Purification Ritual

After getting my new bike, a friend recommended I bike over and night-swim in Barton Springs pool to cool off after the ride. I realized I’d never been there at night despite having gone countless times before.

In this image, I wanted to bring out the soft twinkling light in the reflections of the pool and the earth as it rejuvenated around it. The title of this painting is taken from early indigenous cultures like the Tonkawa using the pool as a door to the spirit world. There’s even evidence that the pool has been used for over 4000 years with some of the earliest cave drawings in the area referencing the pool and its mystical properties.