GENESIS -Photomicrograph of crystalline acetaminophen and salicylic acid found in Excedrin. -NEW!
View from the Vashon Studio/Lab
Here on the island, the weather is still pretty chilly, but the longer daylight hours are beginning to reveal subtle signs of the changing season—just look closely and add a dash of wishful thinking.
December was a busy and rewarding month, filled with holiday activities and the Vashon Studio Tour. A sincere thank-you to everyone who visited and shared in that experience.
What’s new for 2026 is that, for the first time in ten years, I’m not beginning the year at the Arizona Fine Art Expo. The timing feels right to realign my business model into something more scalable and sustainable, with the work now fully studio-based. I’m excited about the potential for new collaborations and for reaching new audiences in this next phase.
My monthly newsletters will continue, but LinkedIn has also become a place where I’m sharing new images, experiments, and reflections on art and science. It’s where I’m posting more frequently—continuing the kinds of conversations that used to happen at exhibitions and shows.
Follow me on LinkedIn for recent posts including new photomicrographs, notes on crystallization and color, and behind-the-scenes insights from the studio.
—Lee
Vashon Island · January 2026
CRYSTAL VIOLET -Photomicrograph of crystalline acetaminophen -NEW!
ART AND SCIENCE: Valentine’s Day Red
Humans can perceive over a million colors, yet one has held our attention longer—and more fiercely—than almost any other: red.
The word itself is ancient, appearing in languages before blue, green, or yellow. Early humans painted with red ochre, buried their dead in it, and reserved it for power, ceremony, and devotion. For centuries, kings, cardinals, soldiers, and nobility wore red as a signal of authority and desire.
But the most brilliant reds found in nature proved stubbornly difficult to recreate.
That changed in 1527, when Spanish conquistadors encountered an astonishing red dye in Aztec marketplaces—more vivid and durable than anything Europe had ever seen. The dye, known as cochineal, quickly became one of the most valuable commodities in the world. Spain guarded its source so closely that for more than two hundred years no one in Europe knew whether it came from a plant, a mineral… or something else entirely.
The truth was surprisingly small.
The Aztecs had long known that a tiny insect living on prickly pear cactus—Dactylopius coccus—produced the luminous red when crushed. They domesticated and selectively bred the insects, cultivating entire cactus farms to supply the dye, which was paid as tribute to the Aztec king.
The secret finally unraveled thanks to a wager—and a microscope.
A wealthy scholar named Melchior de Ruusscher became convinced that cochineal was an insect, not a seed as many believed. He gathered affidavits from Mexican growers and examined the material under magnification, presenting his evidence to an independent arbiter. Ruusscher won the bet—and, in a rare gesture, refused the winnings.
It’s a reminder that behind even the most romantic colors lie curiosity, obsession, and careful observation.
Which feels oddly appropriate for Valentine’s Day.
“O, my luve's like a red, red rose,"- Robert Burns
