Compass Boxes continued

Long ago, I mentioned the compass boxes I'm studying. A little more than a week ago I gave a workshop at the museum on these for a group of collectors, scholars, and dealers. I feel great about how it went, and I think we had almost 20 boxes and 30-40 people in the room that day. Though I spent all fall working on the project, I've really only begun. I've located over 60 objects now, and have made a lot of observations, but I still don't have real conclusions yet. I hesitate to make these at this point, because of the sensitive nature of the topic, which is affected by both market prices and existing ideas about the boxes.

Anyway, this was my first public presentation where I was not a part of a symposium or group of people presenting. I survived!

I have a Folk Art Cat

My cat looks like a folk art cat. I'm going to paint him in that style for my roommate. If it works out, I will post the painting here later. I'm using this photo (he posed by that book all by himself: it reminds me of an Olan Mills photo). The image above is from the American Radiance catalogue from the American Folk Art Musuem. I've been looking at so much folk art this semester, and I'm getting really into portraits and still lifes. I think some people find the portraits a little creepy (they can be) but there is something I love about them. The goal here is to keep Charlie from looking creepy in my painting, and to make the stylistic influence clear. I don't want people to think we are a couple of freaky cat ladies (maybe we are on our way now though?), but I feel like he's got to be painted.

Day of Utter Happiness

Yesterday was a day filled with good things - things that felt especially good during what might be the most hectic week of the semester! [1] Went to visit a compass artist blanket chest, [2] a very special object arrived at the museum for me to study (I literally ran down the hallway to go see it, very mature), [3] received an e-mail that could possibly lead to a job in the future, and [4] received a scan of the entire "lost" document pictured above: the Art-in-Trades Club 1913 constitution, by-laws, lectures, club members, etc. from the best librarian ever at the Met.

To top it off, my roommate gave me a holiday mug covered in peppermint designs.