SHANGRI-LA -Photomicrograph of crystalline phenylethylamine (found in chocolate) -NEW!
View from the Vashon Studio/Lab
Summer on the island was idyllic, with moderate temperatures and frequent visits from the resident deer, eagles, and osprey. The view across Puget Sound revealed porpoises, orcas, seals, and—quite spectacularly—a gray whale that surfaced directly in front of my studio, close enough that I could hear it exhale.
Many thanks to all the fine folks who attended my presentation at Swiftwater Gallery during September’s First Friday Art Walk. A large and enthusiastic crowd came to learn about my crystal photography process and the journey that led me from research scientist to artist.
With fall bringing cooler weather and shorter days, I’ve been able to devote some quality time to writing and producing my book, Crystallizations—A Photographic Journey into Hidden Worlds. I recently submitted a test copy to the printer featuring a selection of images chosen to evaluate color, detail, paper quality, and the overall design. Seeing the book move from an idea, through the writing process, and now into page design has been exciting and very gratifying.
I hope to have a limited first edition of 100 signed and numbered copies available for the upcoming holiday season. Stay tuned for more information.
— Lee
Vashon Island · September 2026
Explore the Chocolate Collection
Shangri-La and Rest Bay were both created from phenylethylamine, a compound found naturally in chocolate. Although they began with the same substance, each crystallization produced an entirely different hidden world.
Visit the Chocolate Collection to discover more of these unexpected landscapes and see the available sizes and print options.
REST BAY -Photomicrograph of crystalline phenylethylamine (found in chocolate) -NEW!
ART AND SCIENCE: The Greenest of Greens
The human eye can distinguish millions of different colors, which is really quite astounding. But when I read about the recent discovery of a brand-new color by researchers at UC Berkeley, I had to take a much closer look.
Published in April 2025, the study detailed how Berkeley scientists produced what has been described as the “greenest of greens.” They named the color “olo,” and so far it has been seen by only a small number of people in the laboratory. Those who have seen it describe it as a highly saturated teal or peacock green—a green next to which all other greens pale by comparison.
How the scientists produced the color is where the study gets interesting. First, it helps to recall a little eyeball physiology.
We distinguish those millions of colors using light-sensitive receptor cells in the retina called cones. They come in three types: L, M, and S, referring to the long, medium, and short wavelengths of light to which they are most sensitive. The M cones are primarily associated with our perception of green.
The sensitivities of the three cone types overlap, however. As Austin Roorda, a professor of optometry and vision science at UC Berkeley, explains, there is no light in nature that stimulates only the M cones. Whenever they are activated, the L and S cones are stimulated to some degree as well.
So the researchers asked an intriguing question: What would happen if they fired laser light beams directly into their eyeballs aimed precisely so as to activate thousands of M cones without stimulating the other two types? Would the result be perceived as the greenest of greens?
Using an optical system called Oz, they delivered tiny pulses of laser light directly to selected M cones.
The answer was yes.
Like most successful experiments, this one raised new questions. How, for example, was the brain able to perceive a color it had never encountered before? Much research remains to be done, but that hasn’t stopped one artist from hopping aboard the olo bandwagon.
British artist Stuart Semple previously created the “blackest black” and “pinkest pink” in response to artist Anish Kapoor obtaining exclusive artistic rights to Vantablack, a superblack material developed in a laboratory.
Semple now claims to have synthesized the experience of seeing olo and made it available to artists worldwide. He calls his version YOLO—short for “Your OLO.”
He readily acknowledges that YOLO is not the same as firing a laser into your eyeball, but says it is as close as you will ever get with paint. Since the experience cannot be photographed or reproduced on a screen, we will apparently have to take his word for it.
Listed at $11,281.99, YOLO is currently available for the remarkably generous price of $33.99, plus shipping.
Be sure to get yours while supplies last.
From the Newsletter Archive
Want to learn more about the art and science of green? Who doesn’t, right?
Take a look at “Fifty Shades of Green” from the Newsletter Archive. You’ll find this and many other Art and Science favorites under the News tab on my website.
