Publishing

Several years ago, I took my first steps in researching the art conservation field and discovered the three excellent programs that offer training. That same week I received an email from a former art history professor regarding a colleague from one of those very schools in need of a part-time assistant. Though I did not fully realize it at the time, this fortuitous event has given me an unparalleled opportunity to study art history while working alongside this paramount historian who besides a great scholar is most importantly a supportive mentor and friend.

One project mostly during the summer of 2010 was organizing, researching , and surveying the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection for a themed gift book, on "Metropolitan Couples."  My labors were credited on the title page, and with my first introduction to the publishing world I couldn't be happier with its release this fall.

A Maker

Me As Printmaker
I have never identified myself as an artist. The title is too loaded for me to attempt to live up or live down.

When I was a child my nickname originated, as with most family sobriquets, from my toddler sister's inability to pronounce my name. So I responded to Eekey or variations of Eekie, Eekster, or even Eakaline. With an early dislike of overly aggressive sports, I would say, "Eakey is not sports, Eakey is art." (Clearly 'I was not grammar. ')

I have always found myself with the desire to create and build and much of my youth was happily spent among weed forts, making clothes for my fashion deprived cats and digging mud castle masterpieces. As an adult, I've found myself fulfilling this desire in other ways, cooking or baking, decorating, yearly handmade Christmas cards and Halloween costumes.


But after the excitement and joy of making each piece I was saddened that this was no longer a major part of my day and how much I missed making. While a studio art major, I recall great pleasure in sitting and visually imagining and planning projects. I enjoy a great sense of physical empathy to my work and a tactile connection with what I see. During a yearly volunteer project where I design and paint murals for city schools I've noticed a loss of the physical in young generations. With many digital art devices many will not know the feel of the paper as their hand wraps around the waxed crayon and its soft contact stippelling color over the page. I recall a recent exhibit at the MoMA, Talk to me, where it was noted that babies imediately look for buttons to engage in a new object and even grasp magazines and attempt to manipulate them as if an ipad.

This Spring I am very happy that I have enrolled in classes at the Art Students League and eagerly awaiting to see what projects will come to life.

Ethics and stuff

In the current market the word Intern is now synomonous with abused. There are a lot of issues I face daily with the demands of the field and not just with the irony of the life as a professional intern.

In blogging about my pursuits in conservation I want to focus on my experiences as an intern and the problems and successes in my long journey in this career. But it is also essential to respect the privacy of the projects that I work on which is why, as you may have noticed, I do not show treatments or even give specific names and description of materials. Ethics in conservation is very important and at times subtle, I would not want something that I wrote, especially at such a junior level, be taken differently from its intent.

There of course are publications where this information can be shared. The AIC conference is a few weeks away and all of the conservators are in a buzz to go learn what is new, network and see former classmates and colleagues.

Currently I am scheduling my summer with a branching of opportunities and decisions. I have been applying for other summer internships which are usually unpaid which is fine with me as long as they are educational, but do pose a problem if the company is private for profit. Previously the Internship Director at my school tried to tell me that an internship I had was in violation with labor laws and to be in compliance with this I must register and pay tuition to the school even if it is just  for one credit. Yes, there are labor laws, but they are there to protect me not force me to hand over my very limited money to a college that is not providing anything in return for this tuition.

I interviewed last week and was offered a position in a major NY institution that is private, but receives excessive public funding. As a essential government agency they are very focused on insuring that my free employment is not a legal issue and are requiring proof of the credit or possibly a letter from an academic adviser. What is the purpose of having labor laws to protect interns when even a government agency can find loopholes. This abuse of free labor is a growing problem that needs to stop somewhere. I, unfrotunately, will have to decline the position for financial reasons, but mostly because I fear it will not be as education as other opporunties. There are several summer programs that are promising, but unfortunately the one that I am most interested in for its location, impressive staff and educational opportunity in paper, comes with a very generous stippend,  making it extremely competitive especially to a pre-program student such as myself.

Public Art Private Studio

 In January 2011 I started my internship in the private conservation studio in Chelsea. The owners previously worked under Marco Grassi, a conservator of master paintings ,and started their own company together upon his retirement. I was very excited to have the opportunity for hands on experience in painting under such impressive conservators.
On my first day I walked in and after instruction immediately began working on the fill of a WPA painting. Much of the work in the studio is 20th century painting from galleries and art dealers, but they also receive large contracts for mural projects. The first of which was a WPA mural consisting of several canvas panels that had to be removed from the soon to be demolished public school's walls. The work  from the 1930's depicts the evolution of western civilization and has taken the studio over a year to complete.With the various panels I would later come to work on all steps of the conservation treatment.
Waxed paper was removed from the facing and loose pain chips secured first with beeswax. The surfaces later cleaned with xeline, then saturated with BEVA, and lined with a new canvas. We filled the loss with Flugger or Motostuc later sanding and cleaning to be perfectly level for the in-painting. There are several interns and we have created a bit of an army each tackling a panel and making it their own conservation project under the head conservators careful instruction.
Another contract the firm received is for murals from City Hall. The pieces of canvas were removed from the wall and testing showed the presence of lead paint merged with the plaster on the back. A special enclosing structure was built in the studio to contain the lead and attired in body suits, gloved and masked we carefully chipped and scraped away the layers of lead paint. The murals are now being cleaned lined, filled and in painted by the assistant conservators for installation early this summer.

Me dressing in protective gear in preparation to entering the Lead Chamber seen in the background.

