If you stand way back and look at plein air painting from a metaphysical perspective, it really is amazing that an artist can take the enormous substance of the earth, sky, and water and transfer that into a 8 x 10" painting. This painting went under dramatic changes in my studio. I had initially painted it, live, at the Great Salt Lake during twilight. It was one of the many studies for the painting Venus. In the studio, after a couple of years, I intensified the light cast from the setting sun. And I noticed that the mountains and their reflections had an uncanny resemblance to oysters. Once I saw that, I immediately made the  connection that I could include the rising moon as a symbol of a pearl. The metaphor was complete: the world is something we can hold in our hands.