‘Plantary Citizen’

When I went to the ‘Outside the Spacecraft Social: 50 Years of EVA’ #Spacewalk50 at the Smithsonian Ar and Space Museum back in January 2015, I feel in love with one of the pieces of art in the exhibit:’Plantary Citizen’ by Angela Manno.

‘Plantary Citizen’ “is one of a 12-piece series of mixed-media paintings combining batik, the ancient medium of textile design, with color xerography. It reproduces the famous photo of Space Shuttle astronaut Bruce McCandless flying the Manned Maneuvering Unit. The quote at the bottom reads, “Each man comes back (to earth) with a feeling he is no longer only an American citizen; he is a planetary citizen.” Planetary Citizen is Manno’s signature piece” (Outside the Spacecraft. 2015. http://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/outside-the-spacecraft/online/image-detail.cfm?id=9816 and http://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/multimedia/detail.cfm?id=9816). It turns out that “Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, one of only 12 humans to walk the lunar surface, inspired this piece when he said that “Each man comes back (to Earth with a feeling that he is no longer only an American citizen; he is a planetary citizen.” These words, combined with the spellbinding image of Earth from afar, inspired <Angela’s> visionary space-art series, “Conscious Evolution: The World At One.” “This series,” says Mitchell, “captures the spirit of the view of the earth from space and provides insights into cosmic awareness.” (Angela Manno Art Studio. 2015. “Conscious Evolution: The World At One” http://www.angelamanno.com/ConsciousEvolution/index.php).

The exhibit “Conscious Evolution: The World At One,’ which was “a 13-piece series of mixed-media paintings created in 1985 by artist Angela Manno. The series combines batik, the ancient medium of textile design, with the ultramodern technique of color xerography and integrates quotations by space explorers, statesmen, scientists and philosophers on the theme of global unity and individual and collective responsibility for the condition of our planet. Largely inspired by views of the Earth from space, Conscious Evolution: The World At One has been acknowledged by many of the lunar and shuttle astronauts as expressing the feelings, hopes and concerns they have had as a result of seeing Earth from space. After a highly successful international tour, and with the support of many wonderful sponsors including actor Tom Hanks, AXA Space and Xerox Corporation and Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum completed collecting this visionary space-art series for its permanent fine art collection in December of 2000 (Angela Manno Art Studio. 2015. “Conscious Evolution: The World At One” http://www.angelamanno.com/ConsciousEvolution/index.php).

What I think what I loved most about ‘Plantary Citizen’ is the astronauts view of the Earth from space, plus all those little floating astronauts, and the colors. It also reminds me of a quote by Neil deGrasse Tyson when he is talking about how mind blowing the view of the Earth from the Moon was, which we saw via Apollo 8’s famous Earthrise photo from December 24, 1968. DeGrasse Tyson (coughPlutoKillercough) says that “This was the first time any of us had seen Earth the way nature had intended, with oceans and land and clouds. We’re thinking we’re exploring the moon and we discovered the Earth for the first time” (60 Minutes. March 2015. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/neil-degrasse-tyson-astrophysicist-charlie-rose-60-minutes/).

Angela Manno has prints of her art works for purchase and luckily ‘Plantary Citizen’ was still available and it was even on sale! I asked her a bunch of questions and she told me she had a print in the #20s available, but me being me, I asked if she still had prints #42, #43, or #45 available and she had #42! How weird is that! #42 was meant to be my print. Why #42? 42 is my current age and it is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. One of my beliefs is that every woman should always give herself a birthday gift and this print is my gift to myself for my #43 birthday.

If you can, go and see ‘Plantary Citizen’ live and on Earth at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum or view it here http://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/multimedia/detail.cfm?id=9816. Otherwise I would recommend that you purchase your own copy from Angela Manno here: http://www.angelamanno.com/ConsciousEvolution/index.php.