January 28, 2016

Death in Cerulean Blue

This simple painting by Christine Rueter will mean volumes for those who remember the Challenger disaster.

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

*Day serene and elastic*, painting and poem © Christine Rueter

day serene and elastic
air cerulean

the gale
never was writ in the traveller’s chart

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Thirty years ago I was in the hall outside my grade 6 class working on a mural, and another student told me the Challenger had exploded. I didn't believe the news: I thought it was someone else's news-based project that we were doing at the time.

The challenger was my favourite shuttle in the mid-80's; my father had given me a model of it to build years earlier.

If you were around 30 years ago, you probably have similar memories. Gregory Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, Dick Scobee and Michael J. Smith died when their shuttle exploded shortly after launch. It was a shock.

Christine Rueter created this painting+poem work, and it's astounding to me how such a simple, abstracted image and spare poem can evoke so much. Tragic and horrifying, beautiful white on a cerulean blue.

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Find Christine Rueter's work on Twitter @TychoGirl and on her art and poetry blog.

READ:We Never Should Have Mothballed the Space Shuttle by Leroy Chiao on our Guest Blog

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