"Sounds of Earth Single" - Completed

Finally completed this poor, neglected painting I started last fall. I received two commissions that delayed the completion of this piece. Today I finished it and got some photos of it.   

Voyager Golden Record

The painting is titled "Sounds of Earth Single" and features a Chuck Berry 78 rpm record. It's 16" x 16" and oil on panel. An interesting fact about Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" was that is was so influential and such a pop culture icon, NASA included it in the Golden Record which was carried by the Voyager Spacecraft for the  space missions in 1977. The purpose of this mission was to capture images of the solar system,  but also an attempt to reach out to contact any other intelligent life once the spacecraft traveled into deep space. The Golden Record on Voyager contains music and other noises to show what human life sounds like. This means out beyond our solar system there is a copy of "Johnny B. Goode" traveling and waiting for other intelligent life to discover. 

On the Golden Record there is a cover with diagrams demonstrating on how to play the record and how it works. The other symbols show the location of our sun and technical information about the recording such as wave forms, binary code, and the hydrogen atom.

I decided to invent my own paper sleeve for the "Johnny B. Goode" record using the diagrams from the Golden Record. My goal for this painting was to combine this record along with this NASA space mission. I hope viewers find the juxtaposition as interesting as I do. 

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