Bee Vision and Ultra Violet Photography

Today, I experimented with ultra violet light and learned about how bees see differently than humans.  When humans see, the objects we're looking at absorb and reflect different colors of light from our rainbow.  What we see is the reflected color.  Our vision is limited to seeing red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet light.  When we see white, it's all the colors being reflected by the object.  When we see black, all the colors are being absorbed.

There are types of light that go beyond what we can see with our eyes as humans.  One is called ultraviolet light and it is just past violet on the light spectrum.  Bees can see ultraviolet light.  Here's an interesting video about how bees see:

I decided to try to photograph what a bee might see.  I followed the instructions from the Instructables website on how to build your own UV light filter for a digital camera.  You take a blacklight bulb and break it.  Tape a piece of the blacklight glass it to a bottlecap or ring that fits around the camera lens.  I used the lid to a sea salt grinder and black duct tape.  Here are the instructions:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Photography-in-the-Ultraviolet-spectrum/

Here are some of the results of my photography in the community garden across the street from my house.  I found that the filter on the camera makes it necessary for a very long exposure.  To help solve that issue, I used a tripod, but the wind was blowing the plants and the sun wasn't that bright, so it hard to take the UV photos.  I'll try it again on a day when the conditions are better. If you want a closer view of the photos, just click on them to make them bigger.

Ratha Yatra, Chariot Festival, in Manipur, India

Here is a new video I made to share a special festival called Ratha Yatra that took place in my dad's hometown of Manipur.  We celebrated it when I was there in June.  It was the first time I experienced the holiday and my dad hadn't been in Manipur to celebrate it for more than 30 years.

4th Grade Biography Report - Pele

In 4th grade, my teacher assigned a biography report.  We could choose anyone we wanted to do, and I chose Pele.  I wrote a report and made a poster.  On my poster, I used color pencil, watercolor and sharpies.  In the middle is Pele's portrait wearing his Brazil national team jersey.  In the background are the different teams he played on and other facts about him.  

This is the report I wrote:  

Pele was the greatest soccer player the world has ever seen.  He is from Brazil and he is known for his speed, balance and his hard, accurate shots with both feet.  He is known around the world and he uses his fame for good causes.  I chose to do my report on Pele because I like soccer and I admire him.

Pele was born on October 23, 1940 in Tres Coracoes, a small town in Brazil.  His real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento.  Nobody knows how he got the name Pele, but it started when he was a kid playing soccer.  When he was young, he was poor.  He did not have money for shoes, so he played soccer barefoot.  His neighborhood team was nicknamed, "The Shoeless Ones." 

At age 17, he was the youngest player in World Cup history.  That year, Brazil won the World Cup.  They also won in 1962 and 1970 with Pele leading the team. 

In 1969, Pele scored his 1000th goal.  In the same year, he actually stopped a war!  He went to the Congo, a country in Africa, to play a tournament.  There was a civil war going on and the sides called a truce to see Pele play.  Unfortunately, the war continued after Pele left. 

In 1975, Pele signed a contract with the New York Cosmos for seven million dollars, making him the highest paid athlete in the world at that time.  He said that he did not do it for the money, he wanted to make soccer popular in the USA.  His last game was in 1977.  In his 21 year career, he played 1,363 matches, and scored 1,281 goals. 

After retirement, he used his fame for good reasons.  He became a UNICEF ambassador, helping children around the world.  In 1995, he became Minister of Sports in Brazil.  In 1998, the Pele Law was passed in Brazil, protecting the rights of professional athletes.  He received an International Peace Award in 1980.  In 2000, he was named FIFA Player of the Century. 

I admire Pele because he was an amazing soccer player.  He is also a good man with a good heart.  Pele changed the world by making soccer popular where it was not before.  He is a good role model for other athletes because he uses his fame for good causes.  He is a good role model for kids by being a good sport and playing his best. 

The Periodic Table in Art - Carbon

Carbon is naturally obtained from coal deposits, but is usually process for commercial use.  Two of the many allotropes (different forms) of carbon are graphite (used in pencils) and diamonds (used for fashion objects).  60-70 carbon atoms linked together forms a Buckminsterfullerene, or a "Buckyball.   Its structure looks like a soccer ball, it's made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons, with a carbon atom at each point.  It's named after Buckminster Fuller because its structure looks like his famous geodesic domes. 

My idea for this element was to draw a buckyball, surrounded by the letter C, the abbreviation for Carbon.  The atomic number is surrounded by a diamond, an allotrope of carbon.  I used a graphite pencil to create the artwork, an allotrope of carbon. 

Jean Paul Gaultier Paper Doll

A few weeks ago, I went to the Friday Nights at the deYoung and I saw the exhibit, "The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk."  I thought the exhibit was great, with alot of interesting fashions.  Many looked like they would take a thousand years to make - some of the dresses were made of seed beads in impossible designs.  One of the dresses I really liked looked like the statue of liberty made out of metal.  There were outfits that looked like muscles and skeletons, mermaids and indian chiefs, cheetahs and Chinese warriors.  


Back upstairs, there was the Friday Night art table where kids and adults can make art together.  That day, you could make your own paper doll inspired by Gaultier.  For mine, I made a corset out of thin strips of foam with cloth on top.  Then I used silk flower petals to make a dress and leather strips to make boots.  Then I made a turban out of fine netting.  I'm really proud of it because it looks like something Gaultier might make. 

The Periodic Table in Art - Boron

The element Boron is used in pyrotechnics and flares, it is used to create a green color.  Boron is strong enough to use as a radiation shield in nuclear reactors.  Boron has commercial compounds: one is sodium borate, or borax, which is used in laundry detergent.  It is also a key ingredient in ooblek (see my post about flubbericious gak). 

At first, I wanted to make green fireworks on a white background and then paint the card with a solution of borax and water to make  borax crystals on the surface.   But the Borax did not stick on the paper , so I made the same design on black paper with a silver sharpie and metallic colored pencils. 

National Missing Children's Day Poster Contest

Last school year, my 5th grade teacher told me about National Missing Children's Day and encouraged me to make this poster for their poster contest.  I thought of the idea that there is a storm that represents missing children.  I put question marks in the storm to show that the kids' future is unknown.  On the right, there is a home that is surrounded by sunshine.  The sunbeams are exclamation points.  They show the happiness of coming home.  In the middle, the kids are walking down the path, leading them out of the storm to home.  I want my poster to raise awareness and give hope to families with missing children.

I used watercolor paper with sharpies and liquid watercolor.  Here is a video showing how I made it:

I was awarded "Finalist" for the state of California! 

 

If you want more information on National Missing Children's Day, go to:  www.missingkids.com

The Periodic Table in Art - Beryllium

Beryllium was used in ancient Egypt in jewelry and headdresses.  It is the same mineral compound as emeralds.  Slightly transparent to x-rays, it is used to make windows for the x-ray tubes.  Beryllium can be mixed with copper to make beryllium bronze, which is wear-resistant so it is good to use for mechanical devices.  It has a sugary taste, but it is poisonous. 

I was interested by the fact that beryllium is poisonous if ingested.  Scientists used to taste elements for beryllium because it is sweet, but they did not know that it is actually poisonous.  So, I made a skull and crossbones with the abbreviation for beryllium in its mouth.  The eyes are green sequins because beryllium is the same mineral as emeralds.  My media was paper collage on green cardstock with sequins. 

Flubbericious Gak

This is flubber.  It's a compound made of borax, water and glue.  It's stuck between being a solid and a liquid.  It's called an elastomer or a polymer.  When you mix the ingredients together, the borax reacts with the glue molecules, causing them to link together in long strands.  The molecule strands slide past each other easily, making it flow like liquid, but some of the molecules stick together to form a putty-like material.  


Here's the recipe:  

Mixture #1:
3/4 cups warm water
1 cup white glue (elmer's school glue)
Food coloring or liquid watercolor

Mixture #2:
1/2 cup warm water
2 tsp. borax powder

Stir mixture #1 together in a bowl, and mixture #2 in another bowl. Make sure both are mixed well and the powder has dissolved. Pour mixture #1 into mixture #2. Do not stir. Allow the reaction to happen for a minute and when it all starts to congeal, then gently knead it until most of the water is absorbed.

 This amazing concoction will provide hours of fun, with little mess so long as you keep it off the carpets. clothes and wood surfaces.    Here's a video of my friend Ben and I.  We made a batch of flubber yesterday and had alot of fun with it.  

The Periodic Table in Art - Lithium

The origin of the name Lithium is "Lithos."  In Greek, lithos means "stone."  Lithium is the first metal on the Periodic Table.  It is used to make special glasses and ceramics such as the 200 inch mirror on the Mount Palomar telescope.   Lithium is the lightest metal.  It can be mixed with other metals to manufacture airplanes.

My inspiration for this art was the Greek origin of the name that means stone.  So I decided to use a Greek stone structure or a pillar.  I found the pillar picture in an antique architectural manual.  Then I used an x-acto blade to cut it out.  For the letters, I used the Epilson and photoshopped it to create the letters L and i.  Then I used the letter Sigma for the number 3, but glued it backwards to look like the number.  I used mod podge as the collage medium. 

The Periodic Table in Art - Helium

The name helium comes from the name for the Greek god of the sun, "Helios."

Helium is used to pressurize the fuel tanks of liquid fuel rockets and supersonic wind tunnels.  Helium is commercially recovered from natural gas deposits, mostly from Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.  Helium is used to inflate party balloons and blimps. 

To represent helium, I used a zeppelin, a vehicle that floats using helium with the abbreviation "He" on its side.  In the top left corner, the number 2 is the atomic number and the sun represents the origin of the name helium.  Helium is lighter than air, so I chose vellum paper because it looks very light. 

The Periodic Table in Art - Hydrogen

I've decided to make the Periodic Table of Elements using different art forms to represent each element.  I research an element and then I write notes about its history and uses.  Then I decide what art media I'm going to use for the element, and I try to choose media that helps represent that element.  I'll share them on this blog as I create them.  There are a lot of elements so it might take awhile . . .

Hydrogen

The name hydrogen comes from the Latin base, hydro and genes, or "water forming."  Recognized first by Henry Caverdish in 1766, hydrogen is the simplest and most abundant element in the universe.  Most stars burn hydrogen for "fuel."  Scientists are trying to make cars that run on hydrogen instead of fossil fuels.  Hydrogen can be mixed with oil to make Transfat or with liquid oxygen to make rocket fuel.

For my art, I was inspired by the Greek name, hydro genes, "water forming."  I used waves to represent hydrogen as a part of water.  The stars represent real stars burning hydrogen.  The stars also represent the universe, since hydrogen makes up 90% of the universe.  Keeping the water theme, I used wax resist with watercolor. 

I am the Golden Gate Bridge

In June 2012, the Golden Gate Bridge was having it's 75th Anniversary.  I decided to celebrate by walking across the bridge.  The weather was very windy but sunny and not that cold.   My friend Logan and I walked together.  This is a video I created with stop motion pictures as I walked across the bridge.

The next day, I read some poetry about the bridge.  Two poems were by Joseph Strauss, who was the engineer of the bridge.  When the bridge was finished, he wrote the poems to honor it.  As I read it, it wrote down words that were powerful to me, and then I used them in a poem of my own.

Here is the video I made:

Here are the poems by Strauss:

The Mighty Task is Done

Written upon completion of the building of the Bridge in May 1937

At last the mighty task is done;
Resplendent in the western sun
The Bridge looms mountain high;
Its titan piers grip ocean floor,
Its great steel arms link shore with shore,
Its towers pierce the sky.

On its broad decks in rightful pride,
The world in swift parade shall ride,
Throughout all time to be;
Beneath, fleet ships from every port,
Vast landlocked bay, historic fort,
And dwarfing all--the sea.

To north, the Redwood Empire's gates;
'To south, a happy playground waits,
in Rapturous appeal;
Here nature, free since time began,
Yields to the restless moods of man,
Accepts his bonds of steel.

Launched midst a thousand hopes and fears,
Damned by a thousand hostile sneers,
Yet ne'er its course was stayed,
But ask of those who met the foe
Who stood alone when faith was low,
Ask them the price they paid.

Ask of the steel, each strut and wire,
Ask of the searching, purging fire,
That marked their natal hour;
Ask of the mind, the hand, the heart,
Ask of each single, stalwart part,
What gave it force and power.

An Honored cause and nobly fought
And that which they so bravely wrought,
Now glorifies their deed,
No selfish urge shall stain its life,
Nor envy, greed, intrigue, nor strife,
Nor false, ignoble creed.

High overhead its lights shall gleam,
Far, far below life's restless stream,
Unceasingly shall flow;
For this was spun its lithe fine form,
To fear not war, nor time, nor storm,
For Fate had meant it so.

The Golden Gate Bridge

Written upon completion of the Bridge sometime in 1937

I am the thing that men denied,
The right to be, the urge to live;
And I am that which men defied,
Yet I ask naught for what I give.

My arms are flung across the deep,
Into the clouds my towers soar,
And where the waters never sleep,
I guard the California shore.

Above the fogs of scorn and doubt,
Triumphant gleams my web of steel;
Still shall I ride the wild storms out,
And still the thrill of conquest feel.

The passing world may never know
The epic of my grim travail;
It matters not, nor friend or foe –
My place to serve and none to fail.

My being cradled in despair,
Now grown so wondrous fair and strong,
And glorified beyond compare,
Rebukes the error and the wrong.

Vast shafts of steel, wave-battered pier,
And all the splendor meant to be;
Wind-swept and free, these, year on year,
Shall chant my hymm of Victory!

Balmy Alley Abstractions

Balmy Alley is off 24th Street in the Mission District.  It has a large collection of murals painted on the walls and garage doors that line the alley. 

Yesterday, I went to Balmy Alley and I took abstract photos of the murals on the walls.  I was thinking about interesting shapes and colors to make interesting compositions in the photos.  I wanted the the photos to look like abstract paintings. 

Here's me and Michael Jackson!

Cartoon Workshop with Sirron Norris

Sirron Norris is a famous cartoonist from San Francisco.  He's made murals and he has art classes for children in his studio.  He also created the backgrounds for Bob's Burgers, a comedy animation on TV. Sirron's name is a palindrome!

I went to Potrero library for a drawing workshop with Sirron.  He showed us how to draw expressions in faces - happy, sad, tired, mad, and "who farted?"  I learned some new techniques on how to do faces.  Here are my drawings from yesterday:  My favorite is "Mr. Pear."  

 

Here's a picture of me at Sirron's mural in Balmy Alley.  

We Love Nature!

I was at my grandmother's house at Lake Tahoe this past week with my cousins.  We made a nature video.  My mom showed us a video with stop motion animation using stones by an artist named Jan Svenkmajer.  We were completely surrounded by nature in the mountains and we thought that it would be great to make a video that shows that nature can do amazing things.

We collected sticks, pinecones, pine needles, leaves and rocks from outside my grandmother's house.  We showed each other what we gathered and then we brainstormed ideas about what we could do with those pieces of nature in a stop motion video.  Then, we teamed up with two people working together to make short animations using the objects we collected.  While the others were waiting for their turn, we wrote poems about nature.  Then we took the short clips and put them in iMovie.  We recorded our poems and added it to our animations.  We then added some music and titles.  Here is what we made:

Here is the video that inspired us: