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“I painted myself almost flying over the surface of the moon,” says artist Alan Bean. “Running on the moon isn’t like running on earth, mostly because the pull of gravity is only one-sixth of what we feel down here. I was light on my feet, much as I expected. When I pushed off with one foot, there was a long pause before I landed on the other foot, like running in slow motion. I could feel my leg muscles completely relax as I glided along to the next stop. I seemed to float just above the surface.
I vividly recall one instance as I was running near a large crater. I felt I must look like a gazelle, leaping long distances with each bound. I looked over at my partner, Apollo 12 Commander Pete Conrad, as he ran nearby. His leaps were graceful and he was space-borne for a long time but, to my surprise, he wasn’t rising very high or leaping far at all. Then I realized that in the moon’s light gravity, we did not have the traction to push hard backwards with our boots. I wasn’t leaping like a gazelle¯it only felt that way.
Running on the Ocean of Storms was relatively easy and a whole lot of fun. I was always in a hurry to get to the next exploration site because, like many things in life, there was so much to do and so little time to do it.”
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Twelve people have walked on the moon. Only one was an explorer artist, Alan
Bean—Apollo XII astronaut, commander of Skylab II and artist. Born in 1932 in
Wheeler, Texas and in 1950, Alan was selected for an NROTC scholarship at the
University of Texas at Austin. Alan was commissioned an ensign in the United
States Navy in 1955. Holder of eleven world records in space and astronautics,
Alan Bean has had a most distinguished peacetime career. His awards include
two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, the Yuri Gagarin Gold Medal and the
Robert J. Collier Trophy. As part of the Apollo XII crew, he became the fourth
of only twelve men ever to walk on the Moon. As the spacecraft commander of
Skylab Mission II, he set a world record: 24,400,000 miles traveled during the
59-day flight.
When he wasn’t flying, Bean always enjoyed painting as a hobby. Attending
night classes at St. Mary’s College in Maryland in 1962, Alan experimented
with landscapes. During training and between missions as a test pilot and
astronaut, he continued private art lessons. On space voyages, his artist’s
eye and talent enabled him to document impressions of the Moon and space to be
preserved later on canvas. A voracious student, Alan began to immerse himself
in polishing his talent with the same intensity he gave to his astronaut
training. Inspired by the impressionists and studying under contemporary
masters, he is a first-rate artist who is as comfortable rendering sharp
realism as he is with portraying subtle emotions through a faceless spacesuit—
but there's a bonus: As the only artist who has visited another world, Bean
paints with an authenticity and insight completely unique in the entire
history of art by creating a palette mirroring his artistic eye. His is a
personal portfolio of the golden era of space exploration as viewed by the
only artist who has BEEN there. His art reflects the attention to detail of
the aeronautical engineer, the respect for the unknown of the astronaut and
the unabashed appreciation of a skilled explorer artist.
The space program has seen unprecedented achievements and Bean realized that
most of those who participated actively in this adventure would be gone in
forty years. He knew that if any credible artistic impressions were to remain
for future generations, he must paint them now. “My decision to resign from
NASA in 1981 was based on the fact that I am fortunate enough to have seen
sights no other artist ever has,” Bean said, “and I hope to communicate these
experiences through art.” He is pursuing this dream at his home and studio in
Houston.
Bean’s book, Apollo: An Eyewitness Account, which chronicles his first-person
experience as an Apollo astronaut and explorer artist in words and paintings,
was received with critical and popular acclaim upon its publication in 1998.
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