Alfred Jensen was an avid researcher of many subjects: number systems, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s color theory, William Shakespeare’s language, topics in physics from electromagnetism to fluid mechanics. His notes took the form of small drawings, which he described as “diagrams” and pinned all over his walls. This painting diagrams the artist’s study of planetary magnetic fields, a circuit made by electrical currents at a planet’s core. Notice how the central form resembles a household battery. Jensen used the language of shape and color, circle and square, black and white, to chart life’s cycles.