Conces

Name:Erin Conces

Guiding Question: Would I be more interested in a career in art restoration, museum work, or as an artist?

(optional) Use this space to list possible activities, tasks, experiences. Remember everything you do should help you answer your Guiding Question.

(Required) This plan is a “best guess” as to what you and your mentor think you will be doing. It is not meant to be a hard and fast schedule for your Exploration. The plan should illustrate how you intend to complete a minimum of 80 hours.


 * = Date ||= Location/Activity ||= Number of Hours ||
 * =  ||= Painting ||= 40 ||
 * =  ||= DCCA Events/Gallery Installations ||= 20 ||
 * =  ||= Shadowing a professional painting restorer ||= 20 ||
 * =  ||= Brandywine River Museum ||= 5 ||
 * =  ||= Philadelphia Art Museum ||= 5 ||
 * =  ||= National Gallery ||= 5 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 95 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 95 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 95 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 95 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 95 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 95 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 95 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 95 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 95 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 95 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 95 ||

Journal:

May 20th So far I am pleased with how my exploration ha been going. Yesterday and today I went took the train down to Baltimore to meet with my mentor, Abigail Quandt, and the rest of the conservation staff at The Walters. I spent the first day in getting a tour of the entire conservation department and learning more about the Books and Papers Lab (there are three labs, the other two being Paintings and Objects). While I was unable to actually do anything hands on yesterday (the manuscript my mentor has spent the last ten years restoring is from the 13th C and is extremely fragile http://www.archimedespalimpsest.org/), I learned a lot about how parchment is repaired (most of the work involves microscopes and very small surgical tools) and what sort of damage this particular manuscript has faced. After lunch, met with the resident conservation scientist and learned what processes are used to identify and differentiate pigments and why some pigment are now synthetic (for instance, Indian Yellow is no longer made from the urine of cows who have been fed only mango leaves as this process was deemed unethical and outlawed by the Indian government). I also made a brief visit to Paintings, where the head conservator explained to me that a good deal of their work consists of undoing what previous restoration attempts had done (right now they have three paintings that have been cradled, a process popular in the late 19th C where paintings on wooden panels were made thinner and then had wooden grids attached to their backs, which were initially meant to hold the painting flat but have now weakened them and caused cracks in the wood)), and what the most common problems their paintings face are. I also witnessed an art conservation emergency today, as some little boy was running around the museum putting stickers on paintings. Luckily this was caught right away and the stickers were safely removed within an hour. Today was the more interesting of the two in my opinion. I spent the day in the Paintings with two of the grad students working there (one of whom is Lauren Bradley, a Friends graduate whose exploration consisted of learning about conservation with Abigail, working at the DCCA, visiting art museums, and painting). The other graduate student, Gwen, and I had a very long but exciting morning using an infrared camera to examine the underdrawings and underpaintings of several Woodville paintings, including "War News From Mexico." The infrared camera works by detecting substances with carbon in them, so it picks up on pencils and some paints. In "War News From Mexico," we found that Woodville had made a lot of changes from his original compostion. For the most part, the changes weren't that dramatic, just a change in the position of someone's arm or the addition (or removal) of a hat, but there were also some bigger, more exciting changes. The sign at the top of the painting which now reads 'American Hotel' originally said 'Tavern,' and a figure (Gwen suspects that it is a self portrait) was added over top of the already finished building. Given what the painting is already worth (I'm not allowed to say, but it's a lot) these finds were pretty exciting, exciting enough to call up the Smithsonian and have them bring up their higher quality IR camera to see if we missed anything. One of the nicest things I found with the conservation staff if that everyone truly loves their work. Every single staff member wanted to take time out of their busy days to tell me about their current project, some of which I found more interesting than others (taking cradles of the backs of paintings over determining which of several Mayan gold artifacts are genuine), where they went to grad school, and where they think I should look at grad school (too early!). Although it's only been two days, I think this is something I can see myself doing with my life. My only regret at the moment is that due to the busy and often sporadic nature of conservation, I'll only be able to come down for another day or two at the end of the month.

