BUCKETS OF OXYGEN, BUCKETS OF LOVE |
Bree Zhang

“ ‘Buckets of Oxygen, Buckets of Love’ features red blood cells with hemoglobin workers carrying four buckets of oxygen (similar to four globin chains) with the iron (Fe) of each chain represented by the iron buckets. These workers act as “heme” by binding to oxygen in the lungs and carrying it to tissues in the rest of the body. I wanted to humanize these red blood cells as parents of our body who work hard to provide us the energy and life for us to flourish, often breaking their backs under the weight of heavy burdens to give their children’s body the best chance at life.”

Bree Zhang (she/hers) is a second-year dental student at Columbia College of Dental Medicine and serves as President for the Class of 2026 and the American Public Health Association (APHA) Oral Health Section Student Liaison. Zhang graduated from Brown University and has given a TedXBrownU talk on tackling the interdisciplinary nature of dentistry through art, music and psychology. As an artist, Zhang's medical-inspired artwork has been featured in Columbia Global Consortium of Climate Health Student Perspectives and Brown Journal of Medical Humanities. As a musician, Zhang has formerly performed five times in Carnegie Hall and two times in the Metropolitan Museum, and she is exploring ways to implement music therapy into medical and dental settings to decrease patient fear and anxiety.

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