Painted on raw canvas, the substrate of this work was developed with mineral pigment. It was my first time using this type of paint, which usually requires a binder. The texture of the pigment is gritty, grainy, and almost like soil. As such, the early stages of this painting felt slow but fertile, organic, and emerged with lots of warm, earth-tones. Eventually, every formal element in the piece wanted to be lifted upwards. In the final stages of the work, I began adding more pastel, ethereal hues to match the lightness emerging with the forms.

I found myself slipping into a consciousness that felt void and expansive while working on this piece. All sense impressions came vaguely like whispers until the last few days of working, at which point the colors and forms came to me very quickly.

Named after the interstellar comet, 3I/ATLAS, this work took on an otherworldly atmosphere on the final day of painting, launching itself from the earthly to the cosmic plane.