The summer that New Horizons flew past Pluto was the summer that I spent preparing new work for my first solo art show in quite some time. I had been focusing on the zodiac constellations and the moon, and then the spacecraft generated the first true-color image of the planetoid.

So of course I set to work incorporating this new discovery into my art work. Pluto, the god of the underworld, needed a crown.

Pluto's Coronation (2015), 10x10 cyanotype & embroidery on fabric

Pluto's Coronation, detail

I love it when you can get on a tear about something. I played with the image over and over again, working small and large, in as many mediums as I could think of.

Pluto's Inversion (2015), 9x12 mixed media, embroidery & cyanotype on paper

When playing, I came to love the shade of pink that burst out of Pluto's visage while using Inkodye. It seemed fitting; an anecdote about Pluto is that the name was suggested by a young woman who loved Greek mythology.

A girl named Pluto, 16x20 inkodye, copper leaf, drawing on paper

Pluto's Cup (2015) in progress

The excitement of the scientific discovery was contagious, and fed my own work, even past the images of pluto. Inspiration is such a magical and generative thing, and letting yourself run with a theme brings to your mind new possibilities. There's always another door to open.