Private Conservation is much different than Museum conservators. There is a balance between the clients budget, time constraint and insuring the financial success of the company. There is also little time for historical research and there is a focus on making treatment time most effective. In all of my internships I have a respect for a sense of confidentiality, which I feel is even more stressed in private practice.

MoMA Glitter

One day in late December 2010, I received two phone calls, one from a private conservation studio offering me an internship in painting conservation and later a request for a phone interview from Michael Duffy of the Museum of Modern Art.
Though I had already accepted the position in the private studio in Chelsea, I simply could not turn down the offer from MoMA. I would later come to hear the term MoMA glitter, the sparkle given to anything associated with the institution whether person, resume or even art. After previous internships of glorified filing, I was a little worried that an institution such as this would be limiting of what interns where allowed to handle, I consulted Steve Obanion, a former MoMA intern, and my tour guide at Winterthur, who reassured me that MoMA was a wonderful experience. He wasn't wrong.

I was immediately impressed with the organization as a whole and believe I am very fortunate in this opportunity. I along with another intern, Jihyun Choi a recent graduate in paper conservation, work with conservators on a large scale project and I have also been given a small object for treatment. The large scale project is made of non-traditional materials and we recently met with the very forthcoming artist to discuss his unique medium and technique.

A major aspect of my time at MoMA is the range of skill of those with whom I work. Besides awing experiences with head conservators, Lynde Zycherman and Michael Duffy, Roger Griffin offers wonderful guidance and supervision on my independent project while I also work closely with Fellow Anne Grady and 4th year NYU graduate student intern Jennifer Hickey. While Grady, Hickey, Choi and I work off-site on a large scale project they are able to offer guidance and advice on adhesives, graduate schools and conservation concepts. It is reassuring to see my peers who are near or recently graduated working in the profession who also have a contemporary input of the demands of the field. Despite being the lowest on the conservation totem pole my opinion and judgment is valued and I am treated as part of the team.

Besides my time in the Conservation Department, the internship program organizes weekly meetings to the other exhibits or projects of the museum. My only downside of my time here, is that it is not enough. Between another internship and a part time job with Dr. Colin  Eisler I wish I could spend every day at MoMA and for much longer than 3 months. Hopefully one day I'll return, but for now I love the sparkle ignited when I say, "I'm a MoMA intern." Yes, there is the prestige of the name, but MoMA glitter exists because it truly is an illuminating place.

Guggenheim

 I initially began working for the Guggenheim in the visitor services department, but later was accepted as an intern in the Conservation Department under Carol Stringari. The Guggenheim's Conservation Department is not housed in the fifth avenue museum know for its spiraled architecture, but on Manhattan's frontier. In west midtown near 12 avenue a hidden door is nestled amongst taxi mechanics, the hot dog vendors grungy headquarters and even an abandoned gentlemen's club. The location is understandably kept secret, but very few would imagine that behind this dingy unmarked door is the center of so many beautiful works and the custodians who strain to keep them safe and presentable.

Warps and Weft: A Summer at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine

 

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine towers over Morningside Heights, its gothic granduer and castellated grounds create a magical sanctuary in Manhattan's Upper West Side. The Cathedral Complex houses a biblical garden, ivory peacocks, a "unique" sculpture of Michael defeating Lucifer and in a neo-classical buidling the textile conservation laboratory.  In 1954 the church was given a generous gift of a 17th century Italian tapestry series. St. John's  has a long history, the land was bought from a orphanage in 1887 and after years of postponements from economic depression, World Wars and fire, it is still unfinished. On the right transcept arm still stands the orphanage, the oldest building in the neighborhood now historic, will not likely be torn down. It now houses the Tapestry and Textile Conservation Laboratory. 

As a resident of the neighborhood I was familiar with the Cathedral and after writing an email to the Director, Marlene Edelheit, I was thrilled to be offered my first internship in conservation. Looking back this was a very important step for me. After many rejections and dead ends I quickly discovered that internship positions for pre-program students, those students who are applying for graduate programs, tends to be a Catch-22. Most graduate schools require at least a year of hands on experience, but most internships want graduate students and there are so few opportunities for a beginner to let anywhere near actual artwork.

During the summer I worked alongside another intern from FIT's textile conservation program on two 15th century tapestries.  The major conservation step is the wet cleaning that is an all day affair even requiring us to arrive an hour early. After removing the gallon and lining and an initial dry clean the large, heavy and unweldly tapestry is rolled onto a washing table. After about 45 minutes for the wash table to fill with enough de-ionized water, the textile is gently dabbed with soap, soaked, water drained, rinsed and repeated several times. Tapestries are not always cleaned as often as they should and after centuries of hanging that are essentially filters to the debris from fireplaces and any other pollutants. And as a special treat while washing the smells of tobacco and soot are released mixed alongside the aroma of the wet wool used in the weaving. During the warmer weather my fellow intern and I wore rags on wet cleaning days and could often be seen from the opened portico doors of the neoclassical steps that looked out to the garden and roaming peacocks with the littering of tourist and camp children apronned, barefoot and carrying giant over-sized cauldron pots. Sometimes I felt like a medieval servant, that later would inspire this blog.

One evening an investment banker friend of mine said to me over drinks, 

"Sooo.... you are spending your summer in a hot non-air conditioned former orphanage, wearing rags, cleaning dirt off of a rug that smells of wet smokey dog... And for free?" 

"Yep, and I love every bit of it!"