In our series of posts in which the artists of Tumamoc are sharing our current and past visualizations and impressions, I’m pleased to present scientist and artist William K. Hartmann’s acrylic painting of Tucson as seen from the corner of the old Chemistry building (Building 802, built in 1915). As we continue to keep our distance from each other and the Hill, it’s nice to see another view.
(William Hartmann is a noted planetary scientist and writer. He was the first to convince the scientific mainstream that the Earth had once been hit by a planet sized body (Theia), creating both the Moon and the Earth’s 23.5° tilt. He is also an accomplished artist, often depicting space, but also subjects closer to home, such as Tumamoc Hill. You can see of his beautiful Gran Desierto paintings as the illustrations for Gumersindo Esquer’s Campos del Fuego, published by the Desert Laboratory.)
Having spent 30 years working on Tumamoc Hill and missing it since moving to Virginia, Bill Hartmann’s beautiful acrylic painting brought back so many memories. Here are a couple of them. In the empty space in the foreground was the towering saguaro that came crashing down on the greenhouse in August 1982. I was working late into the evening when 70-80 mph winds gusted ahead of a thunderstorm. In a matter of minutes more than 400 saguaros came crashing down on the Hill, most of them on south-facing slopes. And where Bill stood, I remember standing myself in June 2013 watching a giant pyrocumulus cloud billowing up from the Aspen Fire. Thanks, Bill, for this incredible painting.