On The Canvas This Week
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| 1200mm x 1500mm Original painting by Davia McMillan © 2011 |
Long after the bombs have dropped
and the people moved away
The flowers will bloom again
and Mother Nature will have her say.
Poem by Davia McMillan
© 2011 |
| Blank canvas |
When I bought this canvas I was totally inspired by a photo that my Grandfather took during the Second World War. He was in the air force and his job was to take aerial photo's which where then used to make maps for the purpose of bombing. Below is a scan of the original photo. I believe it was taken in (31st ?) May 1942.
This is what the German city of Cologne looked like once 1000 RAF bomber planes had spent a little under 2 hrs bombing it. My other grandfather was a Lancaster pilot during this period and it is highly (although not confirmed) that he was also present for this event. He spoke very little about this period of his life, he chose rather to focus on the fact that it was the period in which he met and fell in love with my grandmother, the love of his life, until his dying day.
When painting my picture I thought long and hard about the way in which we approach our life here on earth.
We build great city's and we knock them down, we develop races and cultures and then we tear them/eachother apart in one way shape or form. We think that ultimately we are invincible and can survive anything.
We think this earth is ours to rule and control.
But we are really a small part of the history of this planet and nothing more that a transitory life form. Evolution so far suggests that earth will survive far beyond us, or that we may at some stage evolve into yet another species?
This gives me hope. Maybe barring the possibility of us bombing the world to bits, there remains a future for our planet after all. Mother Nature wins in the end, how good would that be?
We think the world belongs to US.
Consider this.....
We belong to the earth.
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| Detail Cologne Cathedral Painting Davia McMillan ©2011 |
How does this question change the way we treat eachother and our planet?
Does it change anything at all?
If you are interested in more graphic detail of this horrific time in history here is a link to Dierk's page which has an amazing collection of similar photo's to the one my grandfather took.
Hope you like the painting :)
Davia
I read this week that if the time that the earth has existed so far is condensed into a year, we humans have been here for two seconds. I think that we are certainly fooling ourselves if we think that we are in control- as recent events have proven.
ReplyDeleteYes Tas, all the local and global events have added weight to my thoughts on all this. We really have delusions of grandure, me thinks...hmmm. :)
ReplyDelete