There are some advantages to my having been an Astronaut, Engineer, and Scientist before I wanted to become an Artist. I had developed a way, over the years, to learn a new subject quickly and to the level of detail that was important to me. I used this approach when I resigned from NASA in 1981 with the goal of creating fine art by painting my experiences and those of my fellow Astronauts on the Moon.

There are definitely disadvantages to thinking with my technical and scientific mind in becoming an Artist.

For example, this was one of my earliest attempts at what I thought our landing site would actually look like after we had gone. This is pretty much how I remembered the gray and white and black world of the Moon. When I first left NASA, this was the only way I could paint the Moon and be honest to what I actually saw there.