, ... painting of him (unless the painting was by Grant Wood...I'm still ... oxygen mask around on the Moon's surface, knowing full well there is no ...
    (sci.space.history)