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Michael Whelan
@MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

THE ULTIMATE SANDBOX (1984)
Acrylic on Canvas - 15” x 24”

A whimsical portrait of my daughter Alexa that remains one of my all-time most popular images—and a personal favorite! 1/2

#sciencefiction

With plastic shovel in hand, a 4 year old girl in spacesuit packs a bucket with regolith as she builds sandcastles on the moon. The half-shadowed, cloud-covered orb of the Earth looms in the background starscape. The accents on her spacesuit are pink, and her pack sports a purple monogrammed letter A. Miss Piggy patches decorate her boot and shoulder.
With plastic shovel in hand, a 4 year old girl in spacesuit packs a bucket with regolith as she builds sandcastles on the moon. The half-shadowed, cloud-covered orb of the Earth looms in the background starscape. The accents on her spacesuit are pink, and her pack sports a purple monogrammed letter A. Miss Piggy patches decorate her boot and shoulder.
With plastic shovel in hand, a 4 year old girl in spacesuit packs a bucket with regolith as she builds sandcastles on the moon. The half-shadowed, cloud-covered orb of the Earth looms in the background starscape. The accents on her spacesuit are pink, and her pack sports a purple monogrammed letter A. Miss Piggy patches decorate her boot and shoulder.
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Stargeezer Smith
@stargazersmith@social.linux.pizza replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

@MichaelWhelan
That's a nice picture. My wife painted in acrylic.

Now that she's gone, I'm trying to figure out how to honor her by what I do with her paintings -- many paintings.

In racking my brain to figure it out, I remembered that I'm a nerd. A retired nerd as it happens, but a nerd. So I started putting my nerd tools together, my spreadsheet to inventory the number and sizes, and a graphics program to let me layout scaled painting sizes in acceptable arrangements.

Now I'm making headway -- on arranging paintings that is.

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Olivia Vespera
@OliviaVespera@spacey.space replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@MichaelWhelan I remember this when you first showed it off! Very cool!

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Michael Whelan
@MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

Over the years, we’ve loaned the painting to science museums throughout the country and shared rights to the image to help promote interest in space exploration. 2/2

https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/ultimate-sandbox/

The Art of Michael Whelan

ULTIMATE SANDBOX

This whimsical portrait of Michael Whelan’s daughter is one of his all-time most popular images. Mom says, “She has her PhD and a daughter of her own….could be time for a new pain…
Background detail from THE ULTIMATE SANDBOX featuring sandcastles in progress in the regolith of the moon. Half shadowed, Earth hangs in the starry sky to the upper right.
Background detail from THE ULTIMATE SANDBOX featuring sandcastles in progress in the regolith of the moon. Half shadowed, Earth hangs in the starry sky to the upper right.
Background detail from THE ULTIMATE SANDBOX featuring sandcastles in progress in the regolith of the moon. Half shadowed, Earth hangs in the starry sky to the upper right.
Figure detail from THE ULTIMATE SANDBOX featuring a 4 year old girl in spacesuit. With her freehand, she packs regolith into a plastic bucket. In the other hand she holds a shovel.
Figure detail from THE ULTIMATE SANDBOX featuring a 4 year old girl in spacesuit. With her freehand, she packs regolith into a plastic bucket. In the other hand she holds a shovel.
Figure detail from THE ULTIMATE SANDBOX featuring a 4 year old girl in spacesuit. With her freehand, she packs regolith into a plastic bucket. In the other hand she holds a shovel.
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Jörg Baranczek
@joergba@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@MichaelWhelan Nice, No Problem with social media.

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Medea Vanamonde 🏳️‍⚧️
@MedeaVanamonde@beige.party replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@MichaelWhelan

“A Scoop of Moon Dust” bet Sir Arthur loved this one

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Petra van Cronenburg
@NatureMC@mastodon.online replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@MichaelWhelan I remember well when I saw this great painting for the first time in some media because it shows my childhood's dream. When watching the 1969 moon landing live, my biggest wish was becoming an astronaut, of course. But everbody only told me that they would never accept girls.
Your painting came too late for my profession but I was so impressed and loved it.

#moon #astronaut #space #art

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Marianne
@noodlemaz@mstdn.games replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@MichaelWhelan it'd be great if 2/2 were a reply to this toot so people can see the follow-up info if we boost this one!
But I get it's a lot of effort to redo now

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Michael Whelan
@MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@noodlemaz Ack! Sorry about that. I duplicated 2/2 in thread so people don't miss it.

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juliette
@juliette@mastodon.green replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@MichaelWhelan I love this! I can see your love for her shining through the art.

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