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93-003 "I Want to Go"
1993, acrylic on illustration board

The view from the shore of the cosmic sea is both lovely and a bit frustrating. In this piece, the artist makes a rare on-screen appearance, looking out at the far horizon at the wonders that call to us from afar. In a way, humanity is marooned on the Earth, condemned to dream of far voyages that our descendants will have to undertake for us. In this image, the Pleiades star cluster has been enlarged to suggest it is right next-door. In a sense, it is; three hundred light years to this celestial gem is nothing in a galaxy 100,000 light years across. But for us, today, gazing from the shore, it might as well be forever. Bear in mind that this is not all bad - frustrated castaways are just the sort who learn to build canoes, after all. Someday, we will get there. But I am impatient - I want to go.

Chris Butler