When John Hostler wrote his book, my number 46605 became a possible area for a work of Art. The number might not have had any history as an area prior to that. But, I suspect the number 46605 does have more history than that; perhaps even prior to the invention of the Decimal.

I have not said this before, that the number is the dimensions of the painting in inches because I thought it was a no brainer. I thought of no other interesting composition content for a large painting than it’s dimensions.

I purchased the canvas from a sail maker in Santa Cruz. After calculating some possible dimensions, I picked 46×60.5 because the number looked pleasing and sounded nice. Looking at the back of the work, there is more canvas pulled around the stretcher bars in one dimension indicating that the canvas might be for a size taller than forty-six inches. I used that extra canvas on the back of the painting for my signature: Jeff Devitt UCSC instructor Kacy Kladget.

I was taking a rigorous Philosophy sequence of classes that year, and UC Santa Cruz had John Hostler’s book at the college library. I did not see it, however, until after I painted.

If it is any interest to the reader, there were some studies, one in particular that was used for the painting; but, those studies were thrown away by my father. I looked for them in 1993 among my portfolio stuff and they were missing.

In prior posts I’ve mentioned the art supplies. Try the 46605 link at the bottom of this post if the reader is only interested in the painting.