The Last Day

Its been a while but a few weeks ago I had my last day at DeCordova. I have been moving into school at Clemson again, but in the meantime but I finally am all moved in and have some free time! On my last day the staff held a nice lunch gathering in the conference room. We shared cookies and coffee and I was given a really lovely silver necklace. They also all signed a card wishing me luck at school and thanking me for all the effort and hard work I put in during my time there. I really enjoyed working at DeCordova. I got to go behind the scenes and see everything that needs to go into museum exhibits in order for them to be a success for the public. There is also a lot of paperwork and office tasks along the way. There was a lot more than I expected when it came to working in a museum and I am glad I got the opportunity to learn everything that I did. I hope this internship will help me out when I start interviewing with prospective employers in the future.

Yesterday at DeCordova I spent the day copying artist files for the Drawn the Detail exhibition in the curatorial office. This was a project for Amy, who works with our museum guides. These files will be used to help train the guides by giving them a clear understanding of the featured artists and their work. The information I copied included newspaper reviews on past shows the artists have been featured in, artist statements about the purpose and meaning of their works, along with pictures and slides of previous work. I also spent my lunch hour supervising a group of 7th-9th graders that are at DeCordova for a week-long art camp. They were very well behaved. After they ate their lunch they played a game of hide and seek. At the end of the hour, I returned them to their classrooms for their afternoon session. Thats all for now! Next week is my last day!

Last Tuesday I spent the entire day finding historic examples of drawing (in the new, contemporary meaning of the media). I found famous examples from Mesopotamia all the way through the present day, including works of sculpture, architecture, painting, earth art, pop art, conceptual art, and many others. Drawing is becoming a much broader definition and being thought of in drastically different ways than before. The elements of time, detail, and the planning and thought process in general can be applied to much more than what we traditionally consider to be merely making patterns and relationships of lines and marks on paper. An artist can expand the concept of drawing when creating all kinds of art. Additionally, Drawing is not limited to the 2 D world as we think of it to be, but is used in the 3 D world as well. This is a very difficult concept to understand. I, myself, even find it confusing. The point of all my research was to find pictures of different pieces of art throughout history to show how this modern idea of drawing has evolved through time. It will be used to create a slide show in the process gallery when the Drawn to Detail exhibition is installed in the museum. A good example to explain drawing in a different sense is a hands-on activity Emily plans to have in the process gallery. There will be knobs all over wall in the corner of the room, and yarn attached to one of the knobs. Visitors will be able to wrap the yarn around in different ways over a period of time, creating a 3 D pattern of a tangible element. Even though the yarn wrapped around wooden knobs is not traditionally drawing (it is more like sculpture), the same concepts were used in its creation. One must consider patterns, lines, and shapes interacting with one another. The result is one finished piece, just like in a 2 D traditional drawing on paper. The point is also to get visitors to realize all the details and steps that go into a piece. In all works of art, we must not only see the finished work, but the specifics that went into the piece as well. If it weren't for these details, the finished result as we see it would not exist.

Carol Prusa

Carol Prusa makes art out of Human Hair. Some find this to be disturbing, but the way she incorporates them into beautiful pieces of art is quite interesting. Check it out! http://www.artsandletters.fau.edu/art/cprusa/docs/cuts.htm

