About this Series
It seems natural that space (and mankind’s effort to understand and explore it) was always going to take root in Dane. Maybe it started with a Florida child’s distant view of the Shuttle’s vapor trail. Maybe it started even earlier with the Greek and Roman myths that various space programs borrowed names from. However it happened, Dane grew up believing that, like those ancient stories of striving heroes and lessons learned, our space program represented some of the best of what humanity could do and be.
For this series, Dane took inspiration from an older style than the atomic era MCM he often uses for his space related art. This series is about celebration, wonder, and achievement. With Art Nouveau’s innate love of symbolism and heavy use of mythology, the style was a natural choice.
Celebrating the Mercury Program
The first US human spaceflight program, Project Mercury was named for the Roman god of messages and travelers. With the goal to send a human into the void of space and back to Earth safely, the project ran from 1958 to 1963.
As an embodiment of the program, Mercury wears the wings of the Roman god for whom she was named and cradles the first American rocket to convey humans to space. Above her, we see both rockets used by the program and six stars (representing six successful human flights). Below her, a medallion showing the titan Atlas holding the globe represents the second American rocket used for human flight. The palm fronds are symbols of both the deity Mercury and of Florida, where the crewed Mercury flights were launched.
This giclee print is an easily frameable 13x19 inches. We use premium cotton rag watercolor paper and Epson Ultrachrome inks.
Based in Wichita, KS, Monkey Minion is a small creative company built on a simple idea. We create what we want to exist in the world.