On August 26 2021, New Shepard, Blue Origin’s reusable suborbital rocket, traveled into space with a specially commissioned triptych by the renowned Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo painted on the top of the crew capsule on the main chute covers.

Rendered in the artist’s signature, bold painting style, Boafo’s triptych—Self Portrait with Pink Tulips (2021), Shormeh’s Gold Earrings (2021) and White and Gold Head Wrap (2021)—comprises intimate portraits, including his mother; the mother of his childhood friend and international artist, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe; and the artist himself.

Boafo says: “A self-portrait looking up to the skies best explains what this project means to me. I grew up knowing the sky was the limit and now I get to work on a project that goes beyond the sky as we know it. This signifies what is possible when creatives like myself are given the chance to not only break the glass ceiling but go above it.”