The past two weeks at DeCordova

Check out the new pictures! They are examples of two of the process gallery installations that represent works in the 2008 Annual exhibition currently in the museum. The first two of pictures are of Niho Kozuru's work, she uses rubber with casts of architectural and botanical details and the combining those parts to create new sculptural forms with positive shapes and negative voids. The gelatinous surfaces are then dyed amber, red, yellow and green. Niho's process gallery installation includes pictures of her putting her artwork together in her personal studio, pieces of the rubber mounted on the wall for visitors to touch and examples of fully completed pieces inside a clear display box. The rest of the pictures are of Leah Gauthier's work. She grew different kinds of melons, and allowed them to grow in a site-specific area right outside the museum. As they grow, their vines are supported so they wind up the supporting wooden structure. There is a video showing her process of planting the melons, samples of seeds she chose pasted on the wall, an audio installation with a recorded interview and a sample of her sketches from the beginning of her process. The past two weeks I have been doing more research on the Drawn to Deatil exhibition. Today, we called Carol Prussa, Mary O'mally, Marco Maggi, Darina Karpov and Julia Von Eichel over the telephone. We were able to get a hold of Carol, Marco and Julia. They are all very excited to be a part of the next installation in the process gallery when the Drawn to Detail exhibition replaces selection of 2008 Annual artists that are currently in there. We asked each artists what they could contribute for their installation. They will send Emily a box of supplies by August first with things for display like materials, tools and partially completed portions of their works. Visitors will be able to touch certain materials and tools, and for some installations watch videos of the artist's work process. If any works of literature or art inspired them, examples of those could also be posted. Three Goals of Drawn to Detail: -Visitors will understand that many artists in the exhibition share a common interest in exploring detail in their drawings (this will be done by emphasizing the detail and time dedicated to each piece). -Visitors will understand that drawing is not limited to the use of pencils and charcoal, but rather incorporate a broader definition of techniques that can highlight line quality and detail (drawing can be incorporated further into 3-D sculpture, for example). -Visitors will understand that drawing is a traditional arm form with a rich history that has emerged in contemporary art (we are thinking of doing a slide show in the process gallery of the evolution of drawing as a medium throughout history-with examples starting from around the Renaissance era). Next time I will be sure to explain more about some specific artworks that will be included in Drawn to Detail, and some of the ideas for those who have been selected for the process gallery. I will try to attach some pictures to show examples of their work.

Also...

Check out the current exhibits on display at DeCordova: http://decordova.org/decordova/exhibit/exhibit.html

Its been a while!

I haven't been posting much lately, my summer class is ending soon and all my time has been devoted to my homework! For last week- I spent the day researching new kinds of audio recording machines for the Process Gallery. This is a section of the museum that shows the steps involved in a few pieces of an exhibition currently on display. Visitors can watch videos and read material as well. The current audio equipment allows visitors to press certain buttons on the recording box (each labeled with a different question about the work), and they listen to the answer taken from an interview with the artist through a set of attached head phones. There are several questions and answers to press for each process display of an exhibit. I will be sure to post pictures on my next blog post. I found a few new, improved audio technologies, but Emily has to look them over before I can do any further research on prices and other details. I also began researching the artists that will be in the new exhibit titled "Drawn to Detail". This exhibit stresses the new movement in contemporary drawing, focusing on drawing as a medium in itself, rather than a part of the creation of another medium such as sketching for a painting or sculpture. There are 26 artists in total. This week- I continued researching the Drawn to Detail artists. I spent the day on the internet looking for articles that describe the artists and their styles and reviews of past works and exhibitions they've been in. I also looked for articles on contemporary drawing on-line, and handed in these, along with the rest of what I've completed for artist research to Emily when I finished at the end of the day. Next time I will be doing further research on a couple of the Drawn to Detail artists that Emily is thinking to ask to be a part of the Process Gallery. I will also learn more about what she does to help run and carry out the exhibit. Pictures will be posted when i return to DeCordova...in 2 weeks! I am not going the day I have finals (June 24th), because I will be studying all day, but look for another post on July 1st!

I meant to get to this week's post earlier, but I have been so busy with my online Science and Technology in Society class. Our first exam is tomorrow and I want to make sure I am prepared. On tuesday at DeCordova, I spent the day making phone calls to sculpture professors at Mass College of Art to find out what materials and tools would be needed for the demonstrations at our event next spring. Unfortunately, none of them answered, so I had to leave messages on their voicemails with Emily's office number as a contact (since I am only there on Tuesdays). I also spent the day making a power point to show to the marketing department at DeCordova, explaing the details of the plans for the sculpture demonstrations event so far. It is only a first draft, and Emily is editing and adding information while I am gone the rest of the week. I will post the finished product when it is ready so you can see for yourself!