For the fifth week in a row, I completed another canvas. Not only is this the penultimate painting, but it has been the least time-consuming to prep and paint. Quite convenient, given the fact that my schedule was “off” due to a few novel activities. Normally, the best way for me to complete a project of this magnitude is to do a little every day. What great timing this canvas arose during a rather hectic week in my life when other things had to take precedent.

In this scene, the twins have worked their way “out of the box,” achieving a new plateau of understanding and redefinition. The thing about being out of the box is no box should appear. Plus, in order to show how they changed, I painted them with a glittery acrylic, which doesn’t show up as sparkly in this picture as it does in reality. I stuck with convention and kept their signature colors: purple for Infinity and red for Negativa. For a fleeting moment, I thought about switching their colors, but even when people, ahem, mathematical characters, change radically, there are echoes from their past.

There it is, the chandelier acting like the star of the show! Its appearance unofficially signals I’m near the end of this project. I’ve laid aside the manuscript, except for the opening scenes, for a few months now. As soon as the 24th painting takes its rightful place, I’m combing through the manuscript since 2016 is the year to bring this ebook to life!

I took stenciling to a whole new level when I prepped this canvas. In order to scale this properly, I quartered the picture by cropping it and zooming the sections on four different pages. Then I cut out several pieces and reconstructed the “puzzle” on the canvas, omitting things in the shot I didn’t want.  Essentially, I took out most of the ornateness and left the bare minimum details to suggest a church. Even the crucifix came from a different picture.

The most challenging picture to find was two women sitting in this position. I particularly like how Negativa has her back to Christ and Infinity faces him.

I spent about 3 1/2 hours finishing up this painting on Friday just to stay on schedule and under a week. I usually don’t like spending that much time in one setting, doing any creative project with the possible exception of hand sewing.

This canvas represents the shortest scene between the sisters in the whole manuscript. Negativa tells Infinity how she’s disappointed in her. Infinity is happy about that since she doesn’t want to be a new messiah only to be crucified.

I’m closing in on the end of this painting series; so I’d like to view that encroaching chandelier as the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel–versus the impending train wreck.

Once I put the gooey maple syrup on this tall stack of blueberry pancakes, I craved pancakes!  I used stencils for everything, including the twins. Only challenge was omitting their chairs.  I figure since they are mathematical characters, I could justify having them levitate in a seated position.

In this chapter, Infinity explains how cooking her self-titled “Infinity Pancakes” recipe is simply edible ratios. Negativa only cares about the end result, regardless of the underlying math governing the kitchen chemistry of ingredients.

I have proudly struggled to get all 21 of these paintings in the shot. Yet moving furniture out of the shot just to get them all in while simultaneously not getting the chandelier in the shot means lying on my back at an angle and holding my breath to minimize shaking the camera. Totally worth it as I near the end of this series.

An artist friend described painting #20 as “full and chaotic.” She also said it was her favorite of the series so far.  That one review makes the enormous amount of time spent last weekend on prepping this canvas totally worth it. I was happy it had turned out so decently since I’ve invested a lot of time on other canvases only to concede due to my lack of skills. I believe this canvas demonstrates more than the previous ones how a lack of skill doesn’t mean lack of talent. I’m a talented storyteller. I still need to work on my painting skills.

In this canvas,  I painted two Fibonacci sequences. The first sequence was made from fruit, animals and a palm leaves. The second sequence was in form of a spiral. Negativa subconsciously recreated this numerical pattern. Infinity picks up on it first since Negativa was so involved with gathering materials to make the spiral. Underneath both spirals was a color-coded fractal design, peeping in between the figures.

The twins aren’t in this canvas, thanks to making the stencils too big.  I previously worried how I’d get the perspective correct between the layout of the floral and fauna spiral and the twins. So, without having the women, this canvas was still plenty challenging, but looks far more polished in the end. Hopefully, this will be the only painting where the twins aren’t present. According to painting #19, I’ve become quite good at painting their faces.

Now I’m down to the final four with the wall of 20 complete. I’m amazed how well I endured the cold, windy rain on a small dry-covered patch of my balcony to finish this canvas. I’ll be mostly bundling up for cold weather from here on out.

Up until now, I’ve always had plenty to critique about a newly completed painting. Yet, this canvas, despite whatever flaws my hypercritical eye discerns, makes me so incredibly happy I’ve continued this endeavor. Although the twins mostly look good because I used stencils, the faces are my all mine. And what faces they are! The expressions work; they look like identical twins; their hair is fabulous.

In the beginning, I’d sketched the unknown as a square in the middle of the bottom of the scene. That looked too simplistic. I knew I could step it up a notch. Give a little more motivation for the twins to make such intense eye contact with the unknown, which they’ve encountered in a jungle. They have cautiously approached to assess whether it is food, friend or foe.

Check out the display wall: like a six-year old with a missing a front tooth. The next painting will take its artful place by the close of a week. That’s a promise to both myself and this project. The chilly mornings have arrived. I now have to bundle up in order to paint. My hands must grow numb as I don’t have  a pair of painter’s gloves. Actually, gloves would make my hands feel as if they were in straight jackets and I certainly don’t need any more handicaps in that department.

Initially, I wanted to create a grid for the background with tape. The painting tape had other ideas. I went with it. Although I had no idea what “cyberspace” looked like, those lines reminded me more of sound waves. Yet, I chose a night sky blue with some shooting star action behind Infinity with the palest blue between her and the laptop screen. My favorite part was Negativa sprawling on the keyboard and hanging out.

In this scene, the twins have started their own online business. Infinity refers to it as a dating service, but Negativa cuts through the gloss, seeing it for what it truly is, cyber pimping. Despite Infinity’s insistence that dating algorithms are involved to match people, Negativa counters that rich people will pay for dates with poor people who will consent to sex as part of the date. Additionally, older men with money want much younger partners, male or female, whereas older women with money will date someone plus or minus five years their own age. When Infinity questions her sister about who young people with money will  match up with, Negativa quips that such people don’t need their service.

I’m so excited to close in on the completion of this project. I’d like to start the publishing process at the beginning of 2016–only a year later than I’d originally planned due to finances and finishing these paintings.