Return of the Shuttle

Shuttle Overhead (Sketch)

8.5" x 11"

pencil

Shuttle Overhead

8.5" x 11"

watercolor and pencil

Clear blue skies on a bright autumn afternoon. Warmth from the sun washed over us as we drove north on Highway 6.

"The tree is coming up," the driver advised.

My tree. That one lonesome tree on a hill that broke up my drive to and from work for so many years.

I could remember when the highway was changed, but still passed by the tree. And I remembered the "friend" to this tree. When I was younger, there were two trees on the hill. Following a storm, we found, on one of our drives, that the second tree was struck by lightning. The burned tree trunk remained for a long time until, finally, it was cut away, leaving only the trunk. The trunk is no longer visible from the highway.

I could make the drive more interesting by observing the tree. I made up a little poem to say as I passed (and also to entertain grandchildren with). I tried to imagine what it would feel like to be that tree, anchored to that one spot, observing the changing scene and traffic passing on the highway. What if the tree had thoughts, like we do, and was rooted to that spot as storms came along, when fires threatened, during drought and floods. The way that the branches were formed, the tree sometimes seemed to be stretching or reaching, appearing in the pose of a dancer, a basketball player, or just wishing it could move from that spot. Below the hill, there were other trees.

And, I painted that tree many times. I would probably be upset if anything happened to this tree. One early morning, while the moon was setting in the west, a family of foxes frolicked on the hill near the tree. Often, there were cattle grazing around the tree. I did paint the foxes around the tree. All I could really see were their fluffy tails and a hint of their bodies as I passed by.

I thought of the artist, Bob Ross, when he painted trees. He would paint a tree, then give it a friend. Surely my tree was like this. A tree, and a friend.

The tree, still on top of the hill, appeared on the left. The highway curved as it went downhill. Railroad tracks appeared from behind a small hill and road on the right. Trees covered the hill on the right side, making me believe that the whole area, including the hill with the one tree, had once all been woods. The road was the old highway. Facing that road was an old fashioned filling station, with a house behind it, that now backed up to the new highway. Both buildings were leaning, with trees and vines almost concealing them.

"Those should be restored," I thought. "I'll have to paint them one of these days. I hope that no one decides to tear them down. Cozy places. Not fancy, but cozy. I wish I had been in them, and knew some stories about them. "

"How do you work this thing, anyway!" I turned a knob on the dashboard. A small screen above the knobs lit up with lines of print.

"You have to learn how to work this if you're going to ride in the car! And, if you are ever going to drive again, you are going to have to know how to work this. It's as easy as the old radios! Just try it!" The driver insisted. The hand pushed more buttons, touched the screen, and different things appeared.

"Listen, here. I've been driving this road for my whole life. I'm not going to get lost on it. Why do you think I need that thing! Just something else to distract you when you need to be watching the road," I fumed. "You just stay on this highway and it goes all the way from Galveston to Dallas and points north. When you get to the town you want, you just turn off. All this fancy stuff! I would rather have a good radio, or a tv set!"

"But, look at all this does! Look at this. You can even see the weather report, with radar!" The driver tried to convince me that this was a necessity.

On the small screen, a woman pointed to a map. Several clouds of green were on the map, with yellow L's outlined in red in the center of each.

"And here are the low pressure centers for your area,"the broadcaster said as she pointed to each green shape. "Looks like some rain is coming in, but, for now, the skies are clear where you are."

Bad weather. Rain. I didn't want to get caught out in that, especially if all those areas of rain were moving our way. I remembered the last year that I made this trip daily, and the big flood that I got caught in. I don't want to go through anything like that again. I was a bit uneasy. This road had been underwater, the town was cut off, and there was flood water in buildings and streets in town. I was driving a little sports car that day. Since then, I had always wanted to hurry and get past the low areas and creeks on this highway.

At least, today, we were in a big, old, pink, Chrysler Imperial. This one wouldn't be swept away so easily, and was much higher off the ground.

"Wow! Look at that one big area. That one looks like it is heading right for us!" The driver pointed to the screen.

"That doesn't look like an area of rain, to me," I said.

"Sure, it must be. Look at all that green!" The driver was watching the screen more than the road.

A white blob appeared in the center of the green cloudy area. The blob appeared larger and larger as we drove. Soon, there was little green and only the white blob.

"Look! Look out your window!" The driver shouted and ducked down to see through the windshield, while still driving.

There was an eerie whooshing noise in front of me, and I, too, ducked a little as I twisted and looked out the passenger side window. With something that large coming at us, it was only natural to crouch down as if to avoid being hit by the craft.

A huge, white rocket approached us, and passed beside us,over the hill on the right, and quickly disappeared behind us. I could see a United States flag painted on a fin that hung down below the craft. The fin appeared to be a bit rusted, or maybe it was burned. Silent jets on the back appeared to have the same coloring.

"What was that!"

"That had to be the shuttle!" I answered. "I didn't think it was due back yet. And, why would it be flying this low over here?" I hoped that it wasn't off course, or in trouble. I remembered the shuttle that had exploded not so far from here.

The pink Chrysler continued on its journey on Highway 6. The passengers were in a state of high anxiety after what they had just witnessed. The driver pushed more buttons on the dashboard. Maybe they would find more news on the screen about what had just happened.

They knew that it was not something that happens every day, or even something that was likely to ever happen to them again.

And, then I woke up! It was all a dream.

It was a few days later when the shuttle actually landed, safely, as I watched it on television. And that was a relief, to have the astronauts back on the ground. I guess, with the news reports on tv, and actually seeing it pass over us, then drawing and painting it, the shuttle was in my subconscious.

I thought that you might enjoy my art work and the story that went with it. I think that I actually like the pencil sketch better, but I wanted to show the colors of the weather map and screen in the car. And I had to put a little pink in the car.

I added watercolors to my pencil drawing, then used watercolor pencils to add more definition to the version in color.

I hope that you enjoy my story and the pictures, and that you will pass my work on to others.

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If you see something that appeals to you, please let me know. I do welcome your comments.

Vision-Space Shuttle and Station Flyover

See my latest slide show in the post below.
The forecast called for clear skies, cool temperatures, and a full moon just after 7 p.m. Thursday evening. My youngest grandson and I moved our supper plates and went out to the road in front of our house to watch the skies. It was supposed to come from the northwest, fly over, and exit to our southeast. The open field across the street provided perfect viewing of the skies.
The trees have grown up, but we still have a good view, away from city lights, if we go out to the driveway and the narrow country road.
The sky was clear and blue, with an orange glow to the west. A pinkish cloud with a swash of purple made a soft roll across the top of the glow. Green trees in the woods at the edge of the field were growing dark. The "pumper" and oil well across the street were changing from their normal rust color to a silhouette.
"We may see a lot of spectacular sunsets, with the fires in California," I told my grandson. "We always have gorgeous sunsets when there are fires or volcanic eruptions somewhere."
He looked for rocks and I leaned on my cane as we waited.
"I think I see it! Is that it?" he pointed to the north.
"Where? " I asked. "You sure have good eyes. But, then, you know I can't see a bloomin' thing!"
I could hear people in the yards beside and behind us. Others were out looking, too.
After all, Bob French, the weather man on tv, had been telling us about this historic event. The space shuttle and station had docked, with two women in command of the vessels, and would be passing right over us. We would be able to see them for about 5 minutes. We were told to look for something like a white dot that would pass over us. He had hoped that we would see both space crafts, separately, and the full moon on this clear night. But, they had already docked. Still, just to think of people, way up there, in things that we see on sci fi movies, flying by so fast, is exciting enough.
But, no. Not me! I thought that I may not be able to see anything. But this, well, it was different, for sure! What I saw looked more like a white, swept wing bomber from outer space. It seemed to have circles or lights spread from end to end.
"Three, two, one, Blast Off!" A child shouted from another yard as the space crafts passed over.
"I guess that really must be it."
"What do you see?" I asked my grandson as the space craft passed over our back yard.
"It's just a white dot," he answered.
I laughed. "You will have to draw me a picture of what it looked like. You won't believe how it looks, to me! Wow! What a thing I saw!" It seemed to be more like a large, detailed craft, with all the posts, or whatever they are, that connect the parts, and even lights that might be on the station.
When the crafts were out of sight, we came inside and I handed my grandson paper and pencil. We both sketched what we saw. It was almost a little disappointing to see that he only saw a white dot as it passed over.
"Sometimes, I think that you must just be making these things up," my daughter is not very understanding about my Macular Degeneration and cataracts. She is nearsighted, but I'm sure that she doesn't "enjoy" the abstract art that I get to see, especially from a distance. I guess the only people who really can believe me are those who have similar experiences. It is very strange.
Previously, when a group went outside to see one of the shuttles pass over in a night sky, it was very quiet . One of the women in the group insisted that she could hear a whoosh as the shuttle glided overhead. I did listen for a noise Thursday, but all I heard was a rustling in the grass. My grandson said it was a dog.
After he went to bed, I scanned our drawings, then drew mine onto a sheet of watercolor paper.
I wanted to get it done in color, then scanned and put on my blog. But, the paint wasn't dry enough. And I hesitated because I drew my space craft too large. Still, the shape that I saw is there, along with the scene. I just had to play around a little with the oil well shapes, the sunset, and the trees. Streaks of white were placed on the craft with white acrylic paint.
I've spent a while, trying to make the three pictures into a slide show. Finally, I got it done. For some reason, I first made it so that the pictures were flying around and overlapping. I don't know how I did that still! But, I finally got it to do a straight slide show by clicking on the one I had done before of "Deco Street".
I thought it would be nice to show the way the space crafts looked through my eyes, and then show what it really looked like, through my grandson's eyes.
Picture 1 My pencil sketch looking northwest
Picture 2 My watercolor looking northwest
Picture 3 My grandson's pencil drawing looking southeast
(He added an arrow to show where the space crafts are in his picture)
The drawings are 8.5" x 11" in pencil. The painting was done with Winsor Newton watercolors and is 5.5" x 9.5".
One little note. I got a notice of acceptance into the Downtown Art Auction November 2 in Bryan, Texas. More information later. So, if you are in the area, go downtown and enjoy the art, and buy something!
Be sure to check out the links on my sidebar. And let me know if you see something that is of interest to you.
If you are a newswatcher, or have an interest in the subject of breast cancer, check out www.gretawire.com . Monday night, on Fox news, Greta Von Susteran is going to have a special at 9:00 p.m. central time, and 10:00 p.m. eastern time. She has been on a tour with Laura Bush to the Middle East, to raise awareness about breast cancer. They just returned to Washington D.C. Friday night. Greta has an excellent blog called Greta Wire, and she has been blogging and sending pictures and videos all during the trip. She has room for comments with her posts, and she does read them. It has been really great to be able to "travel" with Greta and the First Lady via the blog. Something that I would never get to do otherwise. Greta has a wonderful job! Anyway, just wanted to spread the word so that everyone who can, will tune in and learn more. Greta's program is "On The Record" and it is on Fox News.
The weekend is upon us, so I hope that you can get out and enjoy the fall beauty and have "good golf, good tennis, good painting, or whatever makes you happy." (As Marvin Zindler always said when he signed off for the weekend on his segment of the news program from Houston.)