Student Spotlight: Erika Herrera

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Erika Herrera SP'12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m from Los Angeles and I am a studio art major with a focus in photography. I would have to say my favorite artist is Man Ray. I fell in love with his work after an artist presentation for digital photography and took interest in a lot of his work.

This year I worked as assistant to the preparator in The Phillips Museum of Art and have been involved in hanging the various exhibitions shown this year. One of my favorite exhibitions has been Colors of Greece – The Art and Archaeology of Georg von Peschke. Peschke is an artist I had never heard of and I found his work truly amazing.

The most challenging aspect of this job has been the amount of work that goes into getting a show ready. I really enjoy working with the museum staff because of everyone’s energy. It has been very hard balancing the museum and school work, and I am very fortunate to have worked with wonderful people.

After graduation I will be returning to The Phillips Museum to work as next year’s Mellon Post Baccalaureate Fellow. I am very excited to spend another year around the museum doing something I enjoy. Once the year is over I am considering pursuing an MFA in photography, but things can always change.

Uncovering Museum Mysteries: World War II Souvenir Flag

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Today’s Guest Blogger is Rob Hasller an F&M American Studies and Art History major ’12 who is part of the Museum Mysteries Seminar Course:

World Wart II souvenir flag or "hinomaru yosegaki", Japan, 1941-45, ink on silk

On November 1, 1945, an American soldier named Earl (last name unknown) sent two letters from his post in Manila Bay, the Philippines, to family members in Florida. Earl, stationed at Manila Bay in the Philippines and hoping to return to America to vote in his first election, enclosed this Japanese flag as a souvenir of the American enemy. The flag, known as a hinomaru yosegaki (“to write sideways around the red sun”), was a talisman given to a Japanese soldier bearing signatures and the wishes of good fortune of family and friends. The characters, written on the silk flag with brush and ink, usually flowed outward in a rayed pattern. In this example, crowded with well-wishes, the messages overlap the sun.

As American soldiers carried photographs of their family and loved ones, Japanese soldiers carried their hinomaru yosegaki as reminders to return home safely from the battlefield. Nothing further is known of the fallen Japanese soldier who carried this flag.

-Rob Hassler ’12-

Student researchers are exploring some of the mysteries behind museum objects to reveal hidden histories. Objects from the Museum Mysteries seminar course will be on view in The Nissley Gallery at The Phillips Museum through May 11, 2012.

 

 

Uncovering Museum Mysteries: Pocket Bottle

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Today’s Guest Blogger is Karen Thomson, an F&M Anthropology and Spanish major ’12 who is part of the Museum Mysteries Seminar Course:

Pocket Bottle Attributed to the Henry William Stiegel glassworks (1764-75), Manheim, Pennsylvania, Nonlead glass

Pocket bottles held medicines, alcohol, or other liquids. This amethyst-colored example stands out for its visually appealing color and design. The combination of deep purple color (created by adding manganese oxide to the molten colorless glass batch), rounded shape, and particular diamond-daisy pattern characterizes bottles manufactured by German-American Henry William Stiegel (1729-85), who constructed and operated a glasshouse in Manheim, Pennsylvania, from 1764 to 1775. Glass historians have not found evidence that any other makers used the distinctive diamond-daisy pattern in the late 18th or early 19th century, which allows confident attribution to Stiegel.

 

To make this bottle, the glassblower blew his “gather” of glass into a partial-size or “dip” mold that imparted the diamond-daisy pattern. Next, the glassblower blew the bottle to its full size and flattened the sides to create its final form, a process that distorted the molded design.     -Karen Thomson ’12-

Student researchers are exploring some of the mysteries behind museum objects to reveal hidden histories. Objects from the Museum Mysteries seminar course will be on view in The Nissley Gallery at The Phillips Museum through May 11, 2012.

Uncovering Museum Mysteries: Coffee Grinder

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Today’s Guest Blogger is Deena Gittle an F&M Art History major ’12 who is part of the Museum Mysteries Seminar Course:

Coffee grinder, The Imperial Arcade Manufacturing Company (est. 1885), Freeport, Illinois, 1930s, iron, wood, and plastic

Coffee lovers agree that any device used to savor the flavor and aroma of coffee beans is useful. This coffee grinder was one of numerous designs produced by The Imperial Arcade Manufacturing Company over many decades. The company molded its name into the gold-colored cast iron and printed it along with the model and patent number on a label now missing from the front. This 1930s model has a distinctive S shaped handle that incorporates a knob made of an early type of plastic, which was an upgrade to wood.

