Flying Over Time Collection
Spirit of St. Louis in Blue: 40" x 50", Mixed-Media on Recycled Canvas, 2011. Provenance: Original Collection; ASU; West Valley Art Museum; Phoenix First Friday; Challenger Space Center (presented to Lindbergh Foundation Board under Chairman Larry Williamson).Provenance: Original Flying Over Time Art Collection. Exhibited at Arizona State University (ASU), West Valley Art Museum, Phoenix First Friday, and the Challenger Space Center.

A monumental 40-by-50-inch masterwork, this canvas thrusts the Spirit of St. Louis into a bold, contemporary light. The aircraft is rendered in electric, sweeping strokes of azure and cobalt, contrasting sharply against a heavily textured background built from authentic 1927 engineering blueprints, period newsprint, and original Donald A. Hall Estate photographs. Channeling Robert Rauschenberg’s assemblage techniques and the resourcefulness of Arte Povera, the physical canvas becomes a historical artifact itself. The collage elements—showing the skeletal construction of the aircraft and the men who built it—bleed through the pigment, guided by the structural and emotional methodologies imparted by Leandro Soto. It is a striking visual paradox: the cold, mathematical precision of aerospace engineering fused with the passionate, fluid movement of fine art.