This is the second of three paintings, the first being 'The Beginning of Life' and the third being 'The End of Life'. All three depict cut meteorites and show the line pattern present therein. Between the lines in this painting are also gold foil line pattern planes and some contain small images within the plane of memorable places and events in Bert's life as symbols of the life story or 'The Story of Life'.
What is special about these meteorites is that when a cross-section is made through the iron, this produces a beautiful pattern. In iron meteorites this is called a Widmannstätten pattern, after Alois von Widmannstätten. To visualize the Widmannstätten pattern in an iron meteorite, a cross-section must be made through the meteorite, which is then polished and then etched with a mixture of alcohol and nitric acid.
According to some, the meteorites were responsible for the origin of life and for the end of some life forms (dinosaurs).
