Week 4 part 2 with Megan and Kat

     The last half of week three included mostly canvas cleaning. A mother and her daughter sent us piles of their practice paintings, and we got to watch their skills develop as we looked at the canvases one by one. It was fun to see what techniques they were trying, and to see the styles and techniques they loved and grew comfortable with. Some paintings were simple, experimental, and quick, while others obviously had taken them quite some time. My boss and I flipped through the canvases and admired the acrylic and oil, the landscapes and pet portraits, and the loveliness of a mother painting with her daughter. One interesting thing was the mother had a lot of ocean paintings she had done, and in each one it was clear that she was trying a new technique or experimenting in color theory. At the end of the stack, the canvases were beautifully and skillfully painted. It was wonderful to see her skills develop. 

We also cleaned several heavy marble and metal statues- every day is arm day at ART. I was exhausted at the end of that day, after carrying large heavy statues back and forth. We also had to take apart and clean several large factory-made pieces, like the kind of art you can find at Bed Bath & Beyond or Michael’s. Cleaning this type of art, although it might seem easier because the canvases are usually printed rather than painted on with tricky oils or acrylics, is actually quite difficult. The difficulty comes in the factory packaging. Art that is framed by individual framers or artists is done in a way that the art can be removed again, if necessary. But with large-scale art and decor factories, the art is framed thoroughly and with machines, making removal very difficult. After prying the back off of the frame, I took almost four hours using a razor blade to peel the paper backing from the back of the frame. It looked like a machine had been in control of the glue, because it was so even and thick that the paper only came up in tiny pieces, rather than the usual satisfying large strips. But eventually, those troublesome pieces were all cleaned and ready to be packaged. 

So much of the first part of this week had been cleaning art, that by the end of the week all we were doing was packaging art. All three of us who work in the ART department were rolling out foam and paper and cutting out barcodes for finished pieces. It was a tiring week, but a good one. Only one more week to go, and then back to school!