Media Gallery: Photos

"The ocean is essential to all," reads a sign written in Korean by calligrapher Myoung-Won Kwon, a resident of Maryland. The artist showcased his craft for visitors at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History during a May 2011 event in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Kwon works on scales small and large; one of his brushes is some four feet tall and he's created one piece that's 150 feet long.

Fitting nine of anything on two fingers is impressive. These gastropods and echinoderms are a teeny-tiny sample of the ocean's biodiversity. The Census of Marine Life estimates that there are at least one million species of plants and animals in the sea. Most of have not been described.

Crinoids (echinoderms related to sea stars and sea urchins) dominate the Paleozoic shallow water habitat in this illustration. They evolved a variety of stalk heights, which enabled them to capture food at different levels above the sea floor. The base of their stalks was modified to anchor the animal securely in the soft sediment. Crinoids were relative skyscrapers in the community, sometimes towering up to two meters (6.5 feet).

Visitors to the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef temporary exhibit at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History saw both the main installation created by to the Institute For Figuring and the stunning Smithsonian Community Reef created by local crafters.