May 27th This week I have been experimenting with oil paints and visiting art museums. I came to understand pretty quickly why the law prohibits schools from using oil paint - one of my paints contains (what it hopefully a very small amount of) lead (I didn't know that was still legal, even outside of schools) and turpentine can cause damage to the brain and nervous systems, and is also highly flammable and subject to spontaneously combust. Because of the fumes, I have to paint outside which is a little bit difficult because of the heat. Despite the health and safety issues that come with oil paint, so far I like working with it much better than with acrylics. Acrylic paints will dry if I leave the room for fifteen minutes, but oil stays open (wet) for at least a day. Because I have never used oil paint before and dot really know what I'm doing, I have also been reading books and watching videos (some of which have been more funny than helpful) to help me figure it out. I also visited the Brandywine River Museum where I took a tour led by Andrew Wyeth's granddaughter, Victoria. She's a pretty enthusiastic and energetic person. She rearranged the entire tour group so that the shorter people could stand in the front. Being his granddaughter, she had a lot of insights into his work that we would not have gotten otherwise. For me, the most interesting thing about the Brandywine River Museum is that most of the paintings are of local landscapes that look more or less the same now as they do in the painting. I would like to visit the Barnes Foundation this weekend, but I need to find someone to go with me because it's kind of hard to get to and poorly marked. We'll see.

**STUDENT** : Erin Conces

DEAR SPONSOR: As a final report on your student, please answer these questions. Add comments where necessary.

1) Has the student met the specific goals that were established at the beginning of the externship?

Yes, Erin met all goals and requirements during the whole externship. 2) Has the student demonstrated initiative during the externship? [ X] Yes [ ] No Erin explored several different career options including art conservation, museum work and being a professional artist. Although it was somewhat difficult to coordinate these activities during her month-long exploration due to scheduling issues she was successful in experiencing all three options.

3) Has the student been thorough in his/her approach to the externship?

Yes 4) Has the student's attendance been satisfactory?

Yes 5) Please comment, as briefly as you wish, on the positive and negative aspects of the student's performance. Use the back of this page if necessary.

I think that Erin's exploration was successful in that she was able to investigate three very different career paths that would capitilize on her strong interest in art. How she might combine her love of art and interest in Arabic is yet to be seen, although this might best be accomplished through a career in the museum field. For that she would need to study art history and museum curatorship, and then persue an advanced degree in one of these areas. If she wanted to concentrate in art conservation she would have to take a different path by taking courses in chemistry, studio art and art history at the undergraduate level followed by graduate training in art conservation. Depending on her chosen specialty in conservation she could develop expertise in the care and treatment of artifacts from the Islamic world and/or persue a job at a museum or library in the Arabic-speaking world. There is an urgent need for experienced conservators at most of these institutions and someone that is trained in the west and also speaks Arabic would be sought after.

6. Would you rate the student's overall performance as satisfactory? Yes

7. If there are areas of less than satisfactory performance, or of distinctly better than satisfactory performance, please comment. Use the back of this page if necessary. None

**SIGNED: Abigail Quandt**

**W** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: -36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We pose these questions as guidelines for your consideration; your response to them will help us evaluate the success of the student's participation in the project. Please complete this report by early Friday, June 3, and give it to the student. The student will hand-deliver this evaluation to us with his/her journal on Friday, June 3 by 12:00 noon. Thank you for your help. We greatly appreciate your assistance and participation in the project.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: -36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sincerely,

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: -36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mike Smith for the Senior Externship Team, Wilmington Friends School, 302-576-6763, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: -36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">msmith@wilmingtonfriends.org or rbernard@wilmingtonfriends.org

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**PLEASE GIVE THIS REPORT TO THE STUDENT WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED IT. STUDENTS SHOULD HAND-DELIVER THIS REPORT, ALONG WITH THEIR JOURNAL, SELF-EVALUATION FORM AND/OR OTHER WRITTEN OR VISUAL MATERIAL, TO MIKE SMITH BY 12:00 NOON ON FRIDAY, JUNE 3** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.