“Untitled” (America) | Art & Artists

For Alma Thomas abstract painting was not detached from the world, but a visual language that could convey observations of nature, both earthly and celestial. Mars Dust takes inspiration from the iron-rich dust storms that envelop the red planet for weeks or months at a time, a phenomenon documented by NASA’s 1971 and 1972 space missions. Fascinated by the images of these events broadcast widely through television and newspaper reports, Thomas imagined herself as an astronaut exploring space through the portal of her paintings. In this work, she applied a cobalt blue underlayer and used an elastic band to guide the size and spacing of each dappled red brushstroke to create a shimmering, otherworldly effect.