Crater Aristarchus, Schroter's Valley, and Vicinity 1967

This image of the moon’s surface by NASA—no date given—reminds me of the way a painting comes into being, shifting and emerging through a process of trial, error, and intuition. I imagine those NASA scientists and engineers, they are artists too in a way, experimenting in real-time, sending cameras into space, making adjustments. They wanted to capture the light and texture, the drama of these craters, so different from our Earth-bound views. It makes me think about the surface of a canvas, that slightly resistant plane where an image is built through layers. Look at the lines going across horizontally! It's like the machine itself is part of the expression. It's funny how science and art can reveal different ways of seeing. The artist's intention is not always clear but the image sparks something, a dialogue. We are all in an ongoing conversation—artists, scientists, you and me—exchanging ideas across time, inspiring one another's creativity.