Signed and dated 1993 — Sidney T. Cothran 1993 — in the lower margin, making this one of the confirmed dated works in the collection and placing it in a specific period of Sidney's development. At this scale and on this dark ground, it is the most monumental abstract work in the collection alongside Blood Vessel.
The subject is a single enormous spiral form, seen in three-quarter perspective so that it reads not as a flat circular design but as a three-dimensional object — a shell, a galaxy, a coil in space — with genuine volumetric presence. The spiral's coils are rendered in concentric bands of cool blue, green, and gray-white, each band distinct from the next, each carrying different internal marks: short strokes, small patches of color, the accumulated energy of sustained pastel work. The white highlights on the outer edge of each coil give the whole form a sense of reflected light, as if it is rotating and catching illumination from a source to the upper left.
The dark ground — deep blue-black, worked with the texture of pastel on board — is not empty but populated: at upper left, a small spherical form in gray-blue with multicolor surface marks that reads as a planet or moon; at lower left, a smaller similar form; at lower right, a tiny ringed sphere suggesting Saturn. These companions give the central spiral its cosmological context — this is not a seashell but a galaxy, rotating in space among planets.
The scale of Sidney's ambition here is fully realized. The spiral fills the entire picture field, pressing against all four edges, occupying space with physical authority. This is a work that required sustained technical commitment over time — the building up of the concentric pastel bands, the refinement of the highlights, the decision-making at each ring of the coil. It is a mature and complete statement.