One of my favorite episodes from one of my favorite TV series of all time was one on Space 1999 --during the first season. In the story, Moonbase Alpha is contacted by the Captain of a space expedition that had set-off years earlier and lost contact. The mission was presumed to lost forever and probably destroyed. In fact, the Spaceship had landed on a frozen planet way out in the farmost reaches of the galaxy-- on a desolate frozen planet called Ultima Thule. Commader König and his scientists could not figure out how these people could had survived. Being so many light years away from earth one would think that they would have died from the elements long before on such a forbidding world. In fact, it turns out that the crew of the lost expedition were hundreds of years old. I could never figure out the concept of faster than light speed, and particularly who aged more-- the people on earth who were left behind, or the people that had set off for star systems unknown? In any case there was a whole Shakespearean episode to the story of ultimate Tole, that was fascinating. Specifically one of the characters was playing the fool in a Shakespeare play even as the captain of the expedition was beckoning to the Alpine to come to his planet. This full character was warning them to stay away. It turns out that the Planet Ultima Thule afforded the expedition members from earth immortality! You know, eternal life. I know this is a recurring theme in science fiction, but it never gets old-- ha ha pun intended. I always associated this episode od Space 1999 with Arctic exploration. Certainly the sets and the whole stylized aesthetic of the frozen planet was very redolent of the first hand accounts 19 century expeditions that were in search od the Northwest Passage or the North Pole. However, there was a deeper commonality. The planet was a mystery, it had no visibility, and it reminded me of many of the arctic expeditions that got completely lost. As a child I never knew what Ultima Thule meant. It turns out that in Latin it means 'the furthest reaches' as in beyond where man has gone and what is knowable. So as an adult, wondering one evening why I was working so hard at my job and not having fun watching old science fiction episodes -- I decided to paint Ultima Thule. How this idea felt to me. So what thoughts or emotions does Ultima Thule evoke in you?

Artwork Size & Ink Base:

61x122

Please add your full name below if you would also like to make this listing searchable by name:

Daniel Aaron Schwartz

Please add your IG Username if you would like Plogix to share this listing on social media:

@daniel.a.schwartz1