Acrylic painting, 16 x 20.

"Event Horizon" by Frank Wu

This piece illustrates the story by Sean Klein, for an upcoming issue of Talebones magazine.  The story concerns Christopher Columbus, black holes, and a woman who travels very, very far from home.

 

The female model for this illo is named Kelly.  When I asked her to pose for me, I asked her to look up and think far away thoughts, as if imagining she was going through a wormhole to another dimension.  I was really impressed because she knew exactly what I was talking about!

 

As for the model for Columbus, nobody knows exactly what he looked like.  But that apparently didn't stop sculptors and painters from making his image; there are about 150 (!) statues of Columbus scattered throughout these here United States.  There are eight (!) in my home state of California alone.  Seven, I should say, as the one closest to me, in the San Jose city capital building, was heavily damaged.  A protestor - apparently still ticked off about how poorly Columbus treated the native Americans on Hispaniola - took a sledgehammer and broke off both legs and one arm.  The statue is still in Italy, being repaired at the marble works.  Which meant that I had to drive an hour to San Francisco to check out the Columbus statue there.  It seems to have worked out, though.

 

Image (c) 2002 Frank Wu
 


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