NEWS FROM THE STUDIO/LAB:
Seals, otters, dolphins, and bald eagles are just a few of my new neighbors here at the studio/lab on Vashon Island. It's certainly a special place for connecting with nature and getting into the creative flow.
While connecting with the local wildlife, I'm also connecting with the surrounding artist community and have arranged for my first local exhibit on August 2 at the Wine Shop Vashon as part of the First Friday Art Walk series here on the island.
Cheers!
Lee
Vashon Island -June and July 2024
A NEW INSTALLATION! I'm pleased to announce that "Hopes and Dreams," a photograph of phenylethylamine crystals from chocolate, has recently been included in the permanent art collection at the newly remodeled Eldorado High School library (see artist's rendition above) in Las Vegas, NV.
GRAVITY'S RAINBOW -Photomicrograph of crystalline phenylethylamine found in chocolate.
ART AND SCIENCE: FIFTY SHADES OF GREEN
As spring turns into early summer here in the Northwest, the new growth of the forests and meadows reflects an endless spectrum of green. Nature seems to have no limit to the number of shades on her palette with which to inspire us.
For artists, shadings of chlorophyll offer no such option, but one blue-green pigment called verdigris, was in use by artists since antiquity. Composed of crystalline copper acetate, it can be formed by exposing copper plates to an acid environment. Scrape the crystals off the copper add a little linseed oil and when applied to the canvas it was a lovely shade of bluish green.
Alas, as Cennino Cennini wrote of verdigris in his 15th-century how-to treatise on painting "It is beautiful to the eye, but it does not last." Verdigris has a distinct tendency to react with other pigments and discolor. The prophecy of Cennini's words is evident in the works of multiple Late medieval and Renaissance paintings where summer greenery has sadly faded to autumnal brown.
Verdigris eventually fell out of favor, replaced by other green pigments along the way. One of the later entries into the field of green was "Scheele's Green," a lovely shade that not only found a home in painter's studios but also found its way into homes as fabrics and wallpaper. Manufactured by a process of combining copper with arsenic, by the mid-1800s between 500 and 700 tons of Scheele's Green were being made each year in Britain alone to satisfy public demand. Unfortunately, a six-inch square piece of wallpaper contained enough arsenic to kill two adults. Arsenic poisoning cases rose dramatically and the demand for Scheele's Green dropped accordingly.
In a final bit of questionable judgment, a book entitled Shadows from the Walls of Death published in 1874 to warn of the dangers of arsenic-pigmented wallpapers, contained 86 samples of the highly toxic decor. Hardly a best seller, only five of the original 100 copies printed have survived, as most were destroyed by the recipient libraries due to their toxicity.
"It’s not easy being green."
~ Kermit the Frog
Wallpaper sample containing Scheele's Green
