GM! Here are some progress shots for 'Close Encounters' 20x16 inches, oil on aluminum panel. A scale drawing in pencil, an oil study for the background, the mostly completed painting, and the final version. Inside the vast sweep of an O’Neill Cylinder…a manmade world inside a space station or generation ship, a child climbs unsupervised through a lush, wild space, turning over rocks and peeking through branches to discover a praying mantis. The setting is futuristic, but the subject is timeless. Curiosity and the drive to explore and discover how the world works is built into us. I love the juxtaposition of advanced technology, capable of building worlds among the stars, with natural environments allowed to grow wild. It suggests a deliberate choice to cultivate those spaces, even though expensive and difficult…a recognition that they are of immense value beyond just their beauty. The science-fiction elements are the visual language, but the subject is humanity itself as the curious, clever, innovative, slightly wild seekers of beauty and knowledge that we are.