Ele Willoughby, PhD<p>Mercury, final prompt for <a href="https://spore.social/tags/printerSolstice2425" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>printerSolstice2425</span></a>, made me think of <a href="https://spore.social/tags/alchemy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>alchemy</span></a>. It is an element the alchemists favoured & felt was fundamental in their efforts to transmute base into precious metals, both in western & Chinese alchemy (from whence western alchemy emerged).</p><p>This is my <a href="https://spore.social/tags/linocut" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>linocut</span></a> portrait of an <a href="https://spore.social/tags/alchemist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>alchemist</span></a> known as Master Geng (before ~975, 耿先生; Gěng Xiānshēng, sometimes Kêng Hsien-shêng). 🧵1/n</p><p><a href="https://spore.social/tags/printmaking" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>printmaking</span></a> <a href="https://spore.social/tags/sciart" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>sciart</span></a> <a href="https://spore.social/tags/histsci" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>histsci</span></a> <a href="https://spore.social/tags/womenInSTEM" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>womenInSTEM</span></a> <a href="https://spore.social/tags/MastoArt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MastoArt</span></a></p>