This is a painting of an eagle’s body being merged to the wings of an airplane. The eagle is staring straight at the viewer’s eyes and has its wings extended as it flies over the clouds in the sky.

This piece to me symbolizes the way technology imitates nature. Humans created planes and aircraft to be able to fly, the way birds do. Plane wings very similarly imitate bird wings, which is why the eagle in the painting has become merged to plane wings. It also depicts the bird as powerful – the first flying machine before the plane came to life. In aerospace, we are often looking to come up with bigger, better, faster technology but it will never be as effortless as the mechanics of this majestic, flying animal.

For this project I used acrylic paints and an 8×11 canvas. I used various shades of blue mixed with white for the sky and the clouds. The eagle and wings are various shades of gray, brown, white, yellow, and black.