A few years ago, in 1994, I had the opportunity to experience a road
trip across the United States. It was in Arizona where one particular
road sign caught my attention, reminding me of a photograph I had seen
in my college astronomy textbook. "Meteor Crater -- Winslow, Arizona"
the sign read. There was no question in my mind. I had to go see it!
While there, at the museum, I was impressed by the artist's renderings
of the moments before impact of a 1/4 mile in diameter chunk of iron
falling at incredible speed from the sky toward the Arizona desert.
"What would it have been like to be close enough to "safely" view such
a magnificent event?" I thought. The question seemed to have an answer
that included a VAST distance between my imaginary Self and the
"event" that did in fact take place millions of years ago. But to
imagine safely seeing such a powerful impact of iron into earth left
me in awe of nature and, in this case, all that could be hurled at us
from deep space. Imagine it -- 1/4 miles of iron traveling at 18 miles
per second down to the desert sand. The event, as rendered, was
nothing less than atomic in scale. My painting, "Moment Before," is
simply a recount not only of my memory in 1994 of the Winslow Arizona
Meteor Crater Museum, but it is also a revisiting of an interest of
mine in all such meteor-related events both here on Earth and
elsewhere in the universe.