Seeing Mars Through Layers

24”x48” oil on canvas

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This painting is inspired by a 2015 image fom the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater on Mars. Mount Sharp, a mysterious mountain that sits in the middle of Gale Crater, rises in the distance while the sloped, layered rocks and hills between us and Mount Sharp are ghostly arid reminders of water and wind and 3.3 to 3.8 billion years of time.

I created this painting using palette knife, brush, and a scraping tool that allowed me to apply, remove, and change the color of the layers of paint. I sought to use a color scheme that was both true to the current arid, dusty conditions on Mars, and false to represent the myriad of eyes through which we interpret the surface: Curiosity’s camera and filters, computer screens and programs, scientists’ stretching of colors to emphasize rock compositions, and artistic liberties for aesthetically pleasing richer, brighter and more varied hues. The layers of paint symbolically represent the process that images of the Martian surface go through before we see them, as well as the varied history that formed and altered the rocks, possibly harboring evidence of ancient life. Only when we have human eyes looking upon the Martian surface will we see it true.