Fantasy on the Meaning of Life

My father was an applied mathematician. He went to work every day and sometimes taught at night. He tried to help me with my homework in high school and I would often zone out during his explanations. I never thought of him as an author, but after he retired, he wrote five books, published by top notch science publishers. He always would give me a copy, with an inscription. In one inscription, he told me the meaning of life. He said that the meaning of life was the transcendental number, e, raised to the i*π (i times π) power, where i is the square root of -1 and π is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its radius.

To make a long story short e to the iπ can also be written as cosine(π) +i*sine(π).

Sine waves!! Through that torturous logic, I may have identified my connection to the meaning of life: That I begin most of my paintings with sine-wavering strokes of my hand.

Today’s composition falls into that category.

Abstract 111916
16″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

I began with my trusty bismuth yellow and phthalo blue combination to create the yellow-green orb at the center of the picture. After it dried, I used cadmium red deep to create my first sine-ish wave. I then made a sine wave using just water at the top of the composition. I infused it with red calligraphy ink that didn’t completely fill the curvy, watery path I had just prepared.

I explained how today’s composition began. The rest is up to you.