Phantom Cosmonaut
Noel Steele
Oil on Canvas
h 24" x w 48"
During the era of Sputnik, the race was on for the USA and USSR to put the first man in space. Because of pressures to succeed, there were casualties for both countries including the crews of Apollo One, and Soyuz One. Two Italians -the Judica-Cordiglia brothers- were amateur radio operators who allegedly intercepted radio communications of forlorn and doomed cosmonauts drifting off into space. While their proof is dubious, the USSR is well known for covering up the cracks in the wall with a poster of Stalin. While tragic, it's intriguing to play with the idea that something of human invention is drifting off towards Andromeda or another galaxy. This definitely won't be my last piece with space as a central theme, I very much enjoyed the subject and the process of creating it.
