Ralphy Young
Ralphy Young
Ralphy Young was raised a cowboy east of Lincoln, NE. When not in school or riding rodeo, he would help his dad work in the family floor covering and tile store. Ralphy was admitted to the University of Nebraska at the age of 15 and fell headfirst into the study of geoscience, math, physics, and literature. He served seven years on the Woods Brothers Foundation for Giving, six years on the Y.M.C.A. Camp Kitaki committee of Management and was a volunteer local and reginal science fair judge. He is now a retired real estate appraiser and broker, finally able to create the works he has always dreamed of. The only pieces of his kinetic mobile art ever placed for public sale are found exclusively at the LUX Center for the Arts.
Each of the indoor kinetic mobile art works is unique in design. Metal or composite wings are suspended on brass or annealed steel wire so they may turn, spin, and rearrange on brass or titanium swivels in currents of air. The result is a sculpture that changes itself not so unlike the ever-expanding universe. That was not enough for me, so I added a mysterious feature in hopes that my art could be pondering the dark as well as the light. The wings are covered in a phosphoric luminescent film. The crystals of phosphor lay upon each other in what is termed a lattice, or in each application the stacking habit. The shape of each single molecule affects the release of the glow from the wings. This glow is electrons going higher away from the wings in an ever-increasing elongated orbit. The process is a mystery. For this to happen, the mobile needs to be placed where it can absorb light. It takes only a few minutes for this to be done. Once the material has taken in all the light it can hold, this is called the meta stable state and it will pull in no more electrons. This material will last for many years and is extremely reliable in its glow quality. This is not a toy, so please keep it out of the reach of children and pets.