“Burr grinders,” as these coffee grinders were sometimes called, were known for their innovative design that made them quieter, less messy, and less likely to clog. The distance between the two grinding wheels inside the grain-painted wood box was adjustable, allowing the user to select a finer or coarser grind, thereby enhancing the distinct flavor of the coffee beans. Ground coffee fell into the drawer below. -Deena Gittle ’12-

Student researchers are exploring some of the mysteries behind museum objects to reveal hidden histories. Objects from the Museum Mysteries seminar course will be on view in The Nissley Gallery at The Phillips Museum through May 11, 2012.

Student Spotlight: Judith Stapleton

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Judith Stapleton, Art History, Class of 2012           

Hello. I’m Judith Stapleton, a senior Art History major. I’ve been working at the Phillips Museum for two years now. I’ve known since before college that I wanted to be an Art History major and continue my studies in this discipline into graduate school and beyond. My advisor suggested that having work experience at a museum would be invaluable, and so I started volunteering at the Phillips Museum during my junior year.

 

As a volunteer, I worked with a collection of drawings by a Polish émigré artist Zdzislaw Czermanski. Born in 1900, he lived in London, Paris, and New York. The museum had acquired some of his political drawings through a donation by his widow, but they had yet to be cataloged. Making descriptions of the objects was fascinating. While practicing concisely describing art, I did research on London coal companies, Polish army uniforms, Parisian cafés, and world history in order to accurately describe the art objects.

 

My experience at the museum helped me get an internship at Palazzo Vecchio when I was studying abroad in Florence, Italy. On my return, I was awarded the Mellon Pre-Baccalaureate Collections Cataloguing Fellowship. Since the summer, I have been making object files, digitizing our collections records, and adding new items to the catalogue. I’ve gained experience with museum terminology and resources. I’ve also been privileged to work with local artist and former F&M professor Bill Hutson, as I continue to catalogue the exhibition posters he has collected over his long career. My experience at the museum has exposed me to a wide range of art objects and time periods, while giving me the tools I need to work comfortably in a museum setting. Who knew that so much went on behind the scenes?

 

From the Collection: Caroline Peart

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Today’s guest blogger is F&M Art History Major,  Megan Cohen ’12.  Megan has been researching works by Caroline Peart (American Painter 1870-1963),  from the permanent collection of The Phillips Museum of Art, which is the primary repository for the artist who resided in Lancaster County through various periods of her life. Megan has designed an exhibition of small works from the museum’s permanent collection, on view through May 12, 2012:

These small oil sketches were made by Caroline Peart (1870- 1963), a Philadelphia artist who studied with Cecilia Beaux at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. At the age of 18 Peart traveled to Italy, Spain, and France. During her travels she made dozens of small paintings on “academy boards,” which were an economical and lightweight alternative to traditional canvases. Originally designed for use by art students, academy boards were adopted by professional artists to make oil sketches while traveling. Many of the boards displayed here were purchased by Peart in Paris at the art supplier G. Sennelier, 3, quai Voltaire, 3 that still exists today.

Caroline Peart was one of 25 students chosen by noted American painter Cecilia Beaux for her advanced portraiture class. Beaux was the first woman to have a regular teaching position at PAFA (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts).

This 1890′s oil is believed to be a portrait of Cecilia Beaux. Peart used an academy board to first paint a rough sketch of the full-scale portrait displayed here.

Sketch for Woman with Violet Corsage

Peart became interested in a professional career around the same time that Beaux began teaching at the Academy. In Peart’s diary entries she writes that Beaux, her mentor, advised her not to pursue a career as a professional painter because of the hardships placed on women artists at the time. -Megan Cohen ’12-

 

 

 

Uncovering Museum Mysteries: Tiara

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Today’s Guest Blogger is Emily Felber an F&M American Studies major ’12 who is part of the Museum Mysteries Seminar Course:

Tiara, probably United States, 1930-60, stamped brass

Today, a tiara may be used for many occasions:  from playtime dress-up to formal weddings, from Halloween costumes to proms. To the wearer it denotes a sense of being special: regality, individuality, and perhaps an attention-demanding presence. This tiara, however, was not manufactured for twenty-first century aspiring princesses. Although nothing is known of its history, this stamped brass tiara has pseudo gemstones of modest quality and an adjustable strap to fit the user’s head. This cheaply constructed and inexpensive hair accessory likely mimicked fashions of some high-style elites of the 1920s and 1930s. -Emily Felber ’12-

Student researchers are exploring some of the mysteries behind museum objects to reveal hidden histories. Objects from the Museum Mysteries seminar course will be on view in The Nissley Gallery at The Phillips Museum through May 11, 2012.

Artistic Anatomy: A Study of the Figure

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Today’s Guest Blogger is Salina Almanzar ’13 whose exhibition, Artistic Anatomy: A Study of the Figure is on exhibit in the Curriculum Gallery in the Phillips Museum of Art, Steinman College Center through April 27, 2012.

