Amaryllis Moon, oil painting by James Yale, and the Passive Seismic Experiment Packet deployed on the moon surface, miniaturized by James Yale to fit on the Lunar Lander.

In celebration of the Apollo Moonlanding in 1969 I want to feature both of James Yale’s art and engineering.

At 22 years old, James’ destiny led him to Houston to work for the engineering firm Ray Geophysical Inc. doing contract work for NASA. The last project he worked on was the Passive Seismic Experiments Package (PSEP), an analog/digital seismographic computer– powered by sun rays to measure meteoric showers and moonquakes. James watched the Apollo 11 astronauts land on the Moon from Mission Control at NASA, and heard everything that was being communicated with the Apollo astronauts on the moon.

Afterwards, James’ grandfather questioned him if the moon landing was real. James’ explanation of witnessing the landing must have felt like a time traveling tether of a space walk connecting James’ grandfather’s work with the first flight of The Kitty Hawk to the Apollo Moon landing. James’ grandfather Herb Phillips, worked at the bicycle shop of the Wright Brothers, greasing the tracks for their first flight reaching all the way to 1969 where Herb’s grandson was at NASA a witness to the first Moon landing.

Yale’s interest in science is reflected in his Cosmic Realism paintings. Yale’s multi-dimensional talents continued to produce a large volume and variety of paintings, sculpture, writings and designs for inventions.