by Gregg Chadwick
"The thing that really surprised me was that it [Earth] projected an air of fragility. And why, I don’t know. I don’t know to this day. I had a feeling it’s tiny, it’s shiny, it’s beautiful, it’s home, and it’s fragile."
— Michael Collins, Apollo 11
Gregg Chadwick
30”x36” oil on linen 2020
My oil on linen painting Terra Nostra was inspired by the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the first photograph taken by a human of the globe from space. On December 7, 1972, the astronauts on board Apollo 17 looked out of their spacecraft and saw the entire earth illuminated by the sun. It glowed like a blue jewel. From then on, our conception of our shared earth changed. Eugene Cernan, the pilot of that flight said to Al Reinert in an interview in Atlantic Magazine: "You have to literally just pinch yourself and ask yourself the question, silently: Do you know where you are at this point in time and space, and in reality and in existence, when you can look out the window and you're looking at the most beautiful star in the heavens -- the most beautiful because it's the one we understand and we know, it's home, it's people, family, love, life -- and besides that it is beautiful. You can see from pole to pole and across oceans and continents and you can watch it turn and there's no strings holding it up, and it's moving in a blackness that is almost beyond conception."
I thought it important to get a sense of what NASA astronauts described as the Overview Effect. From space the Earth is revealed to be fragile with a thin atmosphere. And from space, there are no boundaries. No lines demarcating countries or regions. We are united as citizens of earth and we need to protect each other and our planet.
I first became aware of the fragile nature of our planet as an elementary school student. For Christmas one year, I asked my parents for the book “Wildlife in Danger” published by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature). They are still an important organization providing information, plans, and hope for our endangered earth. Worried about the environment as a kid, I drew pictures of animals constantly. Now I am bringing out a series of paintings inspired by the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22, 2020, that shed light on climate change, the beauty of the natural world, and our place with other species.
