The Lifetime of Humanity

My love for the night sky that came to me as a child from a grandmother figure, Donna McCutcheon, is deeply ingrained in me. I find the night sky endlessly interesting. Now that I’ve taken up video work, I’m capturing movies of the moon, clouds, trees, sometimes a star or planet, sunsets, and other sky-related images. I’m almost always noticing things and suddenly run outside in the day or even the middle of the night with the camera and tripod, in order not to miss some colorful dance the moon is doing.

It’s what the unaided eye sees that fascinates and intrigues me, and that’s what I try to capture in my video images. When I look at the night sky, a strong feeling sweeps through me as I realize that what I am looking at, the whole human race has been looking at during its entire existence. It’s hard to explain just how connected I can feel with that sense of history. Hard for me to be out in the night without looking up and feeling it. Hard to find words to express that connection with my fellow man and woman across time, place, and culture. Looking up at the sky, I am sharing the lifetime of humanity. In those feelings is a warm connection for me, a feeling of fellowship and commonality with humanity that gives me great joy and peace.

Written by Greeley Wells for part of his Starry Sky Summer ’17 article in the Applegater Newspaper.