Copyright of Salina Almanzar. Used with permission from the artist.

I started this study thinking that understanding every little muscle, bone, protuberance and bulge of fat would make the moment my hands molded the clay or my brush bent against the canvas that much more deliberate. It didn’t. What this study has taught me is that anatomy for the artist is not quite the same as anatomy for the general public. The dissection I take part in may inform me intellectually there’s a jarring moment where I leave behind the artist and enter the realm of the anatomist. My personal struggle became identifying where I stood in relation to both as a student.

I became captivated by the figure in Figure Drawing and my logical next step was to break the figure apart to its minutest parts to attempt to understand it. I quickly learned that breaking something down often makes it harder to put back together. Studying too often overshadows observation. Thus this year has helped me find the happy medium between both; A dance between my studying anatomical landmarks and muscle groups and preserving the purity of gestural form.

Discovering early on that artistic anatomy analyzes the figure as an interactive body informed the way I worked. Much of my appendage studies bear the brunt of that journey. I struggled for weeks trying to figure out just how far forward the patella sat in front of the tibia. I distinctly recall the moment I realized that maybe that didn’t really matter. Maybe my job as an artist is to analyze how that specific bone interacted and reacted with everything else around it. Maybe knowing the precise shape and measurement was in fact not the be all and end all of sculpting the figure. This moment, I believe, is where I made my most productive work. The latter half of my study consisted of mostly day paintings and large scale sculptures that hinged more on gesture than static anatomy.

A year later, I can identify a slew of bony landmarks and I can measure the angle of the pelvis in relation to the rib cage yet hands still fumble. This paradoxically superficial knowledge means nothing unless I apply it in such a way that it informs my art without detracting. This, then, is balance is what defines art. It seemed counter-intuitive to me at first, but my ‘job’ is not to tell you about the figure, but to show you.

Student Spotlight: Rachel Jones

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Rachel Jones '12 in Copenhagen, Denmark during Study Abroad, Spring Semester 2011

My name is Rachel Jones and I’m from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. When I first came to Franklin and Marshall College I wanted to become an astronaut.  Shortly after the first semester I realized that science and math were not for me and I switched to an art history major. During the summer before my junior year I was offered the position of Graphics Intern at the Phillips Museum of Art. I had never taken a class about design and knew nothing about working with InDesign or Photoshop. Bonnie Halloran (the previous graphics intern) showed me a few pointers and then I was left to learn the rest on my own. It has been a challenging but rewarding process working with a wide variety of artists and faculty members throughout my internship.

My most challenging project was working on the catalog for the Zorach: Paint & Spirit exhibition last fall. I had never worked on a project this big and it was great to learn new techniques and styles for designing layouts for larger books. This was also my favorite exhibition because the artwork was so beautiful and my class curated the show!

After I graduate I’ll be moving to Copenhagen, Denmark to experience Danish culture for an extended period of time. I hope to find a job working in a museum or an internship with a design firm. Eventually, I would like to go to school for graphic design. I really appreciate all the time that I’ve spent at the Phillips Museum because I would have never have had the opportunity to work in graphic design.

Rachel’s Portfolio can be viewed at http://www.behance.net/rachelkapisak

Uncovering Museum Mysteries: Salt Spoons

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Today’s Guest Blogger is Marissa Sobel, a History major ’13 who is part of the Museum Mysteries Seminar Course:

Set of 6 salt servers and spoons, Probably Czechoslovakia, Lead glass

“According to several etiquette books written from the 1920′s on, salt spoons were used at formal and informal dinner parties. Diners might share a set of salt and pepper dispensers with their dinner partners or use their own salt spoons to take salt from a communal dish or from individual salt dishes, such as the glass examples in the boxed set. This particular set came with its own glass salt spoons.

Set of 12 salt spoons in a linen case, Probably Norway, after 1920, Sterling silver with colored enamel inlay

This set of silver salt spoons, with unusual leaf-shaped bowls, has inlaid enamel on the fronts and backs, a decorative feature suggesting Norwegian manufacture. The number “925” impressed into one side of the spoon handle indicates sterling silver. Historically, English silver makers used the 925 mark for 92.5% pure silver.  tarting in 1920, Norwegian silver makers adopted the 92.5% standard in addition to their 83% silver standard. A maker’s mark stamped into the other side of the handle has not been identified.  Salt residue has discolored the bowls.” -Marissa Sobel ’13-

Student researchers are exploring some of the mysteries behind musuem objects to reveal hidden histories. Objects from the Museum Mysteries seminar course will be on view in The Nissley Gallery at The Phillips Museum through May 11, 2012.