Appolo 8

Appolo 8 by Brian Smith aged 7 and a half
Mixed media: felt, wool, cotton wool, bit of someone's jumper, PVA glue on card

It's 40 years ago today that Apollo 11, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first manned flight to land on the Moon.

Today I remembered that one of the few pieces of artwork that I produced in my Primary School years survived and was stored in amongst the piles of photographs upstairs. A quick manned expedition up there soon uncovered it, still in good condition after 35 years or so.

Ok, the spelling wasn't great back then, but I remember being well chuffed when Miss Irvine chose this to be displayed in the corridor (maybe she couldn't spell Apollo either). I was 7 or 8 years old at the time and it's not the famous Apollo 11 flight that's been illustrated, but the Apollo 8 mission that launched on December 21st 1968 (when I would have been 1 year, 2 months and 2 weeks old exactly). This mission was the first to orbit the moon and paved the way for the eventual moon landing nearly two years later.

I'm not sure why I chose this one to collage, but it was a piece of artwork that became prophetic as I did indeed become an astronaut with NASA.

I wished...

Ok, it was prophetic in a way as it encouraged my artistic side so that in later years I became a Graphic Designer and now teach Art and Design at college.

Can't remember the last time I seen a drawing or painting of a Saturn V rocket though.