Amy’s most-requested topics include:
Kick the Moondust Off Your Boots, and Shoot for the Stars:
The Family Story of the Race to the Moon and the
Wisdom Gained Growing up a Moonwalker Daughter.
Flying man to the moon and returning him to earth is one of human civilization’s greatest achievements. It is an achievement that is part of the personal history of many Americans who remember where they were on that historical day when Neil Armstrong said “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Amy Bean, daughter of Aviator, Astronaut, and Artist Alan Bean tells the untold, personal story of an Astronaut family. She speaks from the heart, relating the joy, the love, the fear, the sacrifice as her father raced to the moon. This is both a historical and inspirational presentation filled with funny stories, personal family photographs, and videos. How did a small town Texas boy achieve his dreams as a Naval Aviator, an Astronaut, an Artist? What was it like in the Bean home, in the community, when America was racing to the moon? Alan Bean was the 4th man to walk the lunar surface, yet his career as an Artist is what truly inspires Amy. Why? The audience will smile at the traditions of the Astronaut Wives, laugh at the stories of their Space Cowboy Husbands, and learn the life lessons Alan Bean passed on to his Moonwalker Daughter.
The Spirit of a Star Sailor, the Soul of an Artist:
The Story of Moonwalker and American Artist Alan Bean
Amy Bean’s inspirational speech tells the story of the life and the art of her father, Alan Bean- the only artist to walk another world, return to earth, and paint what he saw and felt. Inspired by other explorer artists, Thomas Moran, Charles Russell, and Frederic Remington, whose paintings opened the world to the American West, Alan Bean opened the world to the universe. Each painting is a unique story of Apollo that only a man who has been there can tell.
Amy’s presentation combines personal stories from her father’s career as a Naval Aviator and Astronaut, and video footage of him painting, and creating the sculptured, moondust-sprinkled surface, “Moonflow” that serves as the canvas for his paintings. Come hear why at 49 years old, Moonwalker Alan Bean left NASA and the opportunity to fly the Space Shuttle, to pursue a new dream to become The Apollo Artist.
Shoot for the Moon:
Make Your Impossible Dream Come True
Landing Man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth was an Impossible Dream come true. An unprecedented human journey into the new frontier of space exploration. How did NASA’s leaders inspire the spirit of the Apollo workforce to carry out the technological leaps needed in such a short time frame? What was the mindset of the astronauts, the engineers, the scientists as they launched America to the moon?
MOONSHOT.
Moonwalker Alan Bean’s daughter, Amy intertwines her family’s story of the Race to Moon with the success principles she learned from growing up in an atmosphere of Moonshot thinking. Throughout her life Amy has applied the principles of Passion, Path, and most of all Persistence to shoot for her personal moon.
Both historical and inspirational, Amy’s presentation is filled with unique stories and personal family photos. With the courage to sail the stars, the confidence in their earth-based teams, and the conviction in their own ability to complete the lunar missions, Alan Bean and the Apollo Astronauts led the world into a new age of discovery.
The Countdown Has Begun. Launch Your Moonshot.
Conquer Your New Frontier. Make Your Impossible Dream Come True.
Featured Artwork
Kissing the Earth by Alan Bean
Click to Read the Story Behind the Painting...
Kissing the Earth
Painting Completed 1984, 16”x 26”, Acrylic on Masonite
I was rapidly but careful going over my descent and landing checklist. As I glanced to my left I could see, barely an arm’s length away, Pete Conrad, my friend since our Navy test pilot days and now my commander on Apollo 12. He looked calm and cool, all buttoned up in his white space suit. He was the best. I was proud to be on the crew with him and Dick Gordon, too, now alone in the command module since we unhooked less than 2 hours earlier.
We were the second crew to attempt a landing on the Moon. A lot had to go right for us to come home again. I was excited. This is what we had been dreaming of and training for, and we were ready.
As I looked out the small triangular-shaped forward window of the lunar module, I could see the sharply curved horizon. We indeed were orbiting a body much smaller than the earth. As I looked, the earth, some 239,00 miles away, appeared to rapidly rise. Australia was just coming into view. It was breathtaking.
After returning to earth, I needed to paint my experience. But what would be a suitable title? I thought of my favorite painting by Winslow Homer, an American artist of the late 1800s. Depicting three fishermen in a small boat. In the distance was a faint full moon just touched by the earth’s horizon. Homer’s title was Kissing the Moon.
Seeing our shiny blue and white planet rise above the moon is a wonderful memory I often think of now. But in November of 1969, I wondered if I would ever return to beautiful planet earth again.
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