Traveling To the Moon — Susan McDonnell

Snap of a Twig (directly below) was painted for my 2018 show at Sullivan Goss Gallery. At the time I was going through some very challenging changes in my life. The painting reflects this, it is cautious, uncertain.

Deer in the woods — ©2018 Susan McDonnell, Snap of a Twig, 36x24”, oil

The painting was returned to my studio last summer. Over the course of several months the painting became more and more insistent on a change. One day I took it out of the frame, removed the varnish and began painting.

The Reworked Painting

The painting below is the transformed painting with a new title. The forest is brought back to life with a little magic and wonder.

The original version of this painting received a good response on social media and was published in Beautiful Bizarre magazine. I recently learned that a digital copy of the Beautiful Bizarre issue, along with many others, will be traveling to the moon as part of the Luna Codex project. I still like the original version and am delighted to know that it will live on, far away, on the moon.

“The U.S.'s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a plan, the Artemis Program, to land humans back on the Moon in 2025, for the first time in over 50 years. In preparation, NASA will send scientific instruments to the Moon, over 2022 to 2024, via Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) partners, such as Astrobotic Technologies and Intuitive Machines. Their lunar landers will launch as payloads of commercial rocket platforms by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) or SpaceX. Along with NASA instruments, these missions will carry commercial payloads, including the three time capsules that make up The Lunar Codex.” —from The Lunar Codex website