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Born 7 June 1935. In 1958 Ralph Martel, studied at Cooper Union graduating with honors in 1962. Worked 1962-68 as graphic artist in NYC. In 1970 he started at the Staten Island Community College. Martel refined the foundation sculpture course Art 150 to include two and three-dimensional design and these were integrated with MAC-CAD programs. In Art 250 & 350 students carve stone, wood pieces or further sculpt forms with TIG welders using solid and transparent silhouettes. These were developed with CAD studies. Art 120, drawing uses rendering techniques and students design with strong photographic chiaroscuro qualities.
In Art 175 "Studio Art, theory and practice" students use geometric ideas to organize their paintings. These concepts were adopted from Albrecht Dürer's publication of the Dresden Sketchbook, 1528. Professor Martel adopted this concept of order to include Phyllotaxis, which is basically leaf arrangement or the laws that govern them. The tendencies of the leaves to grow in a specific manner give patterns to a visual study of natural geometry and open the way for the artist to bring it into focus and exploit a new challenge.
1968, first prize "Experiments in Art and Technology," for "Heart Beats Dust. Shown at MOMA, NYC. The Brooklyn Museum, MOMA, San Francisco and St. Thomas Museum, Houston in Pontus Hulten's "The Machine" The prize was awarded to Martel by Engineers from Bell Laboratories for converting sound into motion by an unusual method. 1990, Mellon Foundation Grant for paper on Albrecht Dürer's "Four Riders of the Apocalypse" at Graduate Center CUNY. 1991-2006 research painter's geometry in 50 paintings. 2001 gave Dürer paper on the Apocalypse at the CADE conference, Glasgow, Scotland. 2003 Drexel University set 5 Dürer papers at mathforum ("what's new" 18 May 2003). 2004 Antonio Natali, Renaissance studio, authorized use of Uffizi Gallery slides of Leonardo da Vinci's "Annunciation" and "Baptism of Christ". 2006 presented "Durer at 13," for middle school geometry teachers and geometric phyllotaxis images from photos of woodlands at Discovery Institute's Technology Conference. Professor Martel exhibited: OIA exhibits in NYC, Staten Island Institute, Westbeth, NYC, from 1970 to present. Beauborg Centre Culture Pompidou, Paris, Sigma Group Bordeaux, Coltejer Bienal, Columbia, S.A., Chancellor's Show, Shanghai, China, Mueso de Anthropologia y Arte, Rio Piedras P.R., 1979 CAPS Fellowship.