If You Are Hired as a Crew Member on the U.S.S. Enterprise, Don’t Wear Red

Opalescent Sea by the Norwegian Artist, Steve Henderson

Look at this painting,  Opalescent Sea.

Can you spot the red-garbed security agent from Captain Kirk’s landing crew?

No?

Well, don’t worry, because the red-garbed security agent is where he always is — he’s gone, at sea, having been phasered down or microblasted or transformed into a pile of dry, dusty body chemicals. Sometimes there were two or three red-garbed security men in the landing party, and the fun for the viewer was in guessing how they would all be eliminated.

In the three years of the original Star Trek run, not many of these star-crossed, professionally trained commandos made it back onto the ship, and those that did found themselves infested with some disease or bacterium that shortened their lives anyway. One wonders how Captain Kirk replaced the many crew members that he lost — 1) where did he get them out in deep space and 2) how did any agree to the job, knowing how their many predecessors had fared?

One also feels sorry for the actors who played these doomed men: “You’ll have ten seconds, tops, and five of them are with your eyes closed. This is your big break.”

Fortunately, one thing that is not disappearing into piles of dust is the artwork of the Norwegian Artist, who paints regularly and prolifically, producing superlative landscapes, seascapes, and figurative works. Opalescent Sea is presently at Rive Gauche Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ, along with a collection of seascapes by the Norwegian Artist.

More original artwork by the Norwegian Artist is available for view and sale at Steve Henderson Fine Art Online Gallery.