To illustrate this week’s cover on TIME’s 2025 list of the 100 most influential climate leaders, we reached out to an artist who “paints with the sun.”
Artist Michael Papadakis spent 10 days in Boise, Idaho, creating the TIME cover, using little other than sunlight, a range of magnifying glasses, and a lot of careful planning. His process involves mapping the sun’s path, calculating angles, sketching outlines, and planning how the light will travel across the surface. He then patiently holds a glass in just the right spot for the sun to burn the image onto a 24×31-in. piece of untreated wood.
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“The sun gives no second chances. When it sets, creation must rest,” Papadakis, who studied fine arts at San Francisco State University, explained in an email. “There are days when wind howls, when cold stiffens the hands, when bugs crawl across the canvas and yet I see these not as obstacles, but as teachers. Nature sets the tempo, and I simply learn to play along. The process demands presence, humility, and resilience.”
See the full 2025 TIME100 Climate list here
He discovered this particular talent while traveling in the mountains of Central Asia in 2012. He happened to be carrying a small magnifying glass when he noticed the sunlight strike a piece of wood in a way that stopped him: “In that instant, I knew I had found not just a tool, but a calling.” He founded his company, Sunscribes, that same year. “Since that day, I’ve never looked at the sun the same way,” he says. “It became both my collaborator and my compass, a partner that continues to teach me what’s possible when creation meets pure white light.”
“Sometimes I travel to find the light, other times I wait, preparing everything for its return,” adds Papadakis, who has collaborated with dozens of brands, from Anheuser-Busch to 20th Century Fox, and whose work has been featured on CNN, NBC, CBS, and Fox. “Patience is the secret tool no one sees. The sun always comes back, and when it does, I’m ready to meet it halfway.”
Spending so much time thinking about the source of our light and heat, it’s natural that Papadakis thinks about climate change. “It’s the Earth speaking back to us,” he says. “Sustainability isn’t a noun, it’s a verb, an action, a rhythm, a discipline of restraint. It’s less about what energy we use and more about how and when we use it. My art is a meditation on that truth, to work with the light while it shines, to rest when it sets, to honor the balance between creation and stillness.”