 "Photo: Jeffrey McWhorter; The Daily Texan")
Twelve men have walked on the moon. Only one, Alan Bean, has followed up his career as an astronaut by becoming a professional artist. While unveiling a new exhibit of his paintings at the LBJ Library and Museum on Wednesday, the UT alumnus spoke about his life and offered advice for students choosing future careers.
Following a boyhood dream of being a pilot, Bean studied aeronautical engineering at UT with a Naval ROTC scholarship. The Navy selected him to attend test pilot training in Maryland. There, the man who said he was always drawn to beautiful aircraft enrolled in a night class to study art.
While in the service, Bean became interested in space exploration. He joined NASA, becoming the fourth person to walk on the moon after the landing of the Apollo 12 shuttle in 1969. Though he loved his work he said it left little time for art. In 1981 he retired and became a full-time painter.
“When I left NASA, I was training to be a shuttle commander,” Bean said. “I said, you know, there’s young men and women here that can fly this thing as good as I can, or better. But no one here has been to the moon that could actually record it in fine art. Maybe I should do that with my life.”
Some of his paintings contain pieces of the NASA insignia and American flag that adorned his space suit, as well as imprints from the boots he wore when stepping on the moon.
Bean, 76, urged students to be passionate about their future careers. He said as someone who has always done what he loves, the hard work it takes to achieve success in any field is not worthwhile if it is not done joyfully.
“Life doesn’t last that long,” Bean said. “It’s very short, from the time you get out of college to the time you’re retired or dead. It’s not very many years. You better find a way to go do the things that you really like. But you have to have the guts to do it.”
Bean advocated self-promotion to get ahead in the workplace. He spent his first several years as an astronaut resenting being passed over for desirable missions. Once he realized it was his job to make his bosses like him, he said, he began to receive the sought-after assignments.
A native Texan who resides in Houston, Bean said UT offered him an exemplary education rivaling those of his colleagues who attended the Naval Academy, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Robert Bishop, the chairman of the aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics department, said he is excited about Bean’s paintings.
Bishop said the work of Bean and other artists with engineering backgrounds is beneficial to both the scientific and artistic communities. Next semester he will offer an “Art and Engineering” course.
“It will help inform the art world about what we’re doing and help us become more creative,” Bishop said.
The exhibit, “Alan Bean: First Artist to Visit Another World,” marks the 50th anniversary of NASA’s creation. As a senator, Lyndon B. Johnson co-sponsored the legislation that formed the space program, said Anne Wheeler, communications director for the presidential museum. To celebrate this, Bean’s work will be on display through April 25 of next year, alongside artifacts from the space exploration of the 1960s.
Be the first to comment on this article!