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Heroes
Bryan Larsen

A father and son stand in the foreground, observing intently the launch of a rocket. The flames emitted from the spacecraft are depicted in their full brilliance, while the little boy holds his own model spacecraft close to him. The child evidently enjoys a rational parent who himself is fascinated with the progress of man and encourages his son to... (See the whole comment)

(Added by G. Stolyarov II on 3/09/2004, 9:46am)

Discuss this Artwork (2 messages)

Post 0

Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - 6:51pm

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I really do love B.Larsen's work. They all deptict such epic momments, even the ones that are merely images of man living their life. I like this painting in particular because it reminds me of the only spacelaunch I have ever seen. It was the launch of a defence department communications statlite. The view was similar to this picture. The beaches were saddly empty, except for a contingent of hippies who were scoffing at the waste of resources as they called it. That was a rather strange thing to witness. On one side of the water a satalite was being put into orbit that would allow hundreds of soldiers to get up to date orders at any time anywhere in the world. On the otherside of the water sitting dirty in the sand were five unemployed twenty year olds who honnestly believed that they could change the world by sitting on the beach thinking about how they knew the best philosophy of life.

Truly,

Eric J. Tower

Post 1

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 12:16pm

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Mr. Tower,

Thank you for your incipient comments in the art gallery; I applaud your admiration of objective esthetics and will give you an Atlas Point for every art comment you have made thus far.

You present a fine story with a stark contrast, a personalized portrayal of a comparison that Ayn Rand made in The New Left, between the Apollonian, scientific, progressive, hope-filled endeavors of the space program (and the Apollo-11 Launch) and the Dionysian, decadent, self-mutilating, muck-worshipping hippies at Woodstock.

Alas, given the government mismanagement of the space program by precisely the men who embraced the hippie ideology (and some of whom are grown hippies themselves), the only manner in which such colossal leaps in space exploration as have been made in the 1960s will be repeated is through privatization. It is interesting to speculate about the chronological setting of this painting; perhaps Mr. Larsen is alluding to such a future era, in which heroism of space-travel-caliber will once again rise, undaunted by mysticism and primitivism.

I am
G. Stolyarov II