About the
Cover
Jacqueline May, a freelance artist living in Austin, Texas, is inspired by the
beauty she sees in many places, including mathematical illustrations. She gra-
ciously gave us permission to use a reproduction of one of her completed works,
which was photographed by Jeff Rowe, for the cover of this book.
Her painting depicts a Mobius transformation, a topic we present in Section
10 .2. To create the piece (which is 36 inches square), she began with a birch ply-
wood panel and primed it with several coats of acrylic gesso. Then she applied
thln coats of translucent oil paint, which allows the whlte of the gesso to show
through with a pastel coloration. Next, she added extremely thin aluminum leaf,
which creates a reflective surface so that the surrounding environment colors the
artwork significantly. Finally, she reproduced the Mobius t ransformation dia-
gram in cadmium red oil paint using a small brush. A coat of Dorland's wax
medium was applied as a transparent sealer across the entire surface. If you visit
http://www.jacquelinemay.com/images/Mobius.transformationllb.html, you can
view the painting.
Concerning the relation of art to mathematics she states, "A lot of contem-
porary artists are interested in science these days. There is a visual language
that is seen in science and mathematics that has a real beauty, and that calls
out for a poetry to accompany the factual prose that is represented."
We hope that as you read through this book you will indeed find complex
analysis to be a subject that is both intellectually and aesthetically beautiful.
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