Moon

Source: NASA

MOON! Our very own Luna. The beginning of this entire journey.

Boy, do I owe a lot of thanks to this rocky *not so little* body we call our neighbor. I painted her by chance and out of pure inspiration for myself, not at all anticipating that it would drive me to lunacy (hehe) and almost 20 moons I’d never heard of would come out of it. When I look up and see any phase of our beautiful moon, I’m filled with awe + inspiration in a way I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to articulate. Of all the moons in our solar system, our own satellite will always be my favorite. The only other celestial body mankind has set foot upon (so far). Our natural streetlight, ever changing and forever inspiring artists of all crafts to create something beautiful. All to think that this giant rock in the sky potentially came from our own Earth. We estimate the moon to be 4 billion years old. Something so tilled and beaten up, made of porous dark rock, having been inactive and practically dead for millions and billions of years- yet here we are. Look up at the night sky and tell me the moon isn’t stunning, I triple dog dare you. It’s pretty miraculous, too, the role the moon has played as a partner to our Earth. Our tides, our wobble being equalized- AKA the moon trying to stabilize our climate, ‘ole faithful. A lot of people don’t realize the difference between the light and dark areas of the moon. Way back when (billions of years ago) when the moon was geologically active it had volcanoes. Those volcanoes essentially filled ginormous impact basins (the dark areas) with lava, creating aged magma looking oceans on the surface. Before modern technology, our ancestors thought there was liquid water on the surface, hence the dark areas being named maria (or “seas” in Latin). If you look at photos of the moon up close you’ll see it’s littered with craters, it has taken quite the beating. With all its hole-y glory, the moon is actually very dark. That is, before our sun’s light hits it and it becomes a gorgeous glowing orb at night. Moon rock is extremely porous, so it takes on the light being spewed onto it and reflects it back to us. I could go on and on about the amazing qualities of our personal natural satellite, but I’ll leave it at this: we are going back. We are picking up our legacy and restoring it, making it more diverse, more sustainable, taking it further.  We’re going back to our Moon and we’re staying.