Finding my way back to art after deciding not to do art as a career has been interesting. Even if trying to do art full-time depresses me, I still have an inherent need to create. I feel much better when I regularly take the time to express myself visually.

If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.

After completing undergrad in Florida, I had the task of moving to upstate New York for grad school. This entailed going through the many art pieces, sketchbooks, and journals that I had made throughout the years. This process elicited emotions ranging from confusion (so much of what I wrote/drew was nonsensical) and disgust (or borderline disturbing) to inspiring. It’s a strange feeling to inspire yourself from the past.

Focusing on the pieces that uplifted me instead of making me cringe, I have collected them onto an Art page and will describe my artistic journey here.

It’s been a wild journey since I wrote about my experience of deciding to switch from art to a physics career, and since recapping on my first semester of undergrad in 2020. Undergrad was very busy. It felt like I had just started to get into the swing of things, but then we were hit with the Coronavirus pandemic, and my university joined the vast majority in the country to switch to completely remote learning for a semester, then to hybrid, and then back to in-person.

Once I decided that physics was the path for me, the implication of that meant getting a PhD. The process of applying and getting accepted into a graduate physics program was demanding, but rewarding.

During the pandemic, I took advantage of the remote learning to take an electrical engineering internship. I worked on projects for the Department of Defense, and then got a summer internship in Colorado to work on a physics research project for CERN. Later, during senior year, I did a plasma simulation project to investigate the mysterious weather phenomenon, ball lightning.

It was a very productive four years. After graduating, I moved from Florida to upstate New York for graduate school at Univeristy of Rochester. Currently being on winter break in-between semesters feels like the perfect time to recap on my undergrad research projects here.

The last few months have highlighted our need for community. Despite the availability of technology and the ability to easily communicate to whomever and whenever we please, we live in an age of loneliness, where many people feel like they have few people (or even no one) that they can rely on for emotional support.

Social distancing has been a catalyst of personal growth for many of us as quarantine forced us into solitude and a period of self-reflection. It was the pause button on the busy-ness of everyday life that was uncomfortable, but needed. Empty grocery store shelves broke the illusion of infinite abundance, and alerted us to the fragility of modern society. After only a month of reduced transportation, city air and waterways got noticeably clearer.

These experiences seem to say, “You are not in this alone.”

Your actions are inexorably linked to every other person and living thing on the planet.

In the absence of being able to socialize, I realized how much I took it for granted. I realized all the people I wished I had reached out to and met when I had the chance before my university went online. I also remembered the times in which I was in need of help, desperate for community support but felt so alone.

During quarantine, I was learning about lightning and came across the term “Corona Discharge.” It is a luminous effect when an electric field causes charged particles to radiate from a conductive surface. If the electric field grows strong enough, or if the conductive object is brought close enough, this charge can arc between objects, as shown here.

The lesson from Corona is clear: If you want community, you have to reach out!

Similarly, we need to bridge gaps between perspectives.

We are facing many challenges that simply cannot be addressed in isolation. To the contrary, many of our problems arose from isolated thinking—from thinking that the isolated actions of one corporation, or of one person—doesn’t affect others. Now we know better.

The two main issues I will touch on are Black Lives Matter and the environment.

Interactive Sierpinski Triangle

I am deeply inspired by fractals. They seem to represent the convergence of beauty and logic. In addition to being fun to play with, I love undertaking the challenge of understanding the math that they represent.

I made the following four interactive fractals using JavaScript and HTML5 Canvas, and you can play with them on the code-snippet showcasing website CodePen.

Click the fractal you want to interact with:

The fractal code is based on the tutorials presented by Coding Math.

Math Visualization Resources

As I continue to explore math, I notice how I feel lost when I cannot visualize what is happening. However, when there are visualizations available, I find them incredible. The following are resources that I’ve been using as I start my math education journey.

I’ve just concluded my first semester at technical university pursuing math and physics undergraduate degrees after a palm reader suggested this as a potentially more fulfilling career path for me than art.

When I graduated from high school and community college six years ago, I was certain that I would never want to return to academics. However, since starting school, I am pleasantly surprised to discover that I fit in perfectly! I’ve never felt more at ease and confident in my career direction before.

Are you as surprised as I am?

I enjoy my classes, and often seek additional learning resources outside of class. It feels like a long period of frustration and confusion is finally at a close.

Even still, this was the hardest semester I’ve ever had. The following are two projects that I worked on.

Red Tide Research Project

Much of my work this semester went to my technical writing class. The bulk of the class involved group work, organizing 1-3 group meetings a week, all awhile researching an approved topic. Our topic was red tide.

Red tide is a kind of microorganism that proliferates so rapidly that it turns seawaters red. It is a kind of harmful algae bloom that produces dangerous toxins that can affect respiratory and nervous systems.

When red tide is in bloom, the toxins it creates become airborne via sea spray. If inhaled, these toxins cause respiratory problems. If fish that have been contaminated with red tide are accidentally ingested, these toxins can cause Paralytic Shellfish Posioning, and can be fatal.

Of course, humans aren’t the only animals affected by red tide. It can cause massive fish kills, also kill marine mammals and birds, and can devastate any ecosystem in its wake.

When red tide affects an area, beaches are closed. It disrupts an area’s economy by negatively affecting tourism, fishing, and recreational industries. Red tide is a complex problem that negatively impacts public health, the ecosystem, and local economies.

My goal with this project as team leader was to create a report that would be useful: something that could even be referenced by people working on addressing red tide.