Mixed media on Board  120 x 120 cm.    2025

Framed in a white molding

Command Module Red depicts a head-on view of the Lunar Module docking with the Command Module. I began this series in 2019 while an artist-in-residence at the Carter Observatory, where I was invited to create work in response to the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing. What started as a skeptic’s perspective on space exploration evolved into a journey of wonder and awe at this monumental achievement in human history.

The red vermillion hue, a color I associate with sacredness, also represents the
searing heat of re-entry as the Command Module returns to Earth's atmosphere.
Looking back at this period of work and how it has evolved, I see space
exploration not just as a scientific pursuit but also as a deeply spiritual journey.

Focusing on the astronaut’s experience—leaving Earth’s atmosphere, seeing our
planet as a distant entity for the first time, and gazing into the vast darkness of
space—I ask: How would this affect the mind, body, and spirit?

Michael Collins, the Command Module Pilot of Apollo 11, struggled to
describe the experience and famously said that next time, he would bring “a
priest, a poet, and a philosopher” to better explain it.