Dora Hawkinson

Artist Statement

The world pictured in the artwork ‘Under The Moon’ has aged yet it holds even more meaning now because of events in this past year. The mixed media framed artwork shows spaceships taking off into a star filled night-time sky under the glow of a large, full moon easily seen by a little boy’s eyes at bedtime story-time. So many places the spacecraft could set sail to, so many possibilities. Pieces I cut from my father’s clothes helped create terrestrial portions of the artwork and were a way to try and bring a bit of his presence near for his grandson whom he missed meeting by a few weeks. I can remember as a child sitting at the kitchen table and hearing my father talk about space; he could answer anything I asked about astronomy with near encyclopedic recall. When it became evident my young son had in common with his grandfather a shared fascination with the cosmos, I was inspired to create Under The Moon and it provided the backdrop over the years for many stories I read to him including some by Ray Bradbury, Andre Norton, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells. Although my father didn’t get to see his grandson because of small cell lung cancer, he was a cancer survivor having already been successfully treated for prostate cancer and ocular melanoma. When I created this artwork, there seemed something evanescent yet real and connecting which I was reminded of whenever I saw it hanging on the wall; I would hope that sharing the story behind this might help provide connection for the scientists on the teams working to create cancer treatments.