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03-012 "Approach of Disaster"
2003, mixed media

Perhaps shockingly, this illustration of the last moments of the space shuttle Columbia was both started and finished on the day after the tragedy. This was a hard image to face, and I was reluctant to create it. Several reasons prompted me. For one thing, I worked on the space shuttle program, and have honored the orbiters in other paintings; Columbia's death would deserve an image sooner or later, and perhaps sooner would be better by getting this unpleasantness out of the way. Cynics would point out the obvious publication demand for an image like this while the disaster was still front-page news - and they would be right. In 1986, I was not a full-time artist, and this kind of motive was not a factor then. Space art is my job, and this event needed illustration...which did not erase a sense that the image was improper. But the most important reason for making this nightmare visually real for me was the fact that I already saw it in my imagination; painting the scene was a way of letting the picture go. It did have that effect, although I dodged the worst of the horror by letting us see Columbia before the dreadful breakup was underway.

Chris Butler