MuralElements
Over 40 aspects of science and technology were skillfully depicted including:
Albert Einstein The Elder:
A Nobel Laureate who proposed the theory of relativity. Part of which says that the energy contained in a material is equal to the mass of that material times the square of the speed of light. (E=mc2) This theory has had a profound impact on the fields of atronomy and nuclear physics.
Albert Einstein the Child:
Einstein's theory of relativity suggests that time is the fourth dimension and that space (which includes time) is warped by heavy masses. Thus two observers viewing the same object at the same time from different parts of the universe might note that the same object looks different. One observer might see Einstein as a child while another as the elder.
The Solar System:
Our home planetary system
Child's Top:
Stands up as long as it is spinning fast. As it slows it will begin to fall over, but because it is a gyroscope it does not fall right over; instead, it will begin to wobble in a comic motion that gets bigger and bigger until its sides hit the ground.
Rocket Car:
Rocket cars have been the dream of science-fiction for years, but few have been built for public use, because their exhaust is very hot and dangerous. However special purpose vehicles exist. The land speed record is held by a rocket powered car built in England.
Robots:
Robots have been adream of Science-Fiction for a century. Yet today robots are no longer dreams, they exist in many forms. No automobile factory could produce affordable cars today without them.
Sundials:
Sundials are ancient devices for telling time. They were used in Ancient Greece and were not replaced as the primary means for telling time until the 18th century when clocks became common.
Violin:
The Violin is the most melodic of the stringed instruments. Higher frequency notes are made by the thinner strings or by changing the length of the strings by pressing them against the fingerboard.
Pictographs:
A pictograph is a picture form of writing. Egyptian hieroglyphics is an advanced form of a pictographic language. Before people had alphabets and written languages they recorded meaningful events in their lives by painting pictures on rocks or cave walls. For example, in some Indian cultures, the hand print can mean this is my land or this land and I are one.
Marie Curie:
Pictured in the middle 1890's before she and her husband Pierre discovered Radium and Polonium. Curie was the first woman recognized with a Nobel Prize in physics (in 1904). She later was awarded a second in Chemistry in 1911. My papa's sister Taunt Odette was a scientist who studied with Madam Curie. The first portrait I did of her was as a young lady in her twenties. The thought was to encourage young people to greatness. In the end, I could not bring into focus the source photo I had and switched to a photo of Madam Curie at work, which really made better sense.
Mustard Plants:
There is an old story about how the mustard plant came to the California Coastal area. In the 17th century there was a group of Spanish missionaries exploring the California coast in hopes of settling there. They used mustard seeds to create a trail for the settlers as they progressed up the coast. The mustard seed germinated and over the years the plants have spread over most of the coastal area.
Fossils, Nautilus, Pre-historic Flying Reptile:
Fossils give us a clue to the past. Paleontologists put the fossil together to show us what a dinosaur and prehistoric animals looked like. The plant fossils give us an idea what lypes of plants were living when the dinosaurs were living.
DNA:
DNA is also know as Deoxyribonucleic Acid. It contains the genetic information that determines much of what we are and what we look like. It has two complimentary strands of nucleotides linked by a disulfide bond and twisted together.
Straw Lamas (clones):
With the help of genetic research, we are able to uncover the genetic information for some organisms. We are able to copy and paste genetic information to either change the organism or make another one just like it. With the help of genetic engineering, we are able to create seedless watermelon, disease resistant plants and the famous cloned sheep, which have engendered great moral and ethical controversy.
Humming Birds:
Humming birds are known for their rapid flight. Their strong wing beat is so rapid that it creates a hum. Which accounts for their common name.To move away from flowers, humming birds must fly backwards, and they are the only birds capable of this maneuver.
Bees:
Like the Hummining bird the bee feeds on nectar and pollen found in flowers. Unlike the humming bird the bee is a primary agent in the fertilization of plant life and cross-pollination.
Butterflies:
The metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly has fascinated children, poets and philosophers for thousands of years. It is a living metaphor for the potential of nature and humankind.
Pin Wheel:
Pin wheels illustrate that air has mass, and when air moves it will exert a force on anything that impinges on it. This child's toy illustrates that the wind can be
used to provide rotary motion. Windmills employ the same principle as a pin wheel.
Rain Drops:
Water is essential to life on Earth and maybe essential to life anywhere in the Universe. Water naturally cycles between its three states (liquid, vapor and ice) in what is known as the Water Cycle. Liquid evaporates, falls back to the earth on land and drains back to the oceans and the cycle repeats.
Rock Out-Cropping:
Rock out-cropping of this type are common to the Conejo and Pleasant Valleys. The content and thickeness of each layer reflects the conditions of the sea when that layer was deposited. Many fossilized shells and skeletons are embedded in the rock. The study of these rocks by scientist have revealed the nature of life in the seas millions of years ago.
Freedom International Space Station:
It has been man's dream for thousands of years to be free of the earth. He has accomplished this dream by flight in an aircraft and in near earth space travel. We have even put men on the moon for short periods.These however, are but tiny steps when compared to manned planetary or interstellar travel. The space station will provide a permanent space laboritory in which we can work out many of the necessary techniques needed for extended space tavel.
Bostrychocera Fossil:
Bostrychocera is a prehistoric snail like sea animal that probably floated In the open ocean and fed on other smaller animals. Its fossils have been found globally.
Molecule:
Chemistry is the study of how atoms combine to form molecules and how molecules interact with one another to form new molecules. Oxygen has two molecules. More complex molecules as found in organic compounds may contains many tens of atoms.
Feather:
Feathers are horny outgrowth of skin peculiar to birds but similar in structure and origin to the scales of fish and reptiles and analogous to the hair of mammals. Feathers serve as protection against water and cold, as an aid in flight, and as sex differentiators.
Children of Different Races:
Human beings all appear to be descendent from a single original being and are biologically extremely similar. Over many thousands of years, people have evolved minor differences that made them more adaptable to the conditions in which they lived.
Lightning:
Thunder storms develop very electrostatic charges, sometimes many milions of volts. The discharge heats the air in its path to such a degree that a near vacum, is created. When the discharge stops, air rushes back into the discharge path and is heard as thunder.
Ice Crystal / Snowflake:
A snowflake is composed of many transparent ice crystals each formed around dust or other small particles in the atmosphere. Crystals of snow always occur in hexagonal forms, each crystal has a unique shape that depends upon the atmospheric conditions during formation The large number of reflecting surfaces of the crystal make snow appear to be white.
Vibrations:
Everything in the Universe vibrates. Ocean currents send waves lapping on a sandy beach and air currents cause the rippling of clouds. Research has shown that specific vibrations create equally specific geometric patterns in dense molecules such as water.
Microscope:
The microscopes ability to magnify very small objects opened a new field of scientific investigation. Dutch optician Zacharias Janssen
invented the compound microscope in 1590. Fifty years later, German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher used a microscope to investigate the causes of disease. In 1683 Anton Von Leeuwenhoek invented an improved microscope and found living organisms in the calculus scraped off his teeth, thus pioneering the germ theory of disease. In 1834, a London wine merchant and optician, Joseph Jackson Lister, using an improved microscope, was the first to ascertain the true form of red corpuscles in mammalian blood. In the mural, I included lightning and wreaths of leaves (inspiration) reflected in the mirror of the microscope as though "love was being studied through the light of inspiration."
Indian Jar:
The Chumash Indians who were native to the Congejo Valley ranged along the west coast from north of San Franscisco to Mexico. We have learned much about their culture from objects such as this Indian jar.
Snake:
Snakes have been used symbolically for thousands of years. They are mentioned in the bible several times, once in the garden of Eden then later coiled on Moses' staff. They appear on the symbol for medicine as well. The snake in this mural is coiled in the symbol of infinity (a figure eight laid on its side) perhaps to signify the infinily of the universe and time.