Hi Everyone,

Have you ever wondered if there is life on other planets?

I have always been fascinated by outer space. As a kid “Lost in Space” was one of my favorite TV shows. The early episodes were in black and white, but as the seasons progressed, the broadcast changed to color and that is when my interest in space began to peak.
 
I had NASA posters on my wall, built and launched Estes rockets, read about UFOs and used my cheap telescope to explore the night skies while living in the suburbs of Boston. On a trip to New Zealand a few years ago, I was fortunate to go to the Dark Sky Reserve, which is part of the Mt. Cook reserve on the south island. They don’t allow any lighting in the area, so it is kept very dark. The reserveʼs Mackenzie Basin has the clearest, darkest and the most spectacular night sky in New Zealand. I never saw stars like that anywhere. It was breathtaking.
 
Even today, I love to watch documentaries about space and go to planetariums. I am so excited about the Webb telescope that now sits almost a million miles out in space. I cannot wait to see what they find using it.
 
I heard a statistic before that has stuck with me over the years. There are more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand on all the beaches combined in the world. Think about that for a minute!
 
My painting, Empty Sky, asks the question, is there anybody out there? Don’t you wonder if we are really alone in the universe? I know I have wondered about it my whole life. If you look closely, you will see an alien in the middle of the painting. When I first painted this, I had the alien standing out as the main feature. I thought it was too obvious, so I then painted the 8 circles over it (representing the planets in our solar system) to subdue the alien’s features. This painting is currently available on my website here.
 
I hope this piece stimulates some new thoughts for you.
 
All the best,
 
Garry