Blue

March 01, 2022

Blue

Water was the obvious answer, but what in or on water - sun rays? Stingrays? I started reading up a passel of posts; loggerhead turtles put up a tough competition against jellyfish to adorn my canvas. Jellyfish with 94 to 98% water, apparently won. Tetramerous radial symmetry bearing blob of tissues and nerves with no other organs or blood quickly got into my nerves. It was exciting to learn they possess a single orifice to ingest food and discard the remains - good one for scatological mind (lol). I was still ruminating on brushing up colours to give shape to the supple swirls of its arms and tentacles dangling from the bell, maybe of the compass or lion's mane or even the bioluminiscent moon jellyfish, when a news popped up in my feed featuring our home planet floating eerily in the dark space. I changed my mind and swiftly rose from the depths of ocean to vastness of space. I shoved the jellyfish-muse for some other day; 'Earthrise' with all its ominous beauty made it to my blue theme.

Unlike the red theme that I completed recently, the entire canvas didn't need to be blue - just the glistening half-globe against pockmarked insipid grey of moon cinched the feel - of water, of sun rays, of stingrays - all in there somewhere.

My humble endeavour in emulating Earthrise with acrylic on canvas

Of the picture: The serendipitous shot of iconic 'Earthrise' by William Anders from Apollo 8 mission brought to world a reflection of itself on the eve of Christmas in 1968 - a remarkably stark blue sphere swimming out of fathomless darkness. A bustling planet in repose, it exuded an awe-inspiring sense of loneliness, like a lonely boat moored to a pebbled shore.

This drop of magnificence in nothingness of space can conjure a sense of abstinence and selflessness; propmpt one to put skirmishes and self-righteousness behind; help understand that larger cosmic energy is in play, I deliberated. Little wonder I dared to paint it for blue theme - what can possibly be bluer? Wet warm drops trickled down my cheeks, unbridled, as I contemplated how to begin.

It's rarity is equally intriguing. Afterall, you can count the number off your fingers of men that went behind the dark face of moon and emerged to get this view.

Apollo 8 and its subsequent space ventures paved way for Apollo 11's 'The Eagle (lunar lander) has landed' - epoch-making 'giant leap of mankind' by Neil Armstrong, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin (who later inspired Buzz Lightyear of Disney Toy Story series), and lesser-known Michael Collis who earned the epithet of 'forgotten astronaut' as he wasn't propelled to as much fame of setting foot on moon. The others eclipsed and dwarfed his deeds unwittingly. More Apollo missions followed over the decade but Earthrise retained its glory as the first picture of earth from space photographed by a person - a nonpareil among other space-stunts!

A note: Though the above orientation was made famous for us on Earth to envisage with respect to our familiar horizontal horizon, the correct alignment is when the picture is rotated 90° anticlockwise like the one below. A modicum of brownish hue on the right edge, obscured by cloud cover is the potruding western part of Africa emerging from the inky night. On the left, apparently, should be America, completely blanketed by a hoary whorl of clouds.