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