Legacy
- LEGACY - An acrylic painting on a 16 x 20 size canvas board. This painting appears on the cover of, "Galaxy," June,1977, illustrating the story, "Legacy".
According to astronomers the universe is about 12 billion years old. By placing that time period over a 12 month calendar (called "The Cosmic Calendar") each month on the calendar represents one billion years. The calendar therefore represent all of creation from the very beginning of time to now. On the first second of the first day on this calendar, an incredible burst of light occurred called the "Big Bang." That light has continued to expand in all directions into infinite space, coalescing into an uncountable number of stars and planets that collectively we call, the Universe.
It is now December 31, the last day on the Cosmic Calendar. For 12 billion years the Universe has been expanding and whirling toward an unknown destiny, and on that last day on the calendar, at 10:30 p.m. the first humans appear on planet Earth. During the last hour and a half remaining on the calendar all of human history, to date, has transpired. We've been around for a very short time since the Universe began . . .
The caveman that I painted on this cover is among those first humans. At daylight he sees the sun, and at night he looks up at the moon and the stars, wondering what they all are. He knows almost nothing at all, he and the other cave people are at the very beginning of man's search for "knowledge," which will become his basic tool for survival. Of all the living creatures on Earth, those cave people were created with unique brains, they are curious, and they have the capacity to learn from the things they see. This cave man might have been striking two flint stones together near dry grass, or he might have been rubbing two dry sticks together when the grass burst into flame, but he has now learned how to make "fire," which is probably man's first significant step on the road to his destiny.
In that hour and a half remaining on the Cosmic Calendar, the heirs of that cave man continued to observe, to learn, to invent tools, including an alphabet of letters by which the recording of knowledge became possible, and to explore. And such is the power of "Legacy" that, not only have they survived, but in the final moments of this cosmic calendar, descendants of that cave man built a spaceship, flew to the moon, and one of them stepped down a ladder from their man-made machine and walked on the surface of the Moon! . . . Wow!
This remarkable "giant step for man" on the moon is also the very first step in man's quest to join up with the moving Universe of stars . . . Whatever destiny lies with the stars, it will be shared with mankind . . . and it all began with the counterpart of that apeman on my cover painting.
Feel Free to add your Comments about this Artwork
Please do not abuse this feature or it will be removed, Keep it clean, keep it classy, keep